On Mar 15, 2008, at 1:17 PM, Eric wrote:
> I'm sorry, but all this heavy breathing -- and the heaviest breather
> of them all, Greg Palast, has his bout of hyperventilation here
> <http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/>
That piece of Palast's was deeply stupid. On a minor point, he doesn't seem to know the difference between a Carlyle fund and the Carlyle Group. But the idea that they had to knock off Eliot Spitzer to do a new bailout facility is just crazy. He's going to stop the Fed from doing what central banks are supposed to do (i.e. in Bagehot's words, lend freely against good collateral at penalty rates)?
A Northern Rock vs. Bear Stearns - I'm not sure what would have been accomplished by letting Bear go under. But in any case, what they did was a stopgap measure to keep things from flying out of control. Bear will probably be acquired by someone fairly soon.
Doug