Ratigan & Nassim Taleb On The Idiocy Of Cash For Clunkers And Generational Theft

As usual with Dylan Ratigan, the cash for clunkers debate evolves quickly into an outstanding discussion of the banks, generational theft, too big to fail, financial regulation and the Wall Street bailouts.  Larry Summers is nicely flailed along with Geithner and Bernanke.  Taleb criticizes Obama specifically and forcefully, and admits publicly to his own Libertarian leanings.

The central question is how do we create programs that help the economy without rewarding bad behavior.  In a familiar refrain, Taleb counters that the core economic problem is too much debt, and absolutely nothing has happened to ameliorate the problem.  Bravo.

Farzad correctly points out that the problem is ultimately political.  Finally.  As I've been screaming about since the day of our launch, both parties are too concerned with the next election to make the right choices about the economy and our 3-decade build-up of debt. 

This is an outstanding discussion that I've been saving since its broadcast 10 days ago.  If you're pressed for time, begin watching at the 3-minute mark.  Endeavor to see this one.

Watch

Comments

[DailyBail]

Hot sex no match for cold cash, poll of women finds

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/08/17/2009-08-17_cold_cash_beats_hot_sex__poll_majority_of_women_would_rather_have_50.html

[DailyBail]

Failed Banks Weighing on FDIC

Amounts Tapped by Agency Reminiscent of Savings-and-Loan Crisis

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125046283572235251.html

[DailyBail]

China's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, which suffered big paper losses on stakes in Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and Blackstone (BX), is set to invest up to $2 billion in U.S. mortgages as it eyes a property market recovery, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Monday.

China Investment Corp. (CIC) plans to invest soon in U.S. taxpayer subsidized investment funds of toxic mortgage-backed securities, which it sees as a safer bet than buying into the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

Under the Public-Private Investment Plan (PPIP) launched earlier this year, the U.S. government plans to seed a number of public-private investment funds that would combine taxpayer money with private capital to buy as much as $40 billion in toxic securities from banks.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/17/news/economy/cic_mortgages.reut/index.htm?section=money_news_economy

[mark mchugh]

That's a great clip. Three intelligent guys all making sense. I've always been a big Fan of Dylan R., but I've gotta say, it's taken me some time to warm up to Taleb. The more I see him, the more I realize how smart he is, and not in an academic way, in a real-life understanding way. I share his disappointment with Obama (and like him, I had high hopes).

Why is it so hard to get the idiots away from the buttons and switches in our economy?

[Gobias Bluth]

I googled Obama & economy today and I was surprised to see that dailybail was the third listing. I felt so lucky that I played the lottery and won $4,500. Then I went to a car dealership and they told me that Obama wanted to double it. Okay, the truth, I googled Obama & economy and I got the red question, did you mean…Orgami economy? So, now Obama is going after Reagan and cold war spending, Lockheed quickly announced a 4% cut in their workforce. In other news, Obama said NASA’s plan to take man back to the moon by 2028 is too ambitious. Thanks JFK. When is Barry going to the Vineyard? How come we haven’t heard much from his fancy JCrew wife and kids, are they not polling well lately?

[James H]

"If you're pressed for time, begin watching at the 3-minute mark."

Appropriately, this is precisely the moment at which Chuck Todd disappears. (BTW, has the wedgie been renamed the "Chuck Todd" yet? Or even better, an over-the-head wedgie is apparently called a "covered wagon," which could easily be rechristened the "Chuckwagon.")

[DailyBail]

Not sure where that came from james, but it made me laugh here are 3:50 am.