Comments on: All socialists now?

By: John Larkin

John Larkin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:53:16 +0000

Well, the Australian government has taken steps. Australia will guarantee all bank deposits for three years. It will also guarantee wholesale funding to Australian banks in an effort to fight the global credit crisis. The Sydney Morning Herald article pointed out that the government “… will also double the funds available for mortgage-backed securities to $8 billion to help maintain liquidity for non-bank lenders.” It is a Labor government although in recent decades the economic policies of the Labor government were more akin to those of the business backed Liberal government.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:53:14 +0000

I was hoping to live long enough to see the US adopt some Socialist ideas into politics, I just didn’t expect it to happen like this, or this quickly. Yikes.

By: HH

HH — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:50:19 +0000

Any documented, deliberate, material misrepresentation of facts should be a permanent bar to appointment to government office or hiring to a managerial position. As long as liars are allowed to lead, we will be led by liars. Both Capitalism and Socialism function tolerably well when directed by honest people. When knaves are in leadership positions, both systems fail and society suffers. The great taboo in America today is to acknowledge that we have been led into this disaster by what Hunter Thompson called “A Generation of Swine.”

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:28:07 +0000

Yeah, except it’s a false dichotomy nowadays. “Public” means “contracted out to politicians’ friends.” It’s really just another Republican wealth redistribution.

By: JLS

JLS — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:43:34 +0000

“Inevitably, the US, Britain and Europe are going to end up with nationalised banking systems in one form or another”

Not in France I think.

We are a free enterprise country.:-)

By: peter ramus

peter ramus — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:33:08 +0000

John, you’ll see that I called for nationalization of the financial sector at your co-blogger’s other (recently resumed) blog (at comment #12) a week ago. Naturally I’m pleased to see that someone who’s actually qualified to address the issue agrees with me.

And now I’m really worried.

By: Ahistoricality

Ahistoricality — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:54:35 +0000

As my father says, there’s nothing so permanent as a temporary solution.

So, is this a revolution? Or just evolution?

By: HH

HH — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:13:02 +0000

At least we won’t have to rename Bank of America. We will also save quite a bit of salary expense by substituting dishonest civil servants for dishonest private sector employees.