Friday, October 3, 2008

Passing the Test.

Well, now that Main Street has officially been bailed out, I am breathing one HUGE sigh of relief that we just signed another $700 BILLION dollar loan with the Chinese Government - at least the interest rates are good, and hey, I don't know how many people are in the United States, but if we have an official "Work to Pay for Everyone Else's Bad Decisions" Day - we could take care of that number in a few weeks. Let's start a revolution and just send random checks to the government - of course they would have to form a committee to establish the validity of the movement, they would have to build a center to study the influx of funds, they would have to research the psychological effects of the money on laboratory rats, and then they would have to have four years of public hearings to debate what we really intended to do by sending them the checks in the first place...I am not a cynic, just a middle class moron who still can't figure out how I paid more taxes than Palin, but made less money?

I really don't think we are passing the test- I tend to agree with those who voted against the bailout plan - I understand (being a finance guy with a masters degree and all) the effect that credit markets have on the economy - they artificially expand the economy by extending resources for future goods - and unfreeze the wheels of barter systems - but at the same time, I tend to believe that there is a finite supply of leveraged assets available - for me, it was sort of a wake up call - if Americans were saving more cash, there would be more cash to loan, reducing the need for short term funding by banks because reserves would be on hand. I know we are talking trillions of dollars here, but somehow I suspect our undying need for a new laptop every two years, a new I-Pod when the new fall colors come out, and the hip new sports car have created an unstable and unsustainable economy. The government does not help us either - they don't clearly explain who they are borrowing money from - we borrow money from foreign central banks to bolster the dollar - strange stuff this is.

Anyway, I did not sit down to blog some passive aggressive lines about the economy - I missed the collective sigh of my neighbors as President Bush scratched his "X" into the bill, and yet I feel exactly as pessimistic and exactly as optimistic as I did before I had to listen to the Dems and the GOP extoll the virtues of moving ahead for us dimwitted and less than intelligent "main streeters".

I did sit down to blog about Ebay - but my carpal tunnel syndrome is kicking in, and I think I need a can of beer to quell the pain that is firing up my left shoulder right now - (I wonder if they included a recovery plan for me in the bill)....

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