Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Leaking Balloon

I hate to re-iterate what I said back in March, which has proven to be every bit the disaster I described.

Now, we are seeing what precipitated this crisis. Now we are seeing the government poised to once again, do the worst thing they can do to 'solve' it.

The real-estate market is a bubble, folks. It is a balloon that has been pumped up with poor credit risk, with the poor credit being gobbled up by government sponsored agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This another example of big government meddling with market forces, driving market prices through the roof. This is just like the medical system. This is just like higher education subsidies. This is just like no-bid military contracts and on and on and on. When was the last time you saw a government program that did NOT drive market prices through the roof?

You guys have seen the commercials from predatory speculators, showing you how to flip houses and grow rich. The up-swing in the markets was inflated by financial institutions taking risks on people like this, believing they could ride up on the profits too, without actually taking any real risk. Aunt Fannie and uncle Freddie, both government employees, were there; ready to open up the guest room.

The balloon has now developed a leak and is slowly deflating. What happens when you pump more air (money) into a leaky balloon? You temporarily swell the balloon, accelerate the leak and wind up losing all that new air (money).

Bailout now, and we will pay later, big time. Regulation of risk taking must happen first. No AMRs. No sub-primes. No short-selling mortgage backed securities. People taking the risk must own the risk first and have no sense of government sanctioned security.

If taxpayer money must be used for market stability, it should be done in frugal chunks, not a big fat 700B wad. Every chunk should be examined and considered by the examination of the market health and effect of the previous chunk.

Liberals brought us here. Liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans, wanting to be liberal with our wealth and our markets, while enriching their own pockets, campaigns and altruistic notions of social engineering.

I am sick of paying for this crap, while listening to the solons that created the mess, lecture me about how I have to make sacrifices to save the planet.

6 comments:

Buckaroo Banzai said...

Don't worry, Insol. Barack Obama is on the case. Just call him when you need him.

Les James said...

Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's the Big O!

Insolublog said...

Wyatt - Is this similar to the motown favorite "I'll be there" sung by Michael Jackson? If so, I must remind the viewers what happens when the MSM gets hold of an African-American and turns him into a plastic freak with no genuine leadership qualities, using white guilt as the molding compound.

Les - Did the bird get sucked into the engine of the plane, making all of the passengers shout 'OOOOOOO' as the whole package plummets to earth? Inquiring minds may not really want to know.

Anonymous said...

I have nothing to say except that those that stood by and ignored the warnings over the past decade are a bunch of losers. All of them.

Uber said...

If any "undecided" voters listened carefully to the debates last night and did just a little bit of research, they'd learn exactly that.

The whole time I watched, I kept thinking how the two would merely be judged on the silliest things in creation, with most taking a pass on the meat of that issue and still more just don't seem to care.

Frustrating much!

Insolublog said...

rt - Some of the losers appear in the subsequent post.

Uber - We may finally experience a national crisis, which will shake people into either conscience thought, or reckless panic, or both.