The Meltdown is McCain's... Dems Rush to Stop Hedge Funds' Collapse Oct. 1st

[Waiting For Everyman]

Huffington Post
Tom D'Antoni
September 26, 2008

If anyone doubted that John McCain will do anything to get elected -- including picking an inept fundamentalist to be his Veep because it could energize Republicans-- his sabotaging of the bailout talks by political grandstanding should settle the question. He inflamed the revolt of the hard-right House Republicans, and as Marc Ambinder points out:

During the White House meeting, it appears that Sen. John McCain had an agenda. He brought up alternative proposals, surprising and angering Democrats. He did not, according to someone briefed on the meeting, provide specifics.

One of the proposals -- favored by House Republicans -- would relax regulation and temporarily get rid of certain taxes in order to lure private industry into the market for these distressed assets.

That approach has been rejected by Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and, to this point, the White House. During the meeting, according to someone briefed on it, Sec. Henry Paulson told those assembled that the approach was not workable.

"Before the White House meeting, Democrats and Senate Republicans were on track to get legislation to the floor by tomorrow. Democrats say that, at best, they hope for half of Republicans in the House to go along. At worst, the vote in the House becomes partisan and then Senate Republicans get shaky and then... "
...
James Davis, a Maryland Assistant Attorney General (speaking as a private citizen) who worked on resolving the original S&L crisis... also pointed out that the real reason why there is such a clamor for a bill, and a rush to get it passed is that there may be billions of dollars pulled out of the hedge funds...money that is due on October 1. This may be the famed October surprise, but one that nobody figured was coming. If that money is due and the hedge funds can't pay, they will collapse.

But Paulson's Wall Street pals are clamoring for help to clean up the mess that their irresponsible lending and greedy practices brought us, with McCain only pouring fuel on the fire he and his GOP deregulatory cronies helped start.

As Chris Hayes of The Nation pointed out on a recent Keith Olberman show, McCain has placed an "all-in bet on the stupidity of the American public." This Friday's debate should help us discover if he's going to win this desperate bet -- a theatrical, Hail Mary bailout plan for the McCain campaign. To paraphrase one of his slurs of Obama, John McCain has shown that he would rather lose an economy than lose an election.

How irresponsible is McCain?

See The Nation's Chris Hayes gives his take:
(video included)
The answer? Pretty damned irresponsible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-dantoni/the-meltdown-is-mccainsde_b_129488.html

___________________________________________________________________

McC may have done Dems a favor. He may have bungled his own "ride to the rescue".

[aquart]

1. And if the hedge funds collapse?

Does the world come to an end, or does it regroup? If there is no agreement for the next five days, WHAT HAPPENS?

[frogcycle]

3. not being an expert on high finance I can only speculate

well, that's what THEY do, after all... :)


Hedge funds are like the high-roller tables at casinos. Someplace the super-rich go to play. If they all go broke, then some 30,000 square foot houses will go on the market dirt cheap, and perhaps could be converted into homeless shelters.


It seems to me that the uber-rich "players" could all go to hell and all that would happen would be that the economy would stabilize. Their wild speculating is what fuels things like the dot-com bubble, wild swings in oil prices, the tulip craze in the 1600's... If retirement accounts and medium-sized-investor mutual funds were the biggest players, with a philosophy of long-term growth rather than making a quick killing, we'd ALL be better off.

[aquart]

8. So dither and debate till October 2?

[madrchsod]

4. well a lot of undocumented workers would be out of work.

the hedge fund people would have to fend for themselves....they`d actually have to clean their own toilets

[HereSince1628]

5. The sun'll come up tomorrow! Tomorrow! You can bet your bottom dollar

[KewlKat]

2. Here is a little video on Hedge Funds

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=TrY8iSaWJ_o

[tama]

6. Interesting

Hedge funds (tools of the rich and powerfull) expertise in short selling (ie making profit when the market falls). Remember that shorting was just banned, for a while at least. And that biggest daily rise in history in oil prises - some hedge funds getting really hurt by classical short squeeze.

So it's easy to understand that hedge funds will start to fall when the time comes to roll debt, and so it's been predicted.

But what I can't understand is why would anyone want to save unregulated hedge funds, except the criminally rich class of filthy pigs and corporate whores.

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. I don't understand that too.

I wonder if there's something else nobody's telling us? In fact, the story I OP'd specifically said that hedge funds were excluded from the tentative bailout proposal. Why then, would its passing make any difference to them?

The whole thing feels like a trap for the Dems to me - it turns the whole thing inside-out, and makes the Dems seem like they're standing up for those who pushed deregulation. Then McC comes in against it - playing at being against Bush and the Wall Street pirates. It's all just a little too convenient for him.

[aquart]

9. Yeah. Why would they?