The Bush Administration will go down in history as one of the worst Presidencies in our great American history. The list of failures is quite lengthy and these failures and blunders will have long-term ramifications to the health of this great nation. George W. Bush, simply stated, is incompetent. He is in street terms a fu—p. Excuse my broken French.
There is little to praise here: just go down the line. The Iraq War, tax breaks for the wealthy, a no-growth economy, a short-sighted energy policy, little regard for the health needs of Americans. It sickens me. But I saw it coming back in 2000. I couldn’t believe the 2000 election was that close. He screwed up in the oil business, couldn’t run a baseball team and then made his mark executing innocent people when he was governor of Texas.
But occasionally a light shines in the darkest places. In 2006, George W. Bush named Henry Paulson as his Secretary of the Treasury. Paulson’s predecessor’s, Paul O’Neil and John Snow both served uneventful terms early in the Bush Administration. History will one day show that it was Henry Paulson’s presence that save George W. Bush from being ranked the worst President of all time.
With President Bush, frozen like a deer in headlights (see photo below of President Bush after being informed of the crisis), Paulson clearly took charge of the situation and met with the Fed Chairman and Congressional leaders (Democrats and Republicans). Where this will lead is uncertain at the moment, but it is clear Congress will pass a comprehensive plan shortly. My hope is there will be relief not just for the mortgage companies but for individuals caught in this mortgage trap.
Henry Paulson’s proposal is for the government to purchase the bad mortgage debt in the market is similar to the savings and loan bailout of the late 1980′s, in the form of a Resolution Trust Corporation (read Street.com explanation of the Resolution Trust and how it will differ today).
WASHINGTON — An enormous, taxpayer-financed program to buy up bad mortgages and other distressed debt is necessary to protect the savings and aspirations of millions of Americans, President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said on Friday.
“We’re talking hundreds of billions” of dollars, Mr. Paulson said at a briefing in which he underscored the depth of the problem, pledged to work with Congress to address it quickly and voiced optimism that, in the end, the country would emerge from the financial chaos.
Seeking to dispel any impression that the bailout would amount to a rescue of greedy Wall Street executives by Main Street Americans, Mr. Paulson said the program would “cost Americans far less than the alternative.”
Because Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury, saved this nation and the world from certain economic collapse by this decisive action he took, he saved George W. Bush from being ranked as the worst President of all time competing with the likes of James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover and Warren G. Harding.
It is interesting to note that Paulson’s former firm, Goldman Sachs, has survived this crisis. Goldman Sachs has a tradition of former executives serving in government, such as Jon Corzine, Stephen Friedman, and Robert Rubin. Each have made their mark in the business world and in government. While the road toward a mortgage recovery will be long and winding and nothing is certain at this time, it took this former Goldman Sachs CEO to take the initiative in this necessary first step, in spite of a President “caught in the headlights.” Reading on Walden Bookstore.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Blogs, Commentary, Democrats, Election 2008, John McCain, Politics, Republicans | Tagged: Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury
Interesting analysis but I do not think that Paulson saved the world from economic collapse. Instead, he and Bernanke have only inflated the monetary supply and agreed to take on debt to keep the market afloat temporarily.
The market has to correct itself–nothing the government can do will stop it. It can only delay it.
Paulson might have saved Bush from being “Hoover” in History, though. Now we’ll see the economic ‘collapse’ during the next President’s term. I think this means we will see the next president try their best to act like FDR.
During the next term, the actions will depend on which candidate gets elected. Certainly Obama will try to act like FDR or like Clinton (in economic policy only). He will have a congressional majority to work with, which will reinforce the FDRism.
Remember that FDR had no clue as to what to do, but they kept trying something and when if failed or failed to succeed well enough, they tried something else. They kept doing this until eventually they developed a few things that seemed to work at least somewhat well.
Hoover’s crime was that he had no clue either, but he could not try because of republican philosophy which said – and until this week still says – hands off.
If Obama is elected rupublicans will suddenly become debt hawks like they did last time after Reagan and Bush 1. They were pretty much silent until after Clinton was elected, then shrieking like banshees over the debt (that the republicans had run up). They will shriek like banshees over the debt that shrub has run up. now suddenly vastly increased.
If it is McCain, he will depend on his financial advisors. God forbid it will continue to be Gramm, but it might be. Conflict with congress is absolutely guaranteed. McCain’s temperament will make it much worse. Expect more government shutdowns like with Newt and Clinton.
Congress will try to do something, but they will also try to make sure McCain gets no credit. That should be fairly easy as McCain will not deserve any, except as to having appointed whomever does come up with the ideas. The debt hawks will be silent and the debt will continue to pile up – debt hawk republicans only flourish during democrat administrations, the @@@@ing hypocrites..
Will any of it work? Short term, maybe and maybe only for a few days. Long term – nobody knows, but what is clear is that the dollar will continue to be in big trouble.
What we will need is a pragmatist, not an idealogue, to get us into something that may work. Some will continue to insist: “dead broke rather than socialist”, but most of us don’t really care about the label as long as we have a workable economic environment.
Obama is probably a pragmatist, but we won’t really know for a while.
McCain shows some flashes of pragmatism in between his kowtows to the far right. Who knows what he will really do if he is elected? If he decides to be a one term president and doesn’t have to kowtow anymore, it could get very interesting?
Are you kidding me? This guy just solidified Bush as the worst of all-time. this administration just put the final nail in the coffin of America’s and Americans long-term economic health and has moved the dollar even closer to being worthless paper. government intervention is the answer??? WTF
and please do not compare to the S&L crisis, its not apples to apples. the S&L’s were dead when the govt took their assets, here we’re talking about cleaning the balance sheets of living breathing corporations.
and notice how they are pushing this thing through, trying to cause a panic to get the congress (which is even more pathetic) to accept this bailout with little scrutiny. reminds me of the push to go into iraq…”we must go no, the dangers are imminent”…that turned out pretty good didn’t it?
Historically inaccurate, yet believed by everyone. In fact, Hoover is the one who first instituted wage controls, price controls, and essentially a “New Deal Lite”.
Roosevelt campaigned AGAINST Hoover’s economic policies and WON. He said the government needed to stay out and stop inflating prices and keeping prices “stable”. Roosevelt lied, of course, and actually EXPANDED Hoover’s policies and managed to keep us in a depression for the next 15 years.
A bit premature to say Paulson saved us from economic collapse. If I am right on my facts, the government did this before with GM and came out ahead. The ONLY WAY I would support this plan is if every single dollar of the 700 billion that is injected into the market is taken out of the market when the loans are sold or complete. Furthermore, every single penny of any potential profit that is made by the government should go towards reducing the national debt. Institute these two provisions and I would be on board.
What do you think Lance?
FDR did have a clue, otherwise he wouldn’t be without an excuse. He knew full well what he was doing. And evil politicians like him will burn in hell.
He confiscated citizen’s gold for crying out loud.
FDR was an evil person.
bullshit!
he should let wall street stew in their own s***
Thia isn’t about saving the American economy, it’s about making sure that foreign governments keep buying our debt. This and every other bailout is not being funded by the taxpayers, it’s being funded by the Chinese, OPEC, Japan and every other government we send dollars to via the trade deficit.
This plan is not a done deal and the earliest passage is by Friday.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/25/real_estate/soaring_mortgage_fraud/index.htm?cnn=yes
Until many of these brokers go to jail, this crap will continue.
It is llegal for the applicant to provide phony information. Why is is not even more severely illegal for institutional employees to do that?
On one of the Sunday shows, Paulson said that we should not make the bailout terms “punitive.” Just let them off the hook.
So, brokers:
keep your illicit commissions and bonuses,
keep your freedom,
keep on defrauding.
Prefer to be broke than socialist? Yes, you might be free and broke, but you have a chance at gaining wealth again. With socialism, 1)Everyone ends up broke but a few top leaders and their friends. 2) You become a slave to the state, even if by some miriacle the socialists manage not to drive the country into poverty like they always have before.