Monday, November 24, 2008

Finally- an Economic Bail-In

We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead. President-elect Obama

Most of the "bail-outs" lately have been aptly named. They seem to bail liquidity out of the real sector as if the real sector is weighing down the financial sector when the opposite seems to me more the case.

For whatever reason, the financial sector has not done its job of guiding investment flows such that the real sector can generate the profits which allow job creation, tax revenues and repayment to the financial sector. Bailing-out the financial sector so that it can keep doing what it has been doing seems about as wise as Senator McCain's notion of keeping Greenspan at the helm of the Fed even after death- call it Weekend at Alan's.

Aside from a lack of discussion of a shift towards more rail-based goods distribution in the US, I think Mr. Obama's bail-in plan for the real sector should pay dividends in the future. These dividends may well come at the cost of the loss of global US$ sovereignty but as economists say- there is no such thing as a free lunch.

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