Wednesday, November 19, 2008
(Cont'd from above)...

Jim (cont'd):    On the one side, you have Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS*), and Morgan Stanley (MS*)... These are analogies. I am not picking on you individually. There are lots of others I could pick on...

On the other side, it's Chrysler, Ford (F), and General Motors (GM)...

You know that you have the resources to save only so many patients... and all of them are bleeding... So, what do you have to do? You have to triage... There's only so much plasma in the building. The doctors... are the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. They feel strongly that the bank patients need to be protected at all costs. They don't care that they're Wall Street gangsters. No. Perhaps it's because they're familiar with the gangsters... they're friends... they hang out at the same clubs... they work together. They were alumni. They still are... they play golf...

Or, on the other hand... perhaps... you know, let's give them their due... It's because the banks fulfill a vital function. They make loans to businesses, who maybe make loans to you... although, try getting one... They make loans to retailers, to credit card users... They make fatuous loans to casino operators and, obviously, they make loans to anyone who wants to build a building...

The Treasury Secretary actually went outside the emergency room to the big hospital, and asked for a ton of extra plasma... that's money, if you're not following along... to help homeowners refinance mortgages, to help get them off the books of the banks... How great was that... but that isn't where he put the plasma. He took the plasma and he gave it to the rich patients... again, in the metaphor... the Wall Street gangsters... And thank you for "Dissembling Hank" Paulson... no longer "Hammering Hank"... because you told us you'd do one thing that would fix the mortgage problem, root and branch. Instead, you just gave it to the banks...

Well, okay, that isn't stopping their stocks from getting crushed. The banks were killed harder than anything other than the homebuilders today...

Here's the bottom line...

●  ●  ●  ●  ●

Jim's comments AFTER the interview:     I'm being serious, down 427... I got your attention, okay... Nothing focuses the mind like down 427, or an execution... Both the autos and the bankers must be saved. They're repugnant, we hate them, we don't the same room with them, the same country club with them... the same movie theater with them. We don't want to be down the block from them, we don't want to swim at the Y with them... We want them out of the Elks Club!... But we've got to give them money. And if that means forcing the banks to accept federal help, and slash their dividends or bonuses, or wiping out the common stock of the automakers, that's fine by me... as long as we keep the businesses running, the patients alive and we stop the Great Depression!

 

Read Jim's next Segment here