If not, who?
And is there any one person that could pull us out of this tailspin?
Volker?
November 19, 2008
Warren Buffett for Treasury Secretary?
If not, who?
And is there any one person that could pull us out of this tailspin?
Volker?
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42 comments:
Not that old closet socialist! As long as we're dreaming I vote Ron Paul. Unfortunately, it will probably be the old Rockefeller field hand Paul Volker....good luck jacking interest rates to 20% this time!
Likely and boring:
1) Sheila Bair
2) Tim Geithner
3) Lawrence Summers
4) Robert Rubin
Market-moving long-shots:
1) Warren Buffett
2) Michael Bloomberg
3) Lou Dobbs
I think it'll be Bair. I hope it'll be Buffett
I say George Soros.
Here's why, this is a man who truely understands what finance is about.
Buffett was surprised that one of his subsidaries had derivatives holdings which were hard to liquidate. Sorry, but that's a thinker of the 1960s and someone who's been knee deep, in finding the next Coca-Cola equity than in keeping up with the peers in his industry.
Soros, in many of his writings, has spoken extensively about speculative manias and how market equilibrium is often over/under shot by them. I think he can help in reining in the extremities and speaking the truth about things since he obviously doesn't make money from the 'buy 'n hold' approach which is nonsense for a non-American century.
Lou Dobbs? Warren Buffet?
Hey why not Donald Trump?
Why not Steven Spielberg?
Why not Chuck Norris?
Why not Britney Spears?
Our celebrity obsessed culture has reached such ridiculous proportions.
Look, there's no hero that is going to "save the economy" as Treasury Secretary. What we need is someone who will just get out of the way. I would prefer a lazy slovenly beer swilling hick as Treasury Secretary because at least he wouldn't do anything.
David Walker
This could never work.
Buffet's too much of a stand up guy for the office. On his first day he would have to tell us how totally f'd the country is financially.
No, better keep someone like Paulson, or maybe even better, Bercracky.
I would much prefer Volker over Buffett.
I don't want someone with such close ties to Wall Street in charge, do you?
Buffett is a smart guy, but he's a big Wall Street insider. He was a big cheerleader of Paulson's $700B heist of US taxpayers to bailout the Wall Street frat boys.
We need to get the investment bankers' hands off taxpayer's money.
Vokler would be an excellent choice. He has the integrity needed for that position.
"Not that old closet socialist! As long as we're dreaming I vote Ron Paul. Unfortunately, it will probably be the old Rockefeller field hand Paul Volker....good luck jacking interest rates to 20% this time!"
If you are referring to Warren Buffett as a closet socialist, then sir, you need to go and stick your head in a microwave and fry the last remaining brain cells you have left. Warren Buffett did not become the richest man in the world because of devine intervention or inheritance, he made it through capitalism.
However, that being said, he also seems to be wise enough to know that when things go way out of balance, capitalism becomes distorted as it is right now.
I would love to see him as Treasury secretary, simply because of his ability to predict trends long in to the future, and understand cause and effect. This alone would build confidence and restore some balance.
Balance is something that is sorely needed in ALL aspects of the world stage right now. When there is no balance you get bubbles and busts as the pendulum continues to sway.
Like her or hate her, Sheila Bair did more with Indymac and their massive default issue than Paulson and his entire Treasury has done in two years of crisis. I would like to see her find a way to put that Perry guy in a orange jump suit though....
Geithner from what I understand is the clown that decided to let Lehman fail, but save Bear Stearns. That was clearly not a good decision. If he gets in be prepared for more picking and choosing who lives and who dies with little standard criteria or transparency.
Realistically Robert Rubin or Summers would probably be the best overall choices in my humble opinion.
Volker is too old. His ghost will still hover about though.
Paul Adolph Volcker
how about this for a "reach across the aisles" pick....Mitt Romney
Can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST? The Dems screamed bloody murder when Rumsfeld and Cheyney became cabinet secretaries and had previous ties with big Pharma and the dreaded Haliburton. F-ing Buffett has ties to everything domestic and foreign!
Hell, why not be done with it and put Bill Clinton in at Treasury. The whole Obama administration is crawling with Clinton pukes.
Change we can believe in?
Bair? Oh no, she's the worst.
She thinks homedebtors are her poor helpless little sheep, that she has to bring in from the economic storm that no one could foresee.
David Walker, my personal hero, was on my short list but too unlikely
Mitt Romney was also on the list, but he and Obama don't agree on anything, so a non-starter
Sheila Bair is an incompetent mamby pamby bail out the housing gambler puss, so I'd be REALLY disappointed if she gets it. So yes, she's the favorite
Volker would be funny. His first stint he had to clean up for an incompetent idiot by raising rates and deflating. This stint he'd have to clean up for an incompetent idiot by pumping trillions into the economy and inflating.
Oh, and Geithner - he got us into this mess. If he gets it, it'll show Obama really doesn't yet know what's happened and who is to blame.
This will be the biggest pick.
We'll see.
Not even Warren can save things now - it is too late, the bond market is pricing in a depression worse than 1932. . .DOW to 800. . .I guess someone will just pick up the pieces, and organize the soup kitchens.
Read this from Bloomberg:
Prices are in a virtual freefall,'' said Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of money management firm Fridson Investment Advisors in New York.
Depression-Level Defaults?
``Either the market is right and expecting a default rate considerably higher than it was in the Great Depression, or we have such profound dislocations and selling pressures going on that it really is creating extraordinary fundamental value.''
Bair is now on record saying NO to principal reductions, thank god. If that happens, I quit. Seriously, I'll quit. Because the US will no longer be a nation of laws or contracts. And I'd just give up. Wasn't McCain for principal reductions?
Here's the transcript:
Kudlow: Let me just ask you, because we’ve heard several of these kinds of proposals -- the Treasury, Fannie, Freddie and so forth -- are you going to be reducing the principal amount on the home loan?
Bair: No. The IndyMac protocol does not do that. Most of the pooling and servicing agreements, they provide wide flexibility to modify loans, but most do prohibit principal write-downs, or make it very difficult. So this protocol is based on making an affordable payment, not reducing principal, but getting to an affordable payment, again, through interest rate reductions, extended amortization, and in some cases, principal forbearance, meaning that some amount of the principal might be permanently deferred. But if the loan was refinanced, or the house was sold, it would have to be paid back at that time.
http://www.kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/
Oh, I saw a different interview with Bair where she said that 50% of Indymac loans - they couldn't even find the person who held the loan.
Think Casey Serin times a million.
Mortgage fraud used to be a crime in America. It isn't today. And Michael Perry with Indymac still roams free. The biggest mortgage fraudster in world history.
The federal government is powerless to fix this mess. It can only be fixed when businesses and people, acting in their own self-interest, take appropriate actions to provide and consume the right products and right services. No one knows in advance what that looks like; the market has to figure it out by itself, and that takes time. Based on the size of this mess, we're looking at a decade at least.
Handing out money only prolongs the current behaviors, which will in turn postpone the recovery.
We need a Treasury secretary who will resist the temptation to fix things; one who will in fact do nothing at all. The ideal candidate is lazy, has no connections, harbors no political ambitions, has no empathy for the suffering of others, and will spend most of his time on vacation. A real Let-em-eat-cake kind of guy.
I therefore believe that I am the best man for the job.
Why would we want to pull out, Keith?
Trust the market.
We sure as shit trusted it on the way up.
former lehman ceo.
count on it.
or another former senator.
stephanoplous?
i think we need some clinton admin blood in the BO administration.
Howard Dean?
Peter Lynch?
bloomberg....
jim cramer needs to step up and do his patriotic part....
Why would Buffett want the job?
Can you pick stocks? - no
Pretend to be a regular guy? - no
Ego boost? - I think not
Altruism? - see Ego boost
It is gonna be someone boring, because anyone smart knows there is nothing left for the fed to do (except to defend the US$).
Yes, by all means, hire the guy that just sank 5 billion into Goldman Sachs stock at $115. Closed today at $55. Maybe it shoots the moon as we attempt to reflate, maybe not.
"keith said...
David Walker, my personal hero, was on my short list but too unlikely."
I agree Keith. For those that do not recall the name, run, don't walk to the nearest store and rent or buy I.O.USA ASAP.
WAtch and Weep and see what 8 years of chaeting, lying and stealing have accompished.
David Walker is much too smart to get involved and the Government is too stupid to ask/beg him.
DIE U PIGS
David Walker; now there's a name that brings a tear to my eye and a quiver to my lip.
What would I have said that he didn't -- to no f***ing avail!
Q: How do you get to 50 trillion dollars of debt over 25 years time?
A: 2 trillion at a time...
The future... IS NOW!
Bring back Volcker.
This downturn is much worse than the 70's, but he's the only hope we have.
Volcker is someone with common sense who can make decent decisions as Treasurer-not like the operative Paulson.
The Wizard of Oz. As for me, I am searching for Dorothy's shoes to get out of here. The Party is so over.
anon said: "I would prefer a lazy slovenly beer swilling hick as Treasury Secretary because at least he wouldn't do anything."
In all seriousness, that's probably the wisest choice of all.
People keep saying "they need to do something". But people forget that "doing something" is how we got into this mess to begin with.
I think letting the free market deal with this mess is FAR better than more government screw-ups.
Either way, the economy is not going to get better anytime soon.
By the way - interesting article about Buffett here:
http://tinyurl.com/5bln96
Seems as though he is losing his "oracle" status. Seems like a bunch of these smart billionaires have made some pretty stupid decisions over the last few years (Icahn, etc).
Volker, he's the go to guy when someone else screws it all up. He'd say no though, since he's not a complete idiot (what's the up side?)
Buffet is just another investor who has lost about 50% this year... And still that cult of personality refuses to die.
We need superman!
He can use his super powers to blow all the debt into a big pile and then freeze it with his super breath and then push it into the sun.
That is of course if the debt pile be so big that it puts out the sun! Then we'd all be wanting to kill superman.
After sleeping on it, the one name that REALLY stood out for me is...
Bloomberg
Adolph Hitler.
Although some might confuse him with recently indcted President Dick Cheney...
DIE U PIGS
WAtch and Weep and see what 8 years of chaeting, lying and stealing have accompished.
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well, you are a johnny come lately. it has been going on for longer than 8 years. we have been on this path since FDR. GW lit the fuse to the powder keg that all previous administrations had been stoking with debt.
I have Warrens soul.
Paul O'Neill knows the time of day. I can't think of anyone else who isn't in on it in some way, Buffet included.
SCAMERS THE ALL
How about Nader?
You guys are lame. Paul Krugman? Nobody once mentioned Paul Krugman?
.
Great!
Mr. 'get rich on peoples fear'
he'll care for us!
.
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