Another Nobelist Dissents: Stiglitz calls Geithner plan 'robbery of the American people'

[BurtWorm]

http://www.cnbc.com//id/29848741

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers: Stiglitz


The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.

"The Geithner plan is very badly flawed," Stiglitz told Reuters in an interview during a Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to wipe up to US$1 trillion in bad debt off banks' balance sheets, unveiled on Monday, offered "perverse incentives", Stiglitz said.

The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors, he said.

"Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer."

Even if the plan clears banks of massive toxic debt, worries about the economic outlook mean banks could still be unwilling to make fresh loans, while the prospect of a higher tax burden to pay for various government stimulus plans could further undermine U.S. consumers, he said.

...

[David Dunham]

1. No dinners for Stiglitz at the White House for the next 8 years

[flyarm]

2. Robbery?? who is kidding who here..

this new plan is the bush and Paulson plan..that Obama helped lobby for..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNu9xjUwPEk

ahhhaaahaaaahaaahaaa..where is Conyers when his states vote was stolen and now Obama laughs his ass off about the auto industry loans..ahhhhhhhhahahahahhhhhahahaha..how are those job losses??? ..ahhhahahahahahhhhhaaaaahhhahhhahha..how are those "folks" who can't feed their kids and are turned out into the streets with no auto jobs and no homes???..aaaaahhhahahahahahahhahaha..

maybe Conyers and Obama are smokin a good toke in the back room..aaaaahhhhahahahahaahahaha..got me in freaking stitches here..

..aaaahhhahahahahahahahaha..i just got the wild jollies..aaaahahahahahahahahahahaha..

pass the toke,..I need a toke to not cry!!!!!!!!!

[Octafish]

18. Ttsssssssss up up up fup...

... ehhh ya go.

[bridgit]

3. This is what I mean about economists, they're so detached; the American people have already...

*been* robbed, everyone knows that. Economists have had a good run running things, games & theoretical models in primary absentia for a long time. There's little handle on this stuff and they know it otherwise they'd have said so instead of *now* telling everyone they've been robbed. I think it's time for Nobel Prize Winning Economists to be still as a calm placid mountain lake for a time while they absorb what is a whole new set of modeling tools forming before their eyes

[girl gone mad]

8. Wow.

:crazy:

[bridgit]

9. You're right, it's better to be paid by the column inch

:eyes:

[BurtWorm]

10. Krugman and Stiglitz predicted the disasters before they happened.

They were Cassandras then. I fear they're Cassandras now.

[bridgit]

11. Yes...but now it is imo time to wait and see...

My husband isn't even an economist, he predicted so much of this stuff it's uncanny and he's just a systems engineer go figure

[BurtWorm]

13. When Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz are nervous, I am nervous.

I wish the Obama people would find a way to make us less nervous. Just assuring us that they can quickly regroup if they find out they're wrong would be a start.

[bridgit]

16. Sadder to agree but *that's* a fair statment...

:scared:

[LeftHandPath]

4. Rewarding fraud, and punishing savers...

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. Heads they win, tails we (the taxpayer) lose.

The only way to fight is to take your money out of all the national banks and only deal with your local credit unions.

http://www.ncua.gov/

Unfortunately, the criminals in our banks have bought and paid for the criminals in our government.

[Supersedeas]

6. you do get that feeling -- that the game is fixed so we fight their wars/pay their taxes/bailout

their bad debt.

[Critters2]

20. Switched to a credit union a month ago.

I feel much better about this choice.

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. So much for "Main Street", eh?

Fuck an A, this is highway robbery!

[girl gone mad]

7. He's right.

Now he can go on DU's "enemies list" with the rest of them.

[leftofthedial]

12. Indeed it is theft.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. clearly this economist is also rush limbaugh or a freeper or maybe its a vast nobel prize conspiracy

against geithner

[bridgit]

17. "a vast nobel prize conspiracy"

:spray:

[Gormy Cuss]

24. Here, let me join you.

:spray:


WTF do these economists know anyway, especially that Stiglitz guy who used to be chief economist for the World Bank?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

25. its going to be my new motto "vast nobel prize conspiracy against obama"

[thereismore]

15. Sadly, I agree. Banks get to wipe their debt off, and we get the shitty end of the stick. nt

[Critters2]

19. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like a good idea

to listen to people with Nobel prizes. For some reason.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. not if you believe there is a vast nobel prize conspiracy agaist obama

:P

[Critters2]

23. !

:rofl:

[xchrom]

21. +13