Temporary Car Insurance For Under 21 - Car Insurance

Bair Attacks Too-Big-to-Fail as Enforcer Geithner Must Trust

29.05.09

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Sheila Bair , chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and a lifelong Republican, boarded Air Force One for the first time in February. Neither President George H.W. Bush nor his son, President George W. Bush , had invited her on the world’s most famous jet in the five years she worked for them. It was a Democratic president, Barack Obama , who asked her to fly to Washington after the two had unveiled his administration’s foreclosure relief plan in Mesa, Arizona.

“Sheila, come on back. I want to talk to you,” Obama told Bair, who was seated in the plane’s conference room. He then escorted her into his airborne Oval Office for their first private meeting, where they discussed the government’s role in alleviating the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

“It was great,” Bair says of her meeting with the president. “He’s got an agenda which we share. Banks are a means to an end. You stabilize the banks to support the economy. But you don’t stabilize the banks for the sake of stabilizing the banks.”

Source: Bloomberg

GMAC sells $4.5 bln bonds in 1st govt-backed deal
Reuters - Jun 03, 2009
GMAC has received $12.5 billion in government infusions since December, including $7.5 billion on May 21, aimed at boosting credit to car buyers and bolstering GMAC's capital position. (Reporting by Tom Ryan; Editing by Dan Grebler)GMAC to sell first FDIC-backed debt - IFR

Bair attacks too-big-to-fail as enforcer Geithner must trust - Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach Post,  United States - Jun 06, 2009
Bair attacks too-big-to-fail as enforcer Geithner must trustLawmakers also approved a temporary boost of the credit line to $500 billion. A self-described "populist," Bair has won allies in the...

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Extending Unemployment Benefits

12.07.10

It’s been a while since I looked at hard unemployment insurance data, but I seem to recall that when the insurance lasted 26 weeks, some high percentage (80%? 90%?) of the people taking advantage of unemployment insurance were “able to find” new jobs in their 25th, 26th, or 27th week after applying for unemployment insurance. Hmm, coincidence? Hardly, I think.

I’ve heard the argument in favor of unemployment insurance, which is essentially what Mr. Hammermesh stated above… the need to maintain “aggregate consumer demand” in our economy. We want the unemployed to maintain their consumption demand so that businesses aren’t forced to cut back due to a decrease in demand, etc.

However I feel like this is kind of a short-sighted argument. Unemployment insurance is just another form of forced income redistribution… those who are employed are subsidizing those who are unemployed, creating skewed incentives for both sides (why work when I can get paid to not work?). Let’s also not forget that unemployment insurance requires going through the government laudry machine; in other words, $1 given out in unemployment insurance requires more than $1 to be taxed from an employed person.

Source: New York Times (blog)