Overstock CEO Comments on President Bush's Speech Outlining Bailout Plan

http://biz.yahoo.com ^ | 9/24/2008 | Patrick Byrne

[SueRae]

Overstock CEO Comments on President Bush's Speech Outlining Bailout Plan Wednesday September 24, 10:56 pm ET 'Is Something Not Worth Doing Worth Doing Well?' asks Byrne

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK - News) chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne comments on President Bush's September 24, 2008 speech outlining the President's market rescue plan. ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Byrne commented: "This bailout is necessary to save the bacchanal that is our US financial system. However, at the core of the administration's plan is the assumption that Wall Street is worth saving. It is not. For years Wall Street has bossed Washington, DC around like they're hired flunkies, while preying on Main Street businesses and investors. The federal government should use this opportunity to extract from Wall Street concessions that could never be extracted were Washington in its customary subordinate position.

"If American taxpayers are to bailout the Power Elite, they should attach conditions. Taxpayers should share in any upside, and gaping flaws in the current system should be fixed. Towards that end, I believe that any bailout legislation should include at least the following protections:

[SueRae]

Adding a dose of common sense ....

[tx_eggman]

. Reforming our stock settlement system so that trades actually settle promptly, precisely as Congress stipulated in 1934. This can be accomplished by putting in place a market-wide mandatory pre-borrow requirement (like the SEC did in the 30-day July 15, 2008 emergency order that protected the 19 financial institutions);

b. Creating the obligation that if a naked short seller fails to deliver a share, the broker-dealer must force a mandatory buy-in

Common sense indeed

[Travis McGee]

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

---Ludwig Von Mises

Paulson and Bernanke are choosing option #2.

[momincombatboots]

Ok... I did well until he called Canada a civilized country, thereby implying we are not. Most of the terminology is outside of my realm of expertise. I was not so thrilled with the idea of taxes either. Seems that increasing taxes on those companies would undermine their bottom line.
I see this as corporate welfare. Treat it is, by subsidizing them just a dollar above poverty and educate them on finding a job they can succeed at. Give them a time frame within which to perform. The housing market bailout has created an economy of corporate welfare, cut the head off this perpetual beast now!
Having said that, I have minimal understanding of this, so could we get some exposition here?

[Doug TX]

———2. The government should impose a tax on those that benefit most from bailout — Wall Street itself. Perhaps a 0.25% transaction tax on all securities trades is in order? Such a tax would be insignificant to investors, while be largely borne by those that are merely speculators - including those that churn trades in an attempt to manipulate the markets.———

Mixed bag. He’s run off Mark Cuban and the naked shorts now he wants to add a new tax for active traders. Why the knee jerk to add taxes?? Dumb

[LearsFool]

...now he wants to add a new tax for active traders. Why the knee jerk to add taxes??

Call it paying back the money we spent bailing them out.