DAVID STOCKMAN: We've Been Lied To, Robbed, And Misled

[maxiep]

Politicians often confused being pro-business with being pro-free enterprise. I am the latter, but not necessarily the former.

Stockman is 100% right about big banks. Paulson was a victim of his own background. Like a politician who has worked so long in government that every problem has a government solution, Paulson simply couldn't imagine commercial and investment banking being wiped out.

Bottom line, the wall enacted in Glass-Steagall between commercial and investment banking needs to be rebuilt. The fools who invested in mortgage-backed securities without understanding the underlying assets should have seen their wealth disappear. Instead, they got to keep their jobs and were even given risk-free money by the Federal Government.

Shameful.

 

[Denny Crane]

Another one that bugs me is when lefties point to some European country having a hard time due to austerity measures. The ones spending recklessly or that are raising taxes and cutting spending are the ones having the most difficulty.

Raising taxes and cutting spending. Sounds like what Obama ran on - his "balanced approach." LOL?

So lefties put up a strawman. They argue against Obama's balanced approach while whining about republicans blocking the tax hike components.

 

[maxiep]

Another one that bugs me is when lefties point to some European country having a hard time due to austerity measures. The ones spending recklessly or that are raising taxes and cutting spending are the ones having the most difficulty.

Raising taxes and cutting spending. Sounds like what Obama ran on - his "balanced approach." LOL?

So lefties put up a strawman. They argue against Obama's balanced approach while whining about republicans blocking the tax hike components.

Is there a single government of a European country that is really being austere? Me thinks not.

 

[Denny Crane]

Is there a single government of a European country that is really being austere? Me thinks not.

Germany.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100353656

Germany plans further spending cuts worth up to 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion)in order to achieve its target of a structurally balanced budget in 2014, a newspaper said on Friday, quoting finance ministry sources.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition, which faces an election in the autumn, has championed the cause of budget discipline to overcome the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and aims to balance its own books next year, two years earlier than a previous target.

The Rheinische Post daily said Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble would seek savings of 5-to-6 billion euros in addition to spending cuts already planned.

"If we want to reach a so-called structurally balanced budget in 2014 we have to close a gap of around 5 billion euros," the paper quoted a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), Michael Meister, as saying.

"This will come about only through spending cuts," he added making clear tax increases were not on the agenda.

The paper said the axe would fall across all ministries and would also affect subsidies for the health care system.

 

[maxiep]

Germany.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100353656

Germany plans further spending cuts worth up to 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion)in order to achieve its target of a structurally balanced budget in 2014, a newspaper said on Friday, quoting finance ministry sources.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition, which faces an election in the autumn, has championed the cause of budget discipline to overcome the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and aims to balance its own books next year, two years earlier than a previous target.

The Rheinische Post daily said Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble would seek savings of 5-to-6 billion euros in addition to spending cuts already planned.

"If we want to reach a so-called structurally balanced budget in 2014 we have to close a gap of around 5 billion euros," the paper quoted a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), Michael Meister, as saying.

"This will come about only through spending cuts," he added making clear tax increases were not on the agenda.

The paper said the axe would fall across all ministries and would also affect subsidies for the health care system.

Germany may be reducing, but they're not being austere. Government wouldn't know what the real meaning of austerity is if it hit it over the head.

 

[MARIS61]

[video=youtube;HP7L8bw5QF4]

 

[huevonkiller]

Is there a single government of a European country that is really being austere? Me thinks not.

Estonia iirc.

 

[magnifier661]

Silver has some pretty potent uses in welding/brazing/soldering.

And which president was shot in Houston?

Well I got the state right!

 

[jlprk]

Is there a single government of a European country that is really being austere? Me thinks not.

Full austerity is a synonym for banana republic is a synonym for no middle class.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Politicians often confused being pro-business with being pro-free enterprise. I am the latter, but not necessarily the former.

Stockman is 100% right about big banks. Paulson was a victim of his own background. Like a politician who has worked so long in government that every problem has a government solution, Paulson simply couldn't imagine commercial and investment banking being wiped out.

Bottom line, the wall enacted in Glass-Steagall between commercial and investment banking needs to be rebuilt. The fools who invested in mortgage-backed securities without understanding the underlying assets should have seen their wealth disappear. Instead, they got to keep their jobs and were even given risk-free money by the Federal Government.

Shameful.

Pretty much all of this.