Andrew Ross Sorkin on Charlie Rose
Monday, January 5th, 2009
On Thursday (8 p.m.), catch the premiere of It’s the Economy, NY — What’s Happening and What it Means to You, a new seven-part series hosted by New York Times business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Guests in the premiere episode: Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO of Forbes, and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine and former Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons.
If you recall seeing Mr. Sorkin before, it may be because he’s made many appearances on Charlie Rose. Here are a few of the more recent interviews:
Sorkin on the future of the “Big Three” automakers (11/19/08):
A discussion about the crisis on Wall Street (9/15/08):
A discussion about Yahoo and Microsoft (5/5/08):
See all interviews with Sorkin on the Charlie Rose site.
Yeah, he’s a real talent. Where was he on forecasting the economic crisis? Too busy lunching at Michael’s, one would guess, with the various media titans whose butts he kisses.
Is any government unit, federal or state, investigating the liklihook of prosecuting one or more individuals for actions leading to the collapse of the economy, specifically the fraudulent mortgages granted, and then the sale and resale of the bundled bonds? As has been said, “These brokers did to the US what Osama Bin Laden could only dream of doing.”
Thank you.
Here’s your next story -
What’s the guarantee that banks will loan money if (by some miracle) these ‘toxic’ assets are purchased and taken off their books? Geithner wants to prescribe what the gov’t will do but doesn’t proscribe bank behavior. Huh?
With Citigroup at $1/sh, even AFTER they’ve unloaded their ‘toxicity’ into a new ‘bad bank’ holding co. - they’re still not lending, and they’re still screwing people with Citi Credit Cards.
Even Larry Summers could only say that the gov’t DOING NOTHING would be much worse than this ‘plan’. A ringing endorsement!
Bama should follow-up this ‘plan’ (PE bribe) with 1) a freeze on foreclosures for AT LEAST the duration of 2009, and 2) across the board refinancing of all mortgages at a fixed 6% rate for the next 10 yrs. The taxpayer has, at the VERY LEAST just bought ourselves THAT.
By the way, to call these ‘Legacy’ Assets is a direct insult to the taxpayer that’s funding this bribe to PE firms. My mortgage payments are very real. No ‘Legacy’ about them.
If the gov’t offers to refinance any and all mortgages at a fixed rate of 6% with a 10 yr. duration - across the board - we could easily fund Social Security and Medicare with the proceeds.
Banking IS a very lucrative game - and it’s the second oldest profession in the world. It’s really very simple. Don’t let these Wall St. guys blind you with ’science’. You lend money, and people pay you back with interest. Period. Even the gov’t should be able to manage THAT.
A 10 year payment stream from millions of mortgages goes a long way to paying off the defecits that Geithner’s just created for us to overcome. TBill rates are WAY below 6% - and will stay there for awhile.
This concept has massive profit potential - and needless to say, will get 100% public support. Opportunities like this are rare.
Our mortgages comprise the bulk of these ‘toxic’ assets anyway. If the gov’t puts taxpayer losses by fixing their mortgage rates at 6%, you’ve provided anti-venom to the ‘toxic’ - and made $ in the process.
You’ve also freed up taxpayers to breathe (spend) again - which no one will do while their mortgage rates continue to float endlessly to the upside while private equity firms buy these assets (payment streams) at discount rates funded by those same mortgage holders. ????
On the foreclosure side - if you forbid foreclosures you’ve put the (currently plummeting) housing values underlying these ‘toxic’ assets. If you fix those real estate values with a ‘put’ on foreclosures, you’ve also delivered ‘anti-venom’ to the ‘toxicity’ of the securitized asset pools that are currently at issue.
I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that, by all estimates, real estate values are predicted to decline by another 15-30% THIS YEAR.
This fact DIRECTLY impacts how much government ‘guarantee’ you’ll have to bribe the private equity firms with to get them to buy these asset pools.
It’s a no-brainer to save the taxpayer a 15-30% premium by forbidding foreclosures.