Tag Archives: bailouts

Marching Towards Another Depression

A fascinating article at New Deal 2.0 details the steps we are taking towards a likely second Great Depression. At a time when economies are teetering on the edge of recovery and a second recession, governments are starting to make noises, particularly in Europe, about reducing deficits as a model for responsible financial health. Unfortunately, …

June 8, 2010 – 9:18 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Can Civilization’s Birthplace Become Its Funeral Pyre?

Overreaching headlines aside, the Eurozone is a bit of trouble. Greece has been bailed out in an attempt to avoid a sovereign default. Those in the know think the Greeks are unlikely to be the last country in the Eurozone to require a bailout and the conditions the IMF are expecting Greece to conform with …

May 18, 2010 – 10:42 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

And The Rich Get Richer. . .

There is currently a movement underfoot in Congress to recompense investors in the Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Standford Ponzi scheme debacles. It is couched in the terms of people having lost their life’s savings being fairly represented and treated but is actually a disgusting reminder of how those in power control much of our …

March 10, 2010 – 10:17 pm | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Baby Steps

This week, President Obama proposed regulatory changes that would limit big banks, implicitly those that received the guarantee of a government backstop during the crash last year, from investing for profits using their own hedge-funds or proprietary trading desks. This would be an excellent first step in reining in the power that the JP Morgans …

January 23, 2010 – 5:56 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics, Politics | Tagged , | Comments (4)

Financial Calamity

Our financial system is horribly broken, serving only the well-connected and well-monied interests of Wall Street. We, the American Taxpayer, gave billions of our dollars to save people who made stupid bets on gambles designed to make them millions and millions of dollars. We haven’t flinched yet but if the republic has a chance of …

January 12, 2010 – 8:58 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Finances | Tagged , , | Comments (9)

Assorted Interesting Links

I tend to collect a variety of interesting links throughout the week, at least to me. I always think that I’ll post them and write a little about them but in truth, I don’t have that much time and would rather write about things that are more important to me. So I’m going to just …

May 1, 2009 – 7:52 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Random | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

Richardson Tea Party

I went to the Richardson Tea Party yesterday and it was pretty interesting. The crowd looked like it was around 700 or so which is pretty good for a lunch day protest rally. We weren’t centered in one place like in other tea parties around the country. Most everyone was walking around the park waving …

April 16, 2009 – 6:42 am | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Politics | Tagged , | Comments (8)

A New Tax Deduction

Quote of the Week Now that those of us who have been making steady, on-time payments on our mortgages for years will be paying off others’ mortgages through our taxes, can we claim a tax-deduction for our neighbors’ mortgage interest too? Love it. People are angry over this and they are only getting angrier. This …

February 20, 2009 – 12:33 pm | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics, National Issues | Tagged | Comments (1)

Maybe America Will Be OK After All

There are some reasonably serious rumblings about people getting sick of our new President spending all their money. And some of the rumblings are getting loud. If a modern day Boston Tea Party happened to get organized in Chicago, I’d be on the first plane to Chicago I could find. Here’s hoping we still have …

February 19, 2009 – 11:46 pm | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics, National Issues | Tagged | Comments (0)

Advice We Don’t Need

There’s nothing like having the Europeans tell us how to handle our housing crisis. “But as the housing bubble deflates, it also drags innocent victims into a wave of foreclosures” they crow! Please. What innocent victims are being dragged into a wave of foreclosures? Either you can afford the house you live in or you …

February 19, 2009 – 5:03 pm | By Scotch Drinker | Posted in Economics, National Issues | Tagged , | Comments (0)