Archives: 30 December 2008

Even more of the same

Published on: 12/30/2008
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Today, markets posted brisk gains after the Treasury Department handed GMAC, a freshly anointed bank holding company, $5 billion in bailout money. According to GM, the logic is to loan the money at 0% in the hopes of selling a few cars. Hold on a second. When this bailout was rammed down the public’s throat in the beginning of October, we were told that we as taxpayers would receive a competitive return on our ‘investment’.

Apparently, the return on this investment will be 0%. And ironically enough, thanks to the mischievous Fed, 0% is now a competitive return. If this isn’t enough to convince the American people that the fix is in, then I think it is time to start auctioning off that prime oceanfront property in North Dakota. After all, Bismarck isn’t on the Case-Schiller top 20 Wall of Shame – yet.

And in what is a completely atypical response, even Marketwatch questioned the sanity of this strategy:

“But wait. Wasn’t it a flood of cheap money and rampant consumerism that landed the U.S. economy in its current pickle?

Well, yes. But according to GM, we’ll just have to sort that out later. Right now, the primary objective is to use credit to move inventory. This is crucial because the industry — from suppliers to manufacturers to dealers — is starved for liquidity. Now they’ve got it.

The question now is how far will it go? Or will it work at all?

Will a nation where consumer confidence is at an all-time low, where home values are falling and unemployment rising at alarming rates, rush to showrooms to buy a new Trailblazer?”

The next step is to hand the cash to households at 0% in a futile hope of getting them to spend on other things. While many might view such a development as a positive one, we know how that story ends. Got Gold?
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