Monday, December 29, 2008

Not Even Close

I don't think anybody would ever accuse me of wearing rose colored glasses with regard to my views on the world today, and I know that my opinions probably give me the label of being one of those "doom & gloom" types. I don't see it that way, of course; I'm really a very optimistic person. But I try not to slant, sugarcoat, or plant the seeds of false hope either.

Here's the priceless aftermath of some who did:

"I think this is a case where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are fundamentally sound. They're not in danger of going under I think they are in good shape going forward." -- Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chairman, July 14, 2008. Two months later, the government forced the mortgage giants into conservatorships and pledged to invest up to $100 billion in each.

"No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble." -- Jim Cramer, CNBC commentator, Mar. 11, 2008. Five days later, JPMorgan Chase took over Bear Stearns with government help, nearly wiping out shareholders.

"Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008" -- Headline of a National Association of Realtors press release, Dec. 9, 2007. On Dec. 23, 2008, the group said November sales were running at an annual rate of 4.5 million -- down 11% from a year earlier -- in the worst housing slump since the Depression.

Seven more where these came from: The Worst Predictions About 2008

2 comments:

Lydia said...

I did a post on this bail out called "Don't Bail Out the Banks" and got a lot of flames for it. In the end, what I said was true: they had no intention of letting the homeowners benefit from the money. Andrew Jackson told them: when you need money, you come to congress, but when you make a profit from your exhorbitant usury, you do not share it. One flamer told me "What are you: stupid or something? If the banks aren't bailed out, the US economy will fail!"

Blaine Staat said...

I agree. I heard it summed up nicely this way: "privatize the profits, socialize the losses". In my opinion, when companies get "too big to fail", they've gotten too big. We know not to put all of our eggs in one basket; why would that wisdom not apply here? -Blaine