Monday 8 September 2008

Fannie and Freddie

The Daily Mash puts it this way:
US BECOMES WORLD'S BIGGEST COUNCIL ESTATE
Not quite, but not that far off.

This is one of those bailouts that attract the "socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor" comments. I'm not too comfortable with that expression: a government bailout of western banks and eastern governments isn't an example of "capitalism" but it is the sort of thing that gives capitalism a bad name. Fannie and Freddie should have been allowed to go bust. That's what the market said. Instead we see the shares of British banks (they're heavily involved in this mess as well) leaping up today, especially the ones most into the mortgage market. All this will end in tears and the more these bailouts continue the worse the final crash will be.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Joshua Holmes
Problem is, this is exactly what capitalism is. Capitalism has never meant free markets and it never will.

9 September 2008, 20:47:45 GMT+01:00
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Bill (Scotland)
... and the more these bailouts continue the worse the final crash will be 
 
I tend to share your view; people seem (understandably in some ways) to want to put off the day of reckoning, but it will be brutal when it happens as it inevitably will and a lot more widespread and deep than it need be. Sigh.

9 September 2008, 20:13:23 GMT+01:00