[lbo-talk] Angry Renter

[Seth Ackerman]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Apr 22, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:
>
>   
>> Doug, am I correct in thinking that Angry Renter's position echoes
>> Dean Baker's in some respects?
>>     
>
> Yeah. He's vague on how to handle the financial fallout - in his  
> writing, he seems willing to let "The Banks" go down the drain, but  
> when he was on my radio show, he said something about how "of course"  
> we have to assure financial stability. I don't know how you do one  
> without the other, though. He also says we should let house prices  
> continue to fall until they come back into some kind of "normal"  
> range, which will be hell on the balance sheet of the middle class  
> (sorry, Carrol!). There's no compelling reason to try to keep house  
> prices high, or get them rising again, but even flatness would hurt a  
> lot of people.
>
>
>   

Why can't the banks be forced to recapitalized? It seems like they're 
dragging their feet about it, hoping a bailout will come along and save 
them. (Yes, some banks are recapitalizing, but then they're the ones who 
don't need a bailout.) If the alternatives were issue more shares or go 
under and be nationalized, more banks would issue shares, it seems to 
me. But if everyone is bending over backwards to offer them a bailout 
then they'll just take a bailout.

Seth