Tag Archives: bailout

Defined Benefit Pensions: A Failed Experiment

photo credit: inspecie.co.uk After the town hall meeting I attended on Wednesday I have been thinking about pension plans generally. The state of Utah is looking at changing their pension offerings for new employees to save the state from future … Continue reading

Posted in culture, State | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Too Rich to Go Bankrupt

photo credit: Stowe Boyd By “too rich to go bankrupt” I don’t mean someone so rich that they never will go bankrupt. What I mean by that is someone so rich that them going bankrupt would destabilize our economy and … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

A New Federal Role in Economic Recovery

My post on fundamental assumptions generated some good discussion which began waxing economic in flavor. As part of that discussion I had a new idea about a more reasonable approach the federal government could take to soften economic hard times … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Stretching Our TARP

photo credit: wolfheadfilms When the TARP bill was first being discussed I made a statement that I would like to repeat about the TARP money: [T]his should not be used as a windfall by Congress to fund some pet projects. … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Economic Recovery

I was listening this morning to a story on NPR about rising unemployment when an interesting thought struck me. The story was talking about the negative feedback loop of rising unemployment leading to lower housing prices and more economic uncertainty. … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Banks Giving Back

While it is good news that 10 banks will be allowed to repay billions in bailout funds I would be much more excited if I didn’t already know what was likely to happen as a result. The banks were deemed … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Too Little Too Late

I was not sure whether to gag or chuckle when I heard the news that Senator Bennett wants to prevent the use of TARP money for the auto industry. To me that just sounds like he’s shutting the barn doors … Continue reading

Posted in State | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

GM Surprise (or not)

Back at the end of March David Brooks made a prediction for GM in the New York Times that came due today. I have been waiting to check in on that. He started with this background of the situation as … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two (or more) Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

I was listening to Peter Schiff’s Wall Street Unspun for this week and he said something that cemented a change of perspective I had been considering regarding the AIG bonuses. I had been thinking about this idea of taxing the … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I Missed An Option

When I listed the options yesterday for how to deal with the AIG bonuses I obviously missed one. One member of the house thought up the idea that we could tax AIG bonuses at 100 percent. The beauty of his … Continue reading

Posted in National | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments