Paulson/Bernanke Quotes: Timeline of Mismanagement

[friendlyskies]

Well, 166 economists have come out against passing it in one day like the stupid Patriot Act, the Congressional Republicans have successfully resisted doing so, looks like Paulson-Bush Bailout Plan has been shelved till Monday at least. Does that scare you? Well, that's because they're trying to scare you. But take a look at Bernanke's and Paulson's previous predictions:

Below is a timeline of quotes from Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke. These two “government officials” have been so wrong in the past, why would anyone listen to their predictions of a pending financial disaster. At best they are completely incompetent, at worst, criminally culpable. Our Congress is considering giving them $700 billion dollars to “fix” things. Please email your elected officials and tell them not to give these cronies $2,333.33 per every American citizen to hand out as they see fit to their private banking buddies. We don’t even have the money, they would need to create more out of thin air which will only increase our debt, further reduce the value of our dollar, leaving more liabilities for our children. Instead let the investors take their losses on their bad bets and prosecute those responsible for fraud. Capitalism works by letting bad companies go bankrupt and letting good companies step in to take their place. We are not Russia, and we are not China. We have plenty of good companies that will come in to fill any lending void. A rejection of any more bank bailouts would be the best long-term solution for our dollar, our economy, our future, our children, and believe it or not, our stock market. Sure some financial company stocks could go down more in value from here, until they reach the price they are worth. That is how free markets are supposed to function. Enjoy and forward to every American you know!

March 13th, 2007 – Henry Paulson: “the fallout in subprime mortgages is "going to be painful to some lenders, but it is largely contained."

March 28th, 2007 – Ben Bernanke: "At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained,"

April 20th, 2007 – Paulson: "I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained." , "All the signs I look at" show "the housing market is at or near the bottom,"

May 17th, 2007 – Bernanke: “While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.”

June 20th, 2007 – Bernanke: (the subprime fallout) ``will not affect the economy overall.''

July 12th, 2007 – Paulson: "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."

August 1st, 2007 – Paulson: "I see the underlying economy as being very healthy,"

October 15th, 2007 – Bernanke: "It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions."

February 14th, 2008 – Paulson: (the economy) "is fundamentally strong, diverse and resilient."

February 28th, 2008 – Paulson: "I'm seeing a series of ideas suggested involving major government intervention in the housing market, and these things are usually presented or sold as a way of helping homeowners stay in their homes. Then when you look at them more carefully what they really amount to is a bailout for financial institutions or Wall Street."

February 29th, 2008 – Bernanke: "I expect there will be some failures. I don't anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system."

March 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "We've got strong financial institutions . . . Our markets are the envy of the world. They're resilient, they're...innovative, they're flexible. I think we move very quickly to address situations in this country, and, as I said, our financial institutions are strong."

Mar 18th, 2008 - Bear Stearns Bailout Announced

May 7, 2008 – Paulson: 'The worst is likely to be behind us,”

May 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning," he said.

June 9th, 2008 – Bernanke: Despite a recent spike in the nation's unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a "substantial downturn" appears to have waned,

July 16th, 2008 – Bernanke: (Freddie and Fannie) “…will make it through the storm”, "… in no danger of failing.","…adequately capitalized"

July 20th, 2008 – Paulson: "it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation."

August 10th, 2008 – Paulson: ``We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions.” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)

Sept 8th, 2008 - Fannie and Freddie nationalized. The taxpayer is on the hook for an estimated 1 - 1.5 trillion dollars. Over 5 trillion is added to the nation’s balance sheet.
September 16th, 2008 - $85 Billion AIG Bailout “Loan”
September 19th, 2008 - $700 Billion Bailout Plan Announced

September 19th, 2008 – Paulson: "We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."

September 19th, 2008 - Bernanke: "most severe financial crisis" in the post-World War II era. Investment banks are seeing "tremendous runs on their cash," Bernanke said. "Without action, they will fail soon."

September 21st, 2008 – Paulson: "The credit markets are still very fragile right now and frozen", "We need to deal with this and deal with it quickly.", "The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing."

September 23rd, 2008 – Paulson: "We must [enact a program quickly] in order to avoid a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets that threaten American families' financial well-being, the viability of businesses, both small and large, and the very health of our economy,"

September 23rd, 2008 – Bernanke: "My interest is solely for the strength and recovery of the U.S. economy,"

Henry Paulson was the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, the largest Wall Street investment bank, before being nominated for US Treasury Secretary on May 30th, 2006.

Ben Bernanke is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a quasi-public government entity with private (for-profit) components. The Board of Governors is the part of the Federal Reserve System that is responsible for supervising the private banks. The private banks give input to the government officials about their economic situation and these government officials use this input in Federal Reserve policy decisions. In the end, private banking businesses are able to freely run a profitable business while the U.S. government, through the Federal Reserve System, oversees and regulates the activities of the private banks. The board of directors of each Federal Reserve Bank District also have regulatory and supervisory responsibilities. For example, a member bank (private bank) is not permitted to give out too many loans to people who cannot pay them back. This is because too many defaults on loans will lead to a bank run. The punishment for making false statements or reports which overvalue an asset is stated in U.S. Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47, Section 1014(fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.). These aspects of the Federal Reserve System are the parts intended to prevent or minimize speculative asset bubbles which ultimately lead to severe market corrections.

Source;Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federa...y_of_government

To date, no private bank executives have been charged with making false statements or reports which overvalue an asset.

[Kurt]

They are going to force the bailout anyway. Most of politics is figuring out how to get around the impediments to power anyway, so they will force it through with a presidential order or something.

Or else Paulson will just grant it.

[Michael]

At the risk of getting banished to the Tin Foil Hat cafe...I read somewhere else (I like to see what the crazies are saying before I come back to the sanity of the Flag) that Warren Buffet just put $5 billion into Goldman Sachs, Paulson is the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs, Paulson puts together a $700 billion "solution" to the problem, Reid and Pelosi are falling all over each other to get the deal done, and Goldman Sachs is Obama's largest contributor according to OpenSecrets... feel free to call me crazy, but I am not thoroughly convinced that this situation was mismanaged at all...

[goat balls]

At the risk of getting banished to the Tin Foil Hat cafe...I read somewhere else (I like to see what the crazies are saying before I come back to the sanity of the Flag) that Warren Buffet just put $5 billion into Goldman Sachs, Paulson is the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs, Paulson puts together a $700 billion "solution" to the problem, Reid and Pelosi are falling all over each other to get the deal done, and Goldman Sachs is Obama's largest contributor according to OpenSecrets... feel free to call me crazy, but I am not thoroughly convinced that this situation was mismanaged at all...

Yeah, you're crazy. And Paulson is a big time democrat. So are the rest of the wall street fat cats. They're all in bed together with the D.C. democrats screaming about the fat cats on wall street then meeting them on the weekends to cook up shit like low income mortgages. And people still vote for them.

[Jumper]

Ooooh, hey now guys, you don't want to talk about too much politics. The mods might move or delete this thread.

McCain/Palin 08!!!!!