Banking system health

The world of banking analysis is focusing on the sit­u­a­tion with CIT as the ulti­mate test of banking system health. This isn’t wise, but its the way it is. CIT received $2.3 bil­lion in TARP funds last year, but the gov­ern­ment refused to pro­vide a Read the full story

By Patrick Wood, Editor

Economy

2009 Dumb State­ment Award: “We have to spend money to keep from going bank­rupt.” — Joe Biden, talking to AARP mem­bers. Actu­ally, this was a photo-op gone awry. Most of the atten­dees at the meeting were bussed in. Some, but not all, were AARP mem­bers. The CEO of AARP was there, along with Kath­leen Sebe­lius (Sec­re­tary of Health and Human Ser­vices) and Nancy Ann DeParie (Director, White House Office of Health Reform.) Basi­cally, Biden’s pitch was in order to save the economy, we must pass Obama’s health reform package. If we don’t, he said that “We’re going to go bank­rupt as a nation.” Then he stated,

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bank­rupt?’ The answer is ‘yes’, that’s what I’m telling you.” (Listen to Audio)

What’s even stranger than Biden’s tom­foolery is that the entire meeting was staged from the ground up for some kind of PR stunt. Read the full story