I wish I had one of those flashy light thingys that Drudge has….maybe I can get Steve to get me one for Christmas!
Speaking of Christmas….
It was closing in on midnight as I was tearing into the sausage last night. I tried to give a bit of editorial but honestly had though through it well enough. Today is another day and I have now had a chance to drink some coffee and think through this mishmash of legislation.
One line from last night’s post popped out at me this morning:
Treasury is also to focus on purchases assets held by retirement plans
Huh? I thought the purpose of this bill was to reflate capital in companies that are at the core of our lending. What have retirements funds got to do with that?
Sure, large pension funds invest in assets. Sure, they invest in debt backed securities. Some of them even do a small amount of direct lending. While there could be some, I’m not aware of any pension fund that lends directly to homeowners.
This provision, this single paragraph in the bill, is there to provide political cover for Democrats. They have inserted this provision to reflate numerous union pension funds. Merry Christmas pension funds! This is a horrible provision!
If the purpose of this bill is to restart our lending and pension funds do little if any direct lending, why are we allowing any of these funds to be allocated to them? This will siphon some amount of funds and move them away from their primary target. Which brings me to my other concern with this bill.
This bill gives far too much latitude without even so much as guidelines to the folks who brought this disaster to us. They didn’t make good decisions in the past, why should we expect them to now?
I remain conflicted on this bill. I feel a little like the first person who received chemo for cancer felt:
Doctor: “You have cancer. We believe that the best way to cure it is to give you poison! We think we can poison you to the fine point where your body throws out. If we miss by just a little bit, well, you die.”
Patient: “Oh, OK.”
