The Bear Stearns bailout was stupid. Nobody would've lost anything that they weren't fully aware they could lose. (That's why we have the warnings on the financial contracts that basically say, "Hey, if this goes to hell, then suck on it, you prick.") The moral hazard argument was right on that.
If the stock-peddlers built them a big mess selling each other garbage in the interest of generating fees, well, tough. They should lose their jobs, and (pointing) the Unemployment and Medicaid forms are over there, and (pointing in the other direction) the line starts over there. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Now, as a practical matter, JP Morgan does, I believe, run a lot of local banks, so a bailout for it might make sense if it were on the verge of failing. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Right, that's what I was wondering.
Nobody should care what happens to a broker-dealer bank like Bear Stearns (or Lehman Brothers, though Lehman Brothers has been at the centre of the fixed-income market infrastructure for a long time). When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
