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 badgering |
Dick Morris: Here comes socialism |
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Posts: 1966 01/21/09 5:28 PM
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In my continuing effort to damp down enthusiasm and bring some critical thinking and skepticism to Obamanation, I offer up Dick Morris' latest effort:
http://thehill.com/dick-m...socialism-2009-01-20.html
I only wish he wouldn't sugar coat his assessment. |
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LeviBooth |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 3390 01/21/09 6:01 PM |
There's plenty of room for critical thinking and skepticism - though I'd think Mr. Morris would be more than pleased that his cottage industry as Fox
pet/Clinton basher has room to continue. Maybe he can still afford to purchase toe suckers for his pleasure while spewing forth more moral indignation.
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yanked |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 3419 01/21/09 6:35 PM
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LeviBooth wrote: Here I thought the Obama experiment would bring about bi partisan discussion and change. Boy, if you can't question Obama, democracy is dead.....which plays nicely into the socialism theme, eh.
Yo Barack - WTF is my check?
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whirly711 |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 2809 01/21/09 6:56 PM THE JETER |
"In my continuing effort to damp down enthusiasm"
no shit charlie you are the buzz kill in the room ya care to give him a day or two in office? 
ORRRR - perhaps get on board? There are still a few seats left! ps - OH! NO! that prostitute toe sucking douche-bag Dick Morris brought up that oh so horrible to hear word of "socialism"!!!! Run for lives!!!! 
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bhambadger |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 1790 01/21/09 10:19 PM Asian chicks, Bham, Asian chicks! |
badgering wrote: I don't think you have ever typed a larger juxtaposition than using "critical thinking" and "Dick Morris" in the same sentence. Stick to Newsmax. It has more cred. Some people are like slinkies -- they're not good for much, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs. |
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Ol Badger |
#5 | |||
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Posts: 6155 01/21/09 10:39 PM DC Totalitarian |
Dick Morris is still alive?
These ARE the good old days!
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purewater2000 |
Dick Morris | #6 | ||
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Posts: 103 01/21/09 10:53 PM |
cause of cynicism...insightful only in obvious observations....betrayer of trusts....questionable person to listen to.
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TristansShadow |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 3286 01/21/09 11:27 PM Chef Ameche |
Ol Badger wrote:good point, I thought his, um, notoriety ended after he was fired by the Clintons.
"The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."
Barack Obama |
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Combad57 |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 1357 01/22/09 8:14 AM |
So how has laissez-faire been workin' for ya? Bundling risk in big packages and selling it off as something of a AAA rated value was a great idea. Trading
futures on less than 5% margin is another dandy. Naked short selling is a terrific vehicle.
It's just too damn bad that human nature had to enter our pure market system. |
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JSG II |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 1300 01/22/09 9:48 AM |
Every time I hear of Morris I want to see pictures of his hooker. I never did get a good eyeful of her, just the blonde hair shot from above in that public place. Was she worth it? |
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LamontS1 |
#10 | |||
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Posts: 1496 01/22/09 10:07 AM |
Combad57 wrote: What's wrong with the margin requirements for trading futures? Naked short selling is already illegal by the way and many traders have been prosecuted for doing it. As for securitizing mortgages, much of that was done by Fannie Mae which is a regulated quasi-govt agency. |
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NumenLumen |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 2490 01/22/09 10:25 AM
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Combad57 wrote:laissez-faire. Pfffft! The government was certainly a contributor, if not a primary player in the mortgage mess through the government-backed (now owned) Fanny and Freddy. Loose credit and their ability to have their downside risk de-facto (now in-facto) on the government ledger flooded the market with more dollars chasing mortgages than there were worthy mortgagees, and inflating the prices of properties. I don't buy the agrument that Fan/Fred/CRA is the entire source of the problem, but to minimize their role in it is to be ignorant or naiive. How'd that Sarbanes-Oxley work to prevent this from happening? It certainly helped financial compaines by steering resources from understanding enterprise risk to checking a lot of boxes to "control" financial statement risk. Wrong-headed regulation is worse than none at all. This is as much a failure of government and central banking as it is of free markets. The "solutions" offered by Obama & co, as I see it, will only make it worse. The government needs to get out of the banking and mortgage business ASAP, not further into it. The central bank should be returned to it's correct role in sustaining the value of the currency. "Stimulus" should be limited to infrastructure projects with probable, definable, ongoing economic benefit of the sort that should be taking place anyway. Tax laws should promote investment and thrift, not punish savings and productivity. Taxes should as low, simple, transparent, and predictable as possible. Health care reform should maximize the ability of individuals acting in a market to make the best decisions for themselves and families instead of conglomerating already unmanageably large and bureaucratic processes into ones exponentially larger ones. Discretionary government spending should be budgeted using a zero-base methodology, and more of it should be subject to the sort of disciplined process used by the military base closing comission. Earmarks should simply not happen. The future laibility of entitlements needs to be slashed. Since semi-privitization is a ship that was scuttled in dry-dock, the retirement age needs to increased and benefits need to be sujected to a greater level of means-testing. Good luck at this one politically with how many baby boomers getting ready to suckle at this teat? The problem with all of this is Republicans have, as both a majority and minority party, been willfully ignorant of most of the above. They have failed to grasp, or simply ignored the fact that taxes and spending are different sides of the same coin. The consensus that arose is that the left can have their spending and the right can have their tax cuts ad infinitum. By abandoning the battle field on this front they have left the opening that those seeking a more European-style "Social Democracy" are able to drive through. |
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Tennesseebadger |
#12 | |||
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Posts: 265 01/22/09 11:05 AM |
Part of the problem with bashing Obama about socialism is that nothing he will do will look as stark as it might had Bush not been his predecessor. How can the
Republicas whine about a 800 billion bailout when they had authorized 700-- and can't tell us where a lot of it went ? The Republicans sissies in congress
will pay. and have paid, for their "go along, get along" with the previous White House. There is no authoritative voice, no credible voice in
Washington that can challenge the idea of trillion dollar defecits as far as we can see. There is no viable constituancy for fiscal restraint right now. The
lack of debate on the issue reminds me of Robert Byrd compalining on the Senate floor that there was no serious debate about the invasion of Iraq.
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chimeinnow |
#13 | |||
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Ol Badger wrote:
Dick Morris is still alive? Yes, he wasn't with Vince Foster that night
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badgering |
#14 | |||
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Posts: 1978 01/22/09 11:24 AM
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Numen, I'd also add the fed, particularly Greenspan, to the list. His behavior, complicit with the Bush administration, in lowering rates to an irrational
level simply fueled the mortgage crisis and added to the bubble. How many less AAA and subprimes would have been booked if rates were 250 bp higher? A lot
less as qualifying incomes, even under the woeful standards deemed acceptable by Fannie and Freddie and their congressional cheerleaders, would have shot up
tremendously. When everyone and their dog can get a mortgage, because the fed and Freddie and Fannie and the CRA and bundlers all make it possible, well,
then, you'll have dogs as debtors.
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Combad57 |
#15 | |||
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Posts: 1358 01/22/09 12:17 PM |
"laissez-faire. Pfffft! The government was certainly a contributor, if not a primary player in the mortgage mess through the government-backed (now owned)
Fanny and Freddy. Loose credit and their ability to have their downside risk de-facto (now in-facto) on the government ledger flooded the market with more
dollars chasing mortgages than there were worthy mortgagees, and inflating the prices of properties. I don't buy the agrument that Fan/Fred/CRA is the
entire source of the problem, but to minimize their role in it is to be ignorant or naiive."
Hands off applied to Fannie and Freddie too. I don't know if they followed or led (I suspect followed) in the unwise practices, but nothing stopped them. The mistake was not regulating. The government was complicit especially in allowing private sector boneheads run the places without restraint. The lemmings were dashing to the sea in both private and public sectors. "How'd that Sarbanes-Oxley work to prevent this from happening? It certainly helped financial compaines by steering resources from understanding enterprise risk to checking a lot of boxes to "control" financial statement risk." It was a bad piece of legislation. Nobody said the government does much right. One thing's sure. The whiz kids in the private sector will game weak stuff on the lawbooks. Decades of good lending practice went by the wayside with a little market creativity. The right kind of regulation just might have prevented the credit system from going over the cliff. Once again, it's not likely that the best and brightest in government is going to outwit the private market rocket scientists. You have to see it coming. In your wildest dreams did anyone expect anyone in the administration in the past 8 years to catch it? Even if Congress caught it, it would take years to act. "The government needs to get out of the banking and mortgage business ASAP, not further into it." Either that or make it totally a government entity, not half and half. It got to the point that they were the majority holder of mortgage debt In the entire couuntry. They really should have known how to run the business. For many years local and regional banks handled this business pretty well. M&A to the max led to private sector abuse. Big corporate is the next big evil behind big government. |
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LeviBooth |
#16 | |||
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Posts: 3395 01/22/09 12:21 PM |
In the end, I blame most of our woes on the University of Chicago and Ayn Rand.
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Ol Badger |
#17 | |||
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Posts: 6174 01/22/09 2:09 PM DC Totalitarian |
NumenLumen wrote: I realize this is a popular talking point among conservatives, but it's not exactly true. Fannie and Freddie were late to the sub-prime market, which started in the private sector, and many of the other exotic derivatives that have proven toxic never went through Fannie or Freddie at all.
These ARE the good old days!
Last Edited By: Ol Badger 01/22/09 3:04 PM.
Edited 1 time.
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NumenLumen |
#18 | |||
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Posts: 2492 01/22/09 2:10 PM
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LeviBooth wrote: And I blame most of our woes on you, Levi 
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Ol Badger |
#19 | |||
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Posts: 6175 01/22/09 2:11 PM DC Totalitarian |
LeviBooth wrote: I remember one of the first girls I dated seriously, back in high school (early 1960s) introduced me to Rand. I knew then and there that this girl and I were not going to be spending a lifetime together. 
These ARE the good old days!
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LeviBooth |
#20 | |||
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Posts: 3399 01/22/09 2:13 PM |
NumenLumen wrote:I'm willing to split it, 50/50... |
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