Josh, Sometimes You Need To Buy A Clue
Idle Goldman Questions
If Goldman can so easily pay back the $10 billion in TARP money, does that mean they didn't need the $13 billion we gave them in AIG bailout money all that badly?
Josh, there were many banks that did not want to participate in TARP but were "coerced" to do so by Paulson. The reason was to not single out the banks who really needed it to survive and prevent additional short runs on their stock.
I know that the progressive blogosphere refuses to see the forest from the trees because we are all in "hate Wall Street mode" and "everything anyone has done to prevent the apocalypse is crooked and designed to rip off the taxpayers" but people paying back their loans should be applauded.
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Until the stress test are complete we won't know what the bottom line of these banks. Although, if Sachs repay, we may never know what they did or didn't have.
As a rule, I too agree repaying should be applauded but the adage, be careful what you wish for comes to mind when reading this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/24sorkin.html?scp=3&sq=Goldman%20Sachs&st=Search
There are so many variables out here I can't see how anyone can say for certainty, what the heck is going on or how it will end. I think that's why so many of us are frustrated with all the chatter.
March 24, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am with you, and I don't know the answers. I just get enraged by the charlatans who claim they do know to a moral certainty, and use their Nobel Prizes to aggrandize their "chicken little" mantras.
FYI: Do not count on the "stress tests" results becoming public knowledge. I am sure we'll hear lots of "Geithner cover up" talk soon especially from St. Paul and Faux Joe, but the point is to avoid enriching short sellers any more than we already have.
March 24, 2009 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
That should read
Until the stress test are complete we won't know the bottom line of these banks.
March 24, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Goldman can only afford to pay back the TARP loans because we saved it from the counter-party risk that it knowingly accepted when it bought CDS contracts from AIG. It's pretty dishonest of them to now make a big show about maybe paying back the TARP money when they can only do so because of the AIG bailout.
March 24, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here! Here! And all this bitching and moaning from Josh, David Kurtz, et al...
Newt Gingrich has only said one thing in his entire life I agree with: "if anyone tells you they know what this is and how to fix, don't believe them."
March 24, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink