Bloomberg.com: Hundreds of Economists Urge Congress Not to Rush

[dogindia]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNKGD.bJwmRA&refer=home

Hundreds of Economists Urge Congress Not to Rush on Rescue Plan
By Matthew Benjamin

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- More than 150 prominent U.S. economists, including three Nobel Prize winners, urged Congress to hold off on passing a $700 billion financial market rescue plan until it can be studied more closely.

In a letter yesterday to congressional leaders, 166 academic economists said they oppose Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan because it's a ``subsidy'' for business, it's ambiguous and it may have adverse market consequences in the long term. They also expressed alarm at the haste of lawmakers and the Bush administration to pass legislation.

``It doesn't seem to me that a lot decisions that we're going to have to live with for a long time have to be made by Friday,'' said Robert Lucas, a University of Chicago economist and 1995 Nobel Prize winner who signed the letter. ``The situation may get urgent, but it's not urgent right now. Right now it's a financial sector problem.''

The economists who signed the letter represent various disciplines, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, behavioral and information economics, and game theory. They also span the political spectrum, from liberal to conservative to libertarian.

snip

Some lawmakers are already citing the letter as reason not to endorse the Paulson plan. Today Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, said he has ``five pages of the leading economists in America that wrote to me and the leadership saying the Paulson plan is a bad plan. It will not solve problems. It will create more problems.''

[Phredicles]

1. It's becoming all the clearer that the Bush gang tried to stampede congress

into one more humongous loot-fest for their pals

[MidwestTransplant]

2. I wonder what the Republicans think of this. Aren't those the elitists who they like to disregard?

[peacetalksforall]

3. These economists don't understand. Paulson and Bernanke, Cheney et al need

700 billion fast so that there will be an appropriate number of days between their demands - another will be coming soon and will probably be followed by another 400 billion. That's usually the way it's done. Remember the 'invasion funding' (what some call a war). Every couple of weeks you ask for more. The zeros to our individual debt for their crimes are only about zeros being added.

Better yet, why not this? We should let a lot of immigrants dome into the country fast so the immigrants can share in paying off the debt? Since they love us for our freedom, they will love to help us pay the debt by living and working here. Just spread the jobs around. Or better yet - why not bring all the work forces over here - the workers who took over our jobs acan come here. After all, they know quite a bit about us after all, especially if they were on the phones or involved in having to know our culture. They are already familiar with our names and life details.

Since Republicans are viciously against hospital care for the 'Mexicans', we can tell the new immigrants that there is fight going on to warn Mexicans some benefits (even though they pay income taxes like everyone else.) They may want to come anyway.

Or we could tell the new immigrants that even though Moslems are not really welcome (including those who've been here for decades or centuries), we can promise them that we will reduce the volume of targeting for questioning and repatriation if they will help pay off the debt and give those rich guys their crime money. (I'm really bitter tonight, can you tell?)

I think we should submit this idea to our leaders so they can adjust the number of what our debt will be. What's the math if we let 1 million more? 2 million more?

[mzmolly]

4. I hope they'll listen?

:shrug:

[dana_b]

5. I'll bet you McCain uses this to his advantage

"See! it's good that I took control and busted the deal. the economists agree with me!" Sorry - maybe I'm just so negative against him right now that I think he's going to try and manipulate everything to make himself look better.

[tnlefty]

8. You're not alone.

My spouse told me earlier, "They'll find a way to spin this in McCain's favor." This was after I was railing and questioning why the democrats were working on a bailout that the populace is so angry about. :shrug:

[chill_wind]

6. I hope Obama got one of those letters.

Compare and contrast that to the advice he's getting from a guy like Pro_Bailout Warren Buffet ("we're in an Economic Pearl Harbor" -- and whom we're told is one of his advisors) and who thinks Paulson should be kept on into the next administration.

[chill_wind]

7. "They also span the political spectrum, from liberal to conservative to libertarian. "

And I'm all for a broad-spectum bipartisan defeat of The Poison Paulson Plan.

[mmonk]

9. So how many economists are posting on this thread?

[riverdeep]

10. So how long are they talking about?

A month? Till next year when a new President and Congress comes in? You have one group of experts (not just Paulson) saying if something isn't done immediately, the steps to meltdown become irreversible, and another group saying the crisis is contained.

It doesn't seem most of them really know what the hell they're talking about. Maybe we can discount the opinions of those who had no idea this was going to happen. How can we trust their predictive powers about anything including the solution to this?

[OakCliffDem]

11. Kick

[radfringe]

12. here I go talking to a brick wall again

whether it's a bailout or some variation - this is only a stop-gap, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

WHAT'S THE NEXT STEP?

Whatever the solution ends up being (including doing nothing at this point) - then what?

Continue the trickle-down let the markets take care of bullshit that got us into this mess in the first place?

It's been pointed out the last minute, hurry hurry bush-shit is the same MO that was used to get us into Iraq, to pass the patriot act. Both prime examples of not looking beyond the first step and then scrambling to make things up as they go along.

the big question is not do we bail them out or not - the big question is HOW DO WE GET OUR ECONOMY WORKING FOR EVERYONE.

I know it was just political spin when mccain tried to tapdance with the workers are the fundamentals of the economy. However, labor is the fundamental piece of any economy - whether it's an exec at the top or the cleaning lady - it's all about people working, earning money, and spending money.

so while we scream and shout about bailouts and how unfair it is - we should also be asking THEN WHAT.