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January 16, 2009
Bank of Fuckin'America Getting Bailout Now, Too
Here's the thing: The federal government arranged for them to acquire the faltering Merrill Lynch. Now it turns out Merrill was more of a liability than thought, and they're getting bailed out too.
So essentially we're paying the costs for BofA to buy a major company.
That said, it's possible the capital infusions either worked or were never necessary in the first place. So can we stop now?
But back to the market problem overall: Investors continue to ignore one of the very brightest spots in the firmament: Namely, the credit freeze is thawing, according to all manner of key interest rates and spreads. In fact, LIBOR is around 1 percent now, back to where it was in the early summer of 2007 before the crunch started. This means that much of the uncertainty about lending, borrowing, investing, and hiring is receding from the market. This is a very positive sign. While retail sales and jobs are lagging indicators, the credit-market improvement is a leading indicator — pointing to recovery in the economy sometime this spring or summer.
Credit has been unfrozen. So let's stop this nonsense now.