section 8

[Robert Sheridan]

I must say that I'm amazed at the whole concept of "too big to let  
fail."  The little guy (the taxpayer) is being asked to bail out the  
big guys who've probably screwed him, while the big guys continue to  
receive platinum bonuses and golden parachutes.

What would Premier Deng Xiaoping (of Reform and Opening fame, not to  
mention Tiananmen) have called this?

Capitalism with socialistic characteristics?

Or Reagan?  Trickle-down socialism for the rich?

By the time the bailout reaches the little guy who actually pays the  
mortgage every month (w/ no observable relief in sight), much less his  
about to be foreclosed neighbor with the "Short Sale" sign on the  
vacant house, there'll be nothing left.

Forget the hypothetical anti-Semitism under the current plan. What  
about the actual anti-Little Guy bias, the guy whose taxes bail out  
the guy sitting on him?

I believe it was Tolstoy, in reference to the serfs, who wrote to the  
effect that the landholding aristocracy was willing to do anything for  
them except the one thing they really needed, to get off their backs.

I wish someone could explain to me how it is that bailing out "Wall  
Street," is going to help the guy paying, or not able to pay, the  
mortgage, not to mention the credit card.  Help the little guy and  
it's either creeping (or rampant) socialism.  Help the big guy and  
it's Advanced Capitalism.  Remember when the American Medical  
Association opposed government subsidized health-care on the ground it  
was socialistic?  What's their position now, I wonder.

Isn't this throwing "moral hazard" (heads you win, tails you lose) out  
the window?  What kind of crap game is Wall Street where if you're big  
enough, it's "heads I win, and tails all the little guys can bail me  
out."

I well remember my surprise at hearing Prof. Norman Redlich teach  
years ago that the Constitution does not, however, ordain that our  
economic system be either Capitalist, or Socialist, or something else,  
given all I'd heard about the evils of Socialism.

Call me financially ignorant, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable  
about a trickle-up bailout than trickle-down.

rs
sfls


On Sep 23, 2008, at 1:22 PM, Sanford Levinson wrote:

> Is it thinkable that someone might sue claiming to be in a "similar  
> position" as a favored entity, but receiving no relief because, say,  
> the Secretary of the Treasury was anti-Semetic and didn't want to  
> bil out Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs?  Or, of course, it could  
> be even simpler, where the disfavored entity refused to supply the  
> bribe sought by the Secretary.  To be sure, there is no reason to  
> believe that Henry Paulson is anti-Semetic or subject to bribery.   
> But didn't someone named James Madison (and, in a different context,  
> Ronald Reagan), say something about needing to "trust AND verify"?
>
> sandy
>
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