Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (184603)	9/21/2001 2:20:49 AM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769670

That's an interesting perspective and analysis. I see the elements of truth in it. tom watson tosiwmee

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (184603)	9/21/2001 2:59:28 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

So bailing out industries is suddenly a REPUBLICAN thing to do? If so, I've got a few dot-coms that could really use a little federal largesse. Far better if the Bush administration hadn't opposed airline mergers as "anti-competitive" this summer, than propose "industrial policy" now. The airline industry is in drastic need of consolidation, and was losing it's unprofitable ass long before the terrorist attacks. If the attacks hadn't occurred, bankruptcy was only a few months away for several carriers, anyway, and may yet occur... even after a bailout spends your tax receipts. The losers would have been the stockholders, but the flying stock and the routes would still have value, and after reorganization (just as many times in the past), the skys would have been filled with planes operated by the new owners. Only it wouldn't be the taxpayers who were tapped for re-capitalization... it would be the US financial markets. America is not going to start traveling only by Greyhound! Or have Republicans given up on Adam Smith's "Invisible hand"? Are there no Capitalists left? The airline industry already gets HUGE subsidies in the FAA infrastructure and airport construction. Light Rail and High Speed Rail get nothing like that amount of money from the Feds. Reimburse the airlines for the government-sanctioned "taking of property" (the mandated groundings), as the Reagan-lead "Western Conservative" movement used to argue... but don't remove market risk... particularly since the industry itself has been soft-pedaling security for years. Militarize the air marshal program, yes, take that expense away from the airlines.... That can be seen as a proper defensive function for the federal government, but don't supercede market action. Particularly not with Social Security receipts. That Ponzi scheme is already in enough generational trouble, and, as you know, actions like this will forever doom any chance we might have had to privatize S.S.