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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (32611)	2/12/2009 9:01:13 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Lending Lesson Congress still doesn't know where loans come from FEBRUARY 12, 2009 Yesterday members of the House Financial Services committee hauled in CEOs of banks receiving TARP funds to explain why they aren't lending the money. The CEOs largely rejected the premise. J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon said, "Our consumer loan balances increased by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, while overall personal consumption expenditure in the country decreased by 2.3% over the same period. That is to say, we lent more even as consumers cut back on their spending during the quarter." Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf noted that in the fourth quarter his bank increased loans to students, businesses, farms, and commercial real estate by double-digit rates. Yesterday's testimony tracks the numbers reported by the Federal Reserve, which show that lending by U.S. banks and other depository institutions increased in the fourth quarter, despite accusations that banks aren't putting TARP money "on the street." What the politicians don't seem to realize is that commercial banks provide little more than 20% of credit in the economy, as Bert Ely recently noted in these pages. Nonbank lending, including investor purchases of asset-backed securities, is still the missing ingredient in our markets. Alas for Congress, those investors don't make ripe targets for the TV cameras at the witness table. online.wsj.com

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (32611)	2/12/2009 9:06:37 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 71588

"Abolish legal tender laws and see whose money people trust." I'm all for E-Gold (and similar private hard money schemes). Too bad the government (Treasury agents) have been arresting everyone who tries to promote such a concept. (They even backed Pay-Pal down some years ago in this regard....)

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (32611)	2/12/2009 11:13:21 PM
From: RMF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Peter, I can just see it now.. ALL state Tax returns filed in Indiana would ask for their refunds in gold/silver and Indiana would end up running their printing presses overtime to send out all those "equivalent electronic receipts" rather than any gold or silver. Then Indiana would go broke chasing after gold or silver in the open markets to satify all those receipts. The problem in the U.S. hasn't been caused by "fiat money", it's been caused by spending more fiat money than we take in year after year. The Chinese use "fiat money" called the Yuan and their money hasn't lost its value, if anything, they've had to artificially keep the value of their money DOWN in relation to other currencies.