Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Jim Cramer to Geithner: "Lock in the financing now!"
Did anyone see this on CNBC this morning? While questioning Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at the "Seeking Alpha" conference here in NYC, Cramer asked why the U.S. Treasury doesn't "lock in" a bunch of "low interest rate financing" now so that the United States doesn't face the same problem as Europe.
Jesus, I can't believe this. It just keeps getting more and more pathetic.
Um...Jim...you mean dollar financing?
In case you haven't heard, the United States Government is the issuer of the dollar and as such, isn't in need of "financing" nor does it have to worry about any rate that it can't pay. It sets the rate.
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16 comments:
Maybe we can just lock in $5 trillion country equity line of credit, just in case, for a rainy day. You never know.
For just a tad higher interest rate, we could get a no-doc loan and not have to worry about filling out so many forms.
well it's really hard predicting if rates will go much lower than this...especially considering we're the ones setting them!!! LOL
these guys make stupid sound so freaking smart it's frightening. That is the media is a nutshell...make stupid sound smart.
I thought I read somewhere something about wolves in sheep clothing or something....hmmmmm....I wonder where I read that.....
I guess the idea would be for the US to take a loan out on itself...this is crazier than the Fed paying the Treasury back all profits it earns!!!! I mean what would the accounting for this look like exactly!?!?!!
Do corporations buy their own bonds to fund themselves? Is Cramer's head up his ass or is his ass up his head? These are important questions to consider in these serious times fellas.
Cramer's not stupid either so I can't imagine he actually believes this bullshit.
What are we supposed to do... liquidate our Treasury Securities to get the "dollars" to lend back to the government "in advance"? Whaaaaaat?
For Tom: Mike is pointing out another example of this quantitative cognition deficiency (here now in Cramer, but also in Krugman (lend the reserves), Bernanke (lend out the reserves), Obama (we're out of money), Geithner ("profits" for the US Treasury), the whole Congress (borrowing from China), and then it's the same over all Europe, the entire western civilization really) that I referred to on another thread... although tragic, if nothing else, this is fascinating that so many seemingly "intelligent" people have no cognitive skills at all to see the fallacy in their statements about monetary systems.... the scale of this failure of collective human 'intelligence' has to be unparalleled in human history... this has gone on too long to be plain 'dishonesty' imo... these people are just too 'stupid' (Greek: moron) ok if that's too harsh, then they do not possess the quantitiative skills to see their error.... this is a major large scale widespread human deficiency.
matt you really might be right. It makes these men more like great tragic heroes that have a terrible tragic flaw rather than evil greedy monsters in a horror film.
it reminds me of this line by Hamlet in his play. Basically the line states that even just one tiny little flaw in man can destroy him completely no matter how great he may be. Oh how true with these men today!!! Perhaps less paranoia and more pity towards them would help in our cause of rehabilitating them...Randy Wray has seemed to always think they were more stupid than devious.
that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo--
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4, lines 558-664
Craker & Geithner Video here.
I just can't believe they are this uninformed on monetary and fiscal operations. Well maybe I believe Cramer is. These people are not stupid. Which make me wonder if there is really a hidden agenda being propped up and sold to the masses for the benefit of a few players.
this is crazier than the Fed paying the Treasury back all profits it earns!!!! I mean what would the accounting for this look like exactly!?!?!!
Ha ha, it would be awesome if a Member of Congress asked the Internal Revenue Service for their legal opinion-- assume that they came across two private parties with a similar earnings rebate-- how would they'd characterize the ownership interests involved?
Since beneficial income flow to Tsy from Fed-held assets and because Congress created and retains right to abolish the Fed, I imagine (for similiarly situated private parties), the IRS would look to the man behind the man, and deem the US Govt (inclusive of Tsy, the Fed and Congress) to be legal and equitable owner of all Fed-held assets. Which makes including Fed-held Treasuries in the debt ceiling seem rather counter-intuitive.
Were these private parties, the obvious explanation for all this paper shuffling would be tax fraud. But since the govt never owes taxes to itself, the more benign explanation is congressional ignorance.
mario/etf,
Im coming down on the side that doesnt think they are that smart.
If there is this giant cabal of people who are intentionally misrepresenting in order to deceive, although I am not a mental health professional, to take such behavior to this level is I believe textbook psychopathic behavior.
So if you believe that they really know the truth but are intentionally misrepresenting in such a widespread/pervasive fashion over such a long time, then you also HAVE to believe they are all extreme psychopaths.
OTOH, you could believe that they do not possess the quantitative cognition skills to let them see what is really going on, this sort of goes to the point of "innocent fraud" that Warren got from JKG I believe.
but I dont agree with this characterization necessarily as "innocent fraud". Yes it is "innocent" as I believe they actually think they are helping. But 'fraud' to me implies deceit, and I dont think they are being deceitful. "innocent stupidity" or something like that is how I am looking at this... Resp,
I don't know but I think you guys might be right matt and lgid.
yes loud-mouthed and perhaps vain too...I think they like the "limelight" and the attention. They should all listen to Rush more often!!! LOL
Discerning who’s ignorant and who’s bluffing seems simple enough to me - follow the Greenback-Brick Road.
What does Cramer do for a living? He’s an Investment Advisor, right? No- way-Jose. I think chances are good that Cramer’s occupation as defined on his income tax returns reads TALENT. Oh sure, finance and investments is his background and perhaps where his career started. But, today, Cramer is in the entertainment business and whomever is paying the bills (advertisers) ultimately ends up pushing their own agenda(programming.
Remember when beer commercials outnumbered bank commercials? I think if there’s ever been a time when it was at least marginally safe to follow the media masses it was then!
Jimmy: “Why not LOCK in that financing…200 billion dollars…you told me it wa” Timmy cuts in “Yes, we are following your advice.” Wow, gosh, golly, isn’t THAT chummy! It’s friggin nauseating if you ask me. I don’t buy it.
I think we need to do an investigation to find out if government policy is being carteled by our financial sector .
agreed MA...he's got W-2 earnings on his 1040 NOT capital gains (unless he's doing it on the side like everyone else).
Did you see the story/video that the Young Turk put out regarding how/why he got fired from MSNBC or wherever he was working? It was posted up here when it happened....it PROVES this stuff goes on and is completely real.
In a way Cramer is right. Because now is always now. US can always lock in a low rate.
It is not for financing of the future but for now.
but Adam...why (how even?) does the US borrow money from itself?!?! Do corporations buy their own bond issuance to finance their operations? What are they "locking in" exactly? How insane is that? How does that work exactly?
The US owns all US dollars so they can just print/create/use the money. There's no "locking in" anything. Do you "lock in" this breath of fresh mountain air before you head down into the city? No. You just breathe. And the government spends the same way. There's no good or bad time for the government to time in terms of interest rates. One is the checking account, the other is the savings account.
Mario - I get it. That is why I said the US can always lock in a low rate.
They are not locking it for borrowing but for those savers (net financial asset holders) out there.
Mario- Absolutely!
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