Comments on: Oval Office Gang Bang

By: Vodkapundit » Money Money Money

Vodkapundit » Money Money Money — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:55:50 +0000

[...] bring him up because one of my regular readers – and a smart guy, too – had this to say about GM’s bondholders getting screwed by the President: Someone is going to get screwed, but [...]

By: McGehee

McGehee — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:49:38 +0000

But I think saving literally millions of jobs is a bigger confidence-builder than bailing out billionaires.

And you wouldn’t be wrong — but as Stephen and rbj have already pointed out…

By: rbj

rbj — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:27:07 +0000

Um, Jon, capital gains refers to stocks, specifically increase in value of stocks. It does not refer to bonds. A bond is essentially a loan of money.

Oh, and a lot of bond holders are small investors, not millionaires or billionaires.

By: Stephen Green

Stephen Green — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:41:17 +0000

Jon –

Under the law, bondholders get theirs back first during bankruptcy. Stockholders get equity (and decision-making power) in a corporation; bondholders don’t. What they get instead is, security. If a company goes tango-uniform, bondholders get paid first, for the reasons just described.

Their security has been taken away, by fiat, for no reason other than other people — who did have a say in the performance of the company — are more politically connected.

Sorry, but your bitterness is misdirected and sadly ignorant.

By: jon

jon — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:40:53 +0000

Someone is going to get screwed, but I have a hard time coming up with a whole lot of sympathy for those bondholders. All those years of hearing about how they shouldn’t be taxed for capital gains at the same rate as people who work for a living has made me realize that it’s about fucking time that that “risk” they used to justify that difference probably should bite them on the ass in this instance. GM was a bad investment, and the government is being told that millions of jobs are less important than bond portfolios?

I’m empathetic to their plight, but I’m not sympathetic. Yeah, yeah, I’ll hear about confidence in the markets. But I think saving literally millions of jobs is a bigger confidence-builder than bailing out billionaires. It would be nice if we could do both, but it was the billionaires that got themselves into this mess. Bad investments have consequences.

By: frank martin

frank martin — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:02:31 +0000

any idea what the political affiliation is of the 25?

By: Beth Donovan

Beth Donovan — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:45:05 +0000

Sigh.

There has to be something that can be done to stop this madness. And the damned Republicans bicker with each other like middle-school-aged girls.

If it would not hand the next Congress to the Dems, I’d say – time for a third party.

But that will guarantee us more Obamanomics and Rev. Wright’s wish of G*d-Damn America, because that is exactly what Obama is doing – damning us to a third world existence.