Bush convenes Plunge Protection Team

Telegraph ^ | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[AndyJackson]

I thought the Fed was not supposed to purchase S&P futures. Is Evans-Pritchard a liar?

[neodad]

We’re doooooomed!!!!!!!

[AndyJackson]

More of the same ol’ stuff. Don’t know how “they” think they are helping those of us who work for a living, but it’s the thought that counts I s’pose.

[Perdogg]

I think Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is nutjob.

[ladyjane]

The US Treasury is about to shower households with rebate cheques...

Not all households. The people who paid the most in taxes won't get any rebate checks. The people who paid no taxes will get checks - but that's not a rebate! That's a handout!

When is George going to announce that he is switching to the Democratic party. His departure is past due.

[GraniteStateConservative]

We’re doooooomed!!!!!!!

If we actually have some crash and a recession and it's what ushers in the bitch into the WH, we really are.

[HereInTheHeartland]

With 30 year mortgage rates at 5.125% now, the stimulus is already happening.

[GraniteStateConservative]

When is George going to announce that he is switching to the Democratic party. His departure is past due.

We should have suspected something when he introduced "compassionate conservatism" into our lexicon.

[Jeff Chandler]

>>Plunge Protection Team <<

The Clinton Whitehouse had one of those, and it had nothing to do with finance.

[Travis McGee]

Instead of helicopter drops, it will be checks dropped into everybody's mailbox.

"True, governments can reduce the rate of interest in the short run. They can issue additional paper money. They can open the way to credit expansion by the banks. They can thus create an artificial boom and the appearance of prosperity. But such a boom is bound to collapse soon or late and to bring about a depression."

~~Ludwig von Mises

[Neidermeyer]

It appears to have powers to support the markets in a crisis with a host of instruments, mostly by through buying futures contracts on the stock indexes (DOW, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell) and key credit levers. And it has the means to fry “short” traders in the hottest of oils.

The team is led by Treasury chief Hank Paulson, ex-Goldman Sachs, a man with a nose for market psychology, and includes Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and the key exchange regulators.
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So now in addition to the usual suspects the federal gov’t is going to manipulate the markets and try to teach those bad bad short sellers a lesson ... IDIOTS! those short sellers ARE your liquidity generators...

Can helicopter Ben be sued under RICO?

[Perdogg]

Explain to me how we are going to get a short-term stimulus plan with Nancy and Harry in charge of both Houses?

I agree this is too Keynesian for my blood, and Bush has always been more of monetarist. One has to remember, that even the Reagan administration was gun shy when it came to the Laffer Curve and was not willing to abandon Monetarist policies all together.

[AndyJackson]

You think so? Mortgage rates have been flopping around 5-7% for a long time now. The cost of refinancing a loan from 7% to 5% does not produce much in the way of savings, and certainly not in the near term. Sure it might help buyers, but if I were a buyer I would hold on realy tight. Remember the real estate market got bid up on 1.75% teaser rate liar loans, and 5.125% fully documented conforming loans are not going to fix that.

First we got into this mess because of runaway lose monetary policy. THis loosey-tighty policy we have now cannot fix that. It is going to take enormous fiscal efforts to inflate us out of this mess.

[MARTIAL MONK]

It’s throwing money from a helicopter...without the helicopter.

[ladyjane]

Explain to me how we are going to get a short-term stimulus plan with Nancy and Harry in charge of both Houses?

It's already happening. Fixed rate mortgages are down to almost 5%.

[ladyjane]

p.s. Nancy and Harry would not be in charge and it would be a Republican House and Senate if George had been a better leader.

[groanup]

It has long been rumored that the Fed has an equity futures desk. They'll deny it all day long. I have no clue if they do but it would probably be a good idea since it seems like these days people think they deserve only profits and never losses on their investments.

If they do have a loss they want you to pay for it.

[AndyJackson]

I agree this is too Keynesian for my blood, and Bush has always been more of monetarist

As near as I can tell, the Bushes, pere et fils, are completely innocent of any knowledge of how money works. They are just good and loyal friends of lots of folks who know how to work the system.

[hedgetrimmer]

The New Deal of 2008 is in the works.

Courtesy of the devastating and anti-American phony "free trade".