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They'll tell you that would have risked to plunge the Dow to oil-pocket levels.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 12:24:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
So be it. The Dow is not a proper measure of economic health and we should take our collective eyes off it.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buitler
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 12:53:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm not sure how yet, but I assure you I feel quite more revolutionary about all these indexes, given the problems they bring along.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 03:40:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"La politique de la France ne se fait pas à la Corbeille" (de Gaulle)

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 01:13:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
They'll tell you that would have risked to plunge the Dow to oil-pocket levels.

I fail to see any problem with that, which cannot be solved by giving our railways, electrical grid, ports and other infrastructure an overhaul.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 01:26:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Except there is no money. Dow down means no more investor confidence, no more economic funding, and with our happily-spending drown-in-debts countries, paying for such overhaul would pose the obvious problem of where they'll finally take the money from.
This is debatable, but we'll talk about it again when the insistance of the Chinese to put their reserves in FMI withdrawal rights or whatever they're called will push the dollar to where the Turkish pound stands, and the US to default on foreign debt.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 03:43:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Except there is no money.

Last time I checked, people were not divesting themselves of US Treasuries. The US government has an excellent credit (for reasons that I personally fail to understand, but hey...).

Dow down means no more investor confidence, no more economic funding,

Private investors are irrelevant. The US has a gargantuan backlog of essential public spending that would need to be done anyway. Lack of private spending simply means that it can be started today, rather than slowly over the next ten or twenty years.

and with our happily-spending drown-in-debts countries, paying for such overhaul would pose the obvious problem of where they'll finally take the money from.

Monetise future tax revenues.

And for the case of the US and UK, repatriate wealth from tax frauds who hide money in flag of convenience countries.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 19th, 2009 at 05:19:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sure. Zjust that. Most convenience countries are under US, UK, or China protection :)

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Wed May 20th, 2009 at 04:56:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Whose protection they are under is irrelevant. You can repatriate the money simply by refusing to clear transactions in your currency for the financial system of said country, until and unless they cooperate with your tax authorities.

All cross-border transactions in your currency are cleared by your central bank, and it is in the nature of a flag-of-convenience country that a substantial part of their assets are in foreign currencies, making them vulnerable to this kind of action.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed May 20th, 2009 at 05:12:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Jake, Britain will Never "refuse to clear transactions" with the Guernsey, Man island, Bermuda and so on. You surely can't believe that. London is the biggest one of them, and these procedures have all been invented by anglosaxons. Obama conveniently jabs against the Swiss, because that's one of the few tax haven not under US, UK or China protection. You think he'll do anything against Hong-Kong, or Singapore? Think again.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Wed May 20th, 2009 at 05:22:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You are undoubtedly correct that the British government will never do such a thing.

Which is why the British people should start sharpening their pitchforks and oiling their torches.

In a democracy, the people can and should take the state away from the government when the government misbehaves.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed May 20th, 2009 at 05:33:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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