Why conservatives remain irrelevant. To wit: Gingrich's call for AIG to declare bankruptcy

[beachmom]

I was incredulous when I saw the headline via Memeorandum:

http://www.memeorandum.com/#a090318p121

(it leads to a Human Events link)

Newt Gingrich usurps a combination of left wing and right wing populism diatribes, and then talks about restoring the "rule of law":

Bankruptcy would send a needed message to U.S. investors: Don’t assume the government will bail you out when you do something stupid.

And most importantly, bankruptcy would replace the rule of politicians over U.S. financial institutions with the rule of law.

Ah, so the real offense is that the government has gotten involved. Newt goes on calling it the Bush - Obama - Geithner bailout, ranting and raving for several paragraphs. He had, of course, a big counterargument to refute, which it seemed he finally had come to:

Why Not Bankruptcy for AIG? Because Wall Street Wouldn’t Have Done As Well

From the outset, Geithner was central to the developing policy of having the taxpayers bail out ailing financial institutions like AIG rather then allow them to go bankrupt. And for months now, we’ve been told that these bailouts were necessary to avoid a wider, cataclysmic, financial meltdown.

After naming the dire consequence, he launches into a conspiracy theory about Wall Street, never addressing the reason why we have not let AIG declare bankruptcy. He has no answer whatsoever to the real risk of System Fail, which is exactly what happened when Lehman Brothers went under. I mean, who would take this guy seriously, or any of the GOP? They are clearly living out in the wilderness, and are unserious. They are unfit to lead.

[beachmom]

1. Oh, and Gingrich is a hypocrite:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/18/more-paycap-hypocrisy/

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich today penned an op-ed venting his “outrage” at the “fat bonuses” paid to staffers at AIG. However in November, while speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he attacked Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) for having the audacity to send “off letters to every bank demanding to know all of their executive compensation policy.” Gingrich then scoffed at the idea of capping salaries specifically at AIG:

GINGRICH: “You have a level of micromanagement of AIG and others. You can’t apply Washington bureaucratic rules to a free market company without ultimately destroying the company.”

[FrenchieCat]

2. Thank you.....

[brentspeak]

3. Actually, Gingrich is right

AIG should have been allowed to go bankrupt. That doesn't mean that Gingrich isn't a toad, but he is right on this.

[FVZA_Colonel]

4. Well, from the looks of it, Obama and his team seem to be inching towards an idea like that.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_aig

I don't think it should go strait to bankruptcy, but a gradual disolution of the company seems like a good strategy.

[Lasher]

6. That's a far cry from letting them just go bankrupt.

Obama is right. Stabalize AIG then take it apart later in an orderly fashion, along with others. I agree they're too big to fail. They are therefore too big to exist.

[brentspeak]

7. AIG just gave Goldman Sachs $12.x billion

As well to a bunch of other very solvent, very cash-rich banks/investment banks/holding companies/etc. How did it stabilize the financial order of things to give billions of dollars to institutions that never needed the money in the first place?

[Lasher]

9. Even worse, most of the identified AIG distributions went to foreign banks

And for 100 cents on the dollar! WTF? No, that's not strong enough. What the FUCK????

This is bitter medicine. I'm not going to pretend I know everything about this calamity but I am firmly convinced that the worst near-term course of action is nothing at all. We need to channel the justified outrage and unleash it after we've put out most of the fires.

[beachmom]

8. Wow, I can't disagree more. Where were you when Lehman Bros. collapsed?

Small Businesses are not getting credit. We have lost millions of jobs.

[Lasher]

5. True libertarian idiocy, just what got us here in the first place.

In case you didn't know, Greenspan is a Republican libertarian moron just like Newt.