“Economic history” on The Daily Caller

As politicians continue to debate how to cure our ailing economy, the American people have already made one diagnosis: more government spending is not the antidote to our economic malaise. (more)

Congress will break this weekend not quite done on “financial reform.” A defeat of this bill would help avoid a double dip recession. The bill is dishonest because it does not deal with Fannie or Freddie, the main engines of our collapse. The bill’s deafening silence on these two institutions means it is posturing, not helping. In the short term, which is what you would think Congress cares about, the bill is deflationary because it takes precious capital from the banking industry while cutting alternatives available to consumers. It is not a coincidence that the stock market is breathing heavily and making new lows as the prospects for this “overhaul” have brightened. (more)

For the last few weeks a House-Senate conference committee has been at work trying to craft a final version of a financial regulation package.  One amendment offered within that committee encapsulated the entire debate on regulatory reform, pitting institutionalized bailouts against depoliticized taxpayer protections. (more)

With home sales sliding, employers reluctant to hire and world stock markets gyrating wildly, the U.S. economy is in danger of stalling. Now one of its only reliable sources of fuel is running out: federal stimulus spending. (more)

The landmark overhaul of Wall Street agreed to by Senate and House conferees early Friday morning would enact sweeping new rules on banks and other financial institutions. (more)

What Barack Obama needs now more than anything else is an economic bubble to form early enough to save his presidency. Nothing spectacular about that wish since the American economy has become dependent on economic bubbles in order to generate noticeable growth. (more)

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual city with more houses than Seattle. The mortgage finance companies, created by Congress to help Americans buy homes, have become two of the nation’s largest landlords. (more)

Although Greece’s output is just over two percent of the European Union economy, its financial collapse roiled continental markets and required an international bailout package. Imagine what would happen to U.S. markets if California, which is 13 percent of the national economy, experienced a Greek-style implosion. (more)

U.S and world stock markets are slumping badly as intensified systemic risks from the Greek and European debt-default contagion continue to spread. Disciplinarian markets of stocks, bonds, gold, and currencies are signaling the inadequacy of European Union rescue plans and the global fear that economic recovery will be blunted. (more)

Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican and the ranking Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, gave a final speech on the Senate floor Thursday in advance of the final vote to pass a financial regulation bill, which passed later in the evening. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Wednesday delayed final action on a sweeping financial regulation bill, raising a last-minute obstacle to the legislation as it approached the home stretch. (more)

Senators ought to know they shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep. (more)

The bailout in a rear view mirror: Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has refused to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion in emergency loans from American taxpayers, despite congressional demands and private lawsuits. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to force the Federal Reserve to disclose, for the first time, key details of loans to financial firms during the crisis. The Sanders amendment would require the Fed to provide names of borrowers and amounts of loans on emergency-loan programs that are mostly shut, as well as on its mortgage-backed securities program and arrangements to swap dollars for other currencies with foreign central banks. The measure would cover only loans from December 2007 to the date the law is enacted, wouldn’t apply to future lending and wouldn’t require disclosure of ongoing discount-window borrowings. (more)

In a party-line, 56-to-43 vote Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-backed mortgage giants that even administration officials admit were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis. (more)

The International Monetary Fund board has approved a $40 billion bailout for Greece, almost one year after the Senate rejected my amendment to prohibit the IMF from using U.S. taxpayer money to bailout foreign countries. (more)

President Obama’s tax-cheat treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is trumpeting the fact that General Motors has paid back a small fraction of what taxpayers gave the company, noting that “GM had repaid in full the $4.7 billion balance it owed under the government’s Trouble Asset Relief Program.” “But this so-called ‘repayment’ was just an accounting trick. GM used government bailout money to make the ‘repayment,’ as the New York Times has noted.” (more)

Republicans in the Senate agreeing to allow debate over a financial reform bill is an interesting development in what could amount to a reform of the financial sector not see in this county in roughly 80 years. (more)

In his recent speech on Wall Street, President Obama tried to delegitimize any criticism of his proposed financial regulations and taxes. He said, “What’s not legitimate is to suggest that somehow the legislation being proposed is going to encourage future taxpayer bailouts, as some have claimed. That makes for a good sound bite, but it’s not factually accurate. It is not true. In fact…a vote for reform is a vote to put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts. That’s the truth. End of story.” (more)

Either Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) has learned his lesson concerning voters’ outrage after the recent health care process or he is lining himself up early for another round of a Cornhusker Kickback. After his vote against getting debate going on financial reform legislation, Nelson’s vote echoes the sentiment bellowing through the halls of Congress as a statement that begs the question: (more)

Plutocracy, rule by the rich, is not named for Pluto, god of death, but his spoiled son, Plutus, the personification of wealth. The juxtaposition of a dead economy and bank billionaires makes this lineage apt. (more)