Platts' reckless decision
As a senior at the Wharton School of Business, I am appalled by Congressman Platts failure to explain the link between Wall Street, the Credit Markets, and the economic impact to the 19th District, in his statement regarding his decision to vote against the $700 bn proposal by Secretary Paulson. He speaks of "putting American taxpayers on the hook" for "reckless action" by Wall Street. Having interned there, I can tell you that Wall Street is not always its own best regulator. However, having studied finance for over 3 years now, I am more appalled at Platts' own "reckless" decision to put the real economy at risk.
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If banks continue to fail and if financial institutions cannot trust that their obligations will be honored by one-another, then they will be less willing to lend. This will result in less production, fewer jobs, and a slowed economy. Risking this result in order to avoid purchasing 700 billion in assets that may carry risk is a trade that my professors would be galled if I even considered. Even Wall Street's worst risk manager couldn't explain that trade to his managers.
Citizens, like markets, do not always have perfect information, so I respect that the Congressman knows something that we do not. However, I feel it is incumbent upon him to at least display an understanding of the link between Wall Street, credit markets, and the real impact to the wallets of York's citizens, something which he failed to do in his statement on Monday.
David Tucker
Class of 2009
Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Candidate for Chartered Financial Analyst Designation
Top economists across the country disagree on this issue, but you, a college student who has "studied finance for over three years now" and "interned" on Wall Street, know the answer. What arrogance! With all of your "experience," you can probably get a job with Obama should he win the White House.
Top economists across the country disagree on this issue, but you, a college student who has "studied finance for over three years now" and "interned" on Wall Street, know the answer. What arrogance! With all of your "experience," you can probably get a job with Obama should he win the White House.
A man stands on the edge of a cliff.
The crowd gathers. "What is he doing ?", says someone.
" He's not doing anything", says another.
"He's got to do something", said yet another.
" Jump! Jump ! " begins the chant of the crowd of onlookers.
The man jumps. The result is predictable.
A child looking on in shock asks himself why couldn't the man that jumped just have turned around and thought it over. Was jumping over the cliff the best solution.
Same thing with "the bailout bill". Hasty decisions never have positive results.
Fixing the problem before bailing out "Wall Sreet " is the solution or we will have the same thing repeated and be as taxpayers $700 billion poorer.
OLD JIM
I sat at the desk of Wharton grad Michael Milken in a Santa Monica warehouse reviewing documents in litigation arising from the Drexel bankruptcy he caused. I don't understand finance and markets as well as these Penn geniuses, but I do know securities fraud when I see it. I don't believe it is responsible public policy to use taxpayer money to buy the bogus derivative securities which investment bankers knew for years were highly risky and would eventually go into default. As Bill Maher asked Larry King, "what could go wrong by giving mortgages to people with no money?"
Ron in Dover said:
Jeff is right. We do not even know what was in the bailout package. I doubt that their was even one Congressman that voted for the package even read the whole thing. there is no gaurantee that the banks are going to take the money and start to lend again. The European banks didn't. They sat on the money.
The sates are now in line with their hands out. CA borrows money on future anticipated tax revenues and they are going to be $11 billion dollars short to operate. MA is short on cash. PA is short $280 million for the last quarter alone. When will it stop. No one is brave enough to stand up and say enough is enough.
The media will spend countless hours and newsprint on what a how a Senator moves his foot in a bathroom stall or what a representative text message, but they will not say how we got into the problem. they can not talk about the issue honestly because it involves African Americans, illigal aliens and Hispancs.
Anyone that thinks this bailout bill will solve the finacial problems is a fool. Wait until the consumer debt and credit card defaults start to hit the system. This was just another ruse for politicians to grab more of our tax dollars.
Platts did the right thing and deserves our thanks. This student of economics is just that, a student, not an expert. Platts has shown once again that he represents the people, not special interests.
Platts did the right thing in voting no on the bailout. This student of economics is just that - a student - not an expert. Platts has shown once again that he represents the people and not special interests.