All support documents in PDF
Third Saturday Seminar 2012-2013
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom
Session 09
The Great Bailout Debate
David Stockman vs. Paul Krugman
(How do you prove a negative?)
Saturday, 15 June 2013
9:30AM til 12:00 noon
Room 310 ,The University Center
3232 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384
936.273.7510 or 936.321.4500
Note the venue change for this meeting.
There will be a Third Saturday Seminar meeting on 15 June 2013. We will meet at the University Center in Room 310. (It’s not in the catalog; please pass it on to others that might not get this email. Please see Special Note) FYI Lone Star College is closed on Friday/Saturday/Sunday during the summer. However, Donna Smith-Burns has booked room 310 at the University Center for us. It seats 56.
There will be a sign in the University Center lobby and also on the computer monitor
The University Center is on the Lone Star Campus. It has it’s own marked entrance off Tx 242 between the LSC-Montgomery Main and West entrances.
The following may be useful if you haven’t been to the University Center.
Campus Tour
University Center – Floor plans
LSC Montgomery-Map (University Center = Building “I”)
There will be no meeting in July or August.
A Special Note: Some people who normally received the previous notice may not get this one. My Computer experienced a total hard drive crash and guess who hadn’t backed up his system. As luck would have it I did have a copy of the email list from August 2012, and I have been able to reconstruct some of the recent members, but some people will be missed. If you see people you recognize from the Seminar please remind them about this meeting. Also if you have sent me email since August 2012, it now is gone to that big buffer in the sky. I apologize for the inconvenience. I’m trying to reclaim it but not much hope.
Now to the Program for Saturday.
I was raised believing strongly in the principles of a Free Market. I was vocal when our executive and Congressional policymakers, with the vicious bullying harassment of Paulson and Barney Frank fell all over themselves to grant the financial corporations $800 billions, followed surreptitiously by the Fed issuing another $16 trillions of freshly printed money which has inflated the stock market and punished all of America’s prudent savers by not letting them make any interest on their savings and investments.
It has always been my opinion that if those financial houses that foolishly risked their stock holder’s money were allowed to fail, millions would of course scream and wail.
But, we would have quickly recovered because the surviving businesses would not be held back by the failed ones.
But the perpetrators would not be denied!
It really hurt to see grown bankers pouting like two year olds, stamping their feet and demanding our money, after all, they were the ones that ran the ship aground in the first place.
And it hurt even more when they succeeded! They seduced the public again!
And Of course when something doesn’t work, the Fed doubles down with QE3 (Qualitative Easing 3) to pour even more money into an economy that has no use for it.
If we had let market forces work, we would have been a lot healthier a lot sooner, because we would have removed a lot of deadwood from the financial gene pool.
The community of investors who still had money would have been a lot smarter when they went to reinvest and chosen more worthy investments.
What the Princes of Princeton and all their sycophants in government have done is to guarantee that America’s Agony (and that of people of the world) will continue for a lot longer.
They have put us at risk of inflation unless they can claw back the money that hasn’t found a valid use.
This last week I happened to catch two short interviews of David Stockman and Paul Krugman by Paul Solman of PBS.org
Here they are (I bet you can figure out which one I agree with more.)
Then finally, keep in mind: How do you prove a negative?
Former Reagan Budget Director Argues Against Bailouts, for Financial Discipline
(8:06 min) CONVERSATION, AIR DATE: June 4, 2013
SUMMARY: In “The Great Deformation,” David Stockman, former budget director under President Reagan, makes an argument against government economic intervention. Economics correspondent Paul Solman interviews Stockman on why he believes the U.S. bailout of banks after the 2008 financial meltdown perpetuates an unfair economic system.
alternate version here on YouTube
Paul Krugman on Why David Stockman Is a Crank
(7:39 min) Paul Solman recently sat down with with Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman.
“Earlier we (Solman) posted an excerpt from our interview with David Stockman, the former politician and businessman who’s out with a much talked about book, “The Great Deformation.” Stockman made the case that the 19th century American economic system was far superior to today’s thanks to “sound money,” “fiscal discipline,” and “free markets.” Nobel Prize-winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman begs to differ.”
alternte version here on YouTube
Note: Both Stockman and Krugman are liberal with sharing their beliefs and conservative when it comes to backing them up with facts, figures and history.
It’s hard to prove a negative.
But the conversations are animated enough and Solman shows enough knowledge of what Stockman and Krugman have said in defense of their opinions to make it interesting; yet see how watersheds are deftly avoided when intellectual territory is challenged. Neither one has the final answer. That is up to the rest of us. It is our responsibility. We have seen how government left to its own devices can make grievous and costly decisions. It is our task to not let ourselves be fooled again and again.
The same hubris that allowed us to go back into the Middle East without a plan also drove our response to the Credit crunch. The Bailout Solution served the interests of the banking community, but not the people.
And as usual we will start with 45 minutes of Current events:
Jon Stewart: The Chinese Oil Drill, (4:13 min) Tuesday June 4, 2013, Iraq repays America by awarding oil contracts to China.
Things are getting serious in Syria. When Hezbollah declared they would overtly support the Syrian regime, things got ratcheted up fast. The balance got shifted. Why is this significant?
Immigration bill goes to the floor of the Senate. What do you think? Is it possible for our government to enforce the provisions of whatever law results? Remember Reagan’s Amnesty in 1986, the hiring restrictions were not enforced consistently. Will whatever provision that are included in a law that might result serve the interests of all Americans fairly and with justice, or will politicians simply cave in to a desire to woo new voters and corporate interests while spewing platitudes of compassion. This bill is the work of a “Gang of eight.” The Fiscal cliff avoidance effort was led, I believe by a “Gang of Six.” What chance do you think immigration reform has?
Biotech: Beasts that glow in the dark?
Will the term “super power” ever be applicable again? Will a country’s strategic military assets ever be sufficient to dominate another country or regions? Since Korea, America’s enemies have denied her victory or success. Limited war or pseudo wars have only drained America of her resources and her lives, because we have never been able to recognize and deal the reality on the ground. We have had neither the determination nor the resources nor sufficient faith in our own ideals to truly dominate a determined, inferior force or convince him of the advantages of emulating us.
The Arab Spring, wasn’t our idea, but we cheered them on. None that I know of have come anywhere close to a peaceful existence and the elimination of oppression of the weak by the powerful and a peaceful life for all their citizens. Why?
Richard Haass, was interviewed recently by Diane Rehm regarding, “Foreign Policy Begins At Home: The Case For Putting America’s House In Order” (1 hr) “The president of the Council on Foreign Relations says the biggest threat to the United States comes not from abroad but from within. He says that only by getting our own house in order — fixing our crumbling infrastructure, second-class schools and outdated immigration system — will we be able to lead a world that will otherwise be overwhelmed by global challenges, regional conflicts and failed states. Diane and her guest discuss why he believes foreign policy begins at home.”
Our reliable ally, westernized, secular, sophisticated Turkey, now has crowds of people protesting in the streets of Istanbul and the police are controlling them with tear gas and water cannons. The straw that started the camel stampede? A government decision to replace a popular historic park with a shopping mall. Are we missing something?
Surveillance Nation: Thank goodness, that the subject is finally under wide discussion. Even though the reporting is spotty and is a little misleading. We’ll eventually find out that it conceals more than it reveals. Military classification has long been used to cover incompetence and criminality (Which is categorically against regulations, but it’s too convenient not to invoke) and in courts it’s easy to claim “It’s classified.” to deny defendants their constitutional rights. Then we are assured that on the one hand that the massive data collected on individuals will always be protected, we see how easy it was for Wikileaks and Snowden to gain access to information the government claims is sensitive. There is no way to reliably control access or use of this data given the present attitudes of leadership and management.
A comment from last time
Too Much of a Good Thing, Peter Orzag
In an 1814 letter to John Taylor, John Adams wrote that “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That may read today like an overstatement, but it is certainly true that our democracy finds itself facing a deep challenge
Don’t forget about the Mid-Term General Election 4 November 2014, that’s in only 507 days from Saturday.
Come, join the discussion! Let’s see if there is hope!
Academy for Lifelong Learning: LSC-Montgomery
Registration
You can fill out a registration form (at the end of the schedule PDF link above)
and submit it to us at
LSC-Montgomery
Continuing Education/ALL Office Building E (Room 205)
3200 College Park Dr.
Conroe, TX 77384
or get in touch directly
- Phone: 936.273.7446
- Fax: 936.273.7262
- Sorry, no on-line registrations this semester
See you Saturday – Thanks for your support!
DON’T (be) PANIC(ked)
Curt Gibby
Director, Third Saturday Seminar
P. O Box 73207
Houston, Tx 77273
P.S. As usual if anything in this notice doesn’t make sense, please let me know.
(You won’t be the first, I will appreciate it and say, “Thank you,” Curt)