The Fed’s lending and the Treasury’s investments in banks will not cost taxpayers anything. Unfortunately, that can’t be said for the government’s stimulus program to create jobs. That is old fashioned government spending: Money spent, money gone. A large stimulus program was needed to cushion the recession and reduce job losses. But the program outsourced [...]
Notes made for remarks to the Federalist Society on November 13, 2009 It’s an honor to be on this panel with all these distinguished people. But I’m afraid I was invited because I’m considered soft on bailouts. That’s a terrible reputation to have. What is it they say about poker? “If you look around the [...]
Recently, I did three interviews on the banking crisis for the Las Vegas Money Show. I discussed whether federal bank bailouts are working, whether the banking crisis is over, and whether the banks will make windfall profits from lower fed interest rates.
Yesterday I did an interview on the Jim Blasingame show called Which Direction is the Economy Moving? We spent a significant amount of time discussing Mark to Market and the banking crisis.
Lately, I've gotten a lot of time on CNBC's Kudlow Report. Here's my latest from April 28 on whether bank stress tests will reveal Bank of America needs more capital.
Good question. Many have received injections of capital (purchases of preferred stock) through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), yet many large banks announced large profits this week. If this week's announcements were all I knew about it, I'd be very confused. But, my answer is…
(A Tiger by the Tail)* I wrote on February 25 that the newly-announced bank stress tests were mostly window dressing since bank examiners stay in constant touch with the financial condition of the banks they regulate, even having their own offices in the largest banks. I cautioned that the publicity given to this charade [...]
Yesterday I was on CNBC's Closing Bell with Brian Wesbury to discuss the Treasury's new plan to form public-private partnerships to buy toxic assets from financial institutions. We agreed that reforming mark to market would be just as effective. See the video clip here: [Bob Mcteer on Mark to Market]
“Don’t forget, there’s a big gladiator show coming up the day after tomorrow. Not the same old fighters either. They’ve got a fresh shipment in. There’s not a slave in that batch. Just wait. There’ll be cold steel for the crowd, no quarter and the amphitheatre will end up looking like a slaughterhouse. There’s even [...]
More Stimulus May Not Be Worth It In my last post I made a brief comparison of the TARP and a stimulus package. My principal point was that most TARP activities by the government represent investments that can be sold later under better circumstances and may even turn a profit for taxpayers. Another stimulus [...]