So this rescue won't bail out the Ship of Fools, but it will make the American Ship of State even more insolvent than it already is. Aggregate US government debt is now running at 92% of GDP (the Federal component is 53%), and another $700 billion will push it closer to 100%. As Michael West concluded yesterday with profound understatement, "America is in trouble".
By Associate Professor Steve Keen, School of Economics & Finance, University of Western Sydney writing in Crikey.
"History does not repeat, but it rhymes," as Mark Twain said.
Peter Hartcher writing in The Sydney Morning Herald
"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down."
George W. Bush quoted ad naseum everywhere
"The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end America's financial crisis. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the White House cabinet room, warnings from an angry President and pleas from a Treasury Secretary who knelt before the House Speaker and appealed for her support.
S.G. Stolberg & A.R. Storkin writing in the Sydney Morning Herald
"The American people are angry about executive compensation and rightfully so," ... "We must find a way to address this in the legislation without undermining the effectiveness of the program."
Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary quoted on executive compensation caps in Time Magazine
"It's the law of unintended consequences."
Charles Elson speaking of executive salary packages and golden handshakes in the Time article.
"I am who I am."
Australian Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, former investment banker and multi-millionaire, quoted in The Canberra Times
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