Month: September 2008

Mother of All Bailouts

Bailout_History.gif
Image: Kevin Drum



The image above shows the relative size of Federal bailouts (adjusted for inflation) since the 1970s, starting with Penn Central at the far left, and ending with the Wall Street bailout (estimated) on the far right.
A few things to note: that largish green dot towards the left represents the NYC bailout (yeah, Ford told us to drop dead, but eventually he signed off on a bailout to the tune of $2.3 billion ($9.4 billion today)). Above and to the right of that is a blue dot representing the Chrysler bailout ($1.5 billion then, $3.9 billion now). In all, those two rather iconic bailouts are relatively small potatoes.
And that huge magenta circle? The S&L bailout of 1989 (almost $300 billion today). Until the Wall Street bailout, it was the largest on record, exceeding Fannie/Freddie, Bear Stearns and AIG (and almost equal to the three of them combined).
You wouldn’t know it from reading the papers, but one of the presidential candidates was at the center of the S&L bailout, and not in a good way. In fact, he was reprimanded by the Senate for his role in that fiasco. Here’s a hint – it wasn’t Barack Obama (he was too busy being a community organizer at that time). Here’s another hint.
That’s fiscal experience we can believe in.
[via Kevin Drum]

Pool Party Petition

Jelly NYC is promoting a petition to include performance space as part of the plans for Bushwick Inlet park. 417 signatures and counting.
Of course the first step is for the City to actually acquire the land. Until that happens, nothing else happens.

A Lot of Construction on Union Avenue

Bob would normally be all over this (actually, he has been all over this, for ages now – welcome to the party, Eagle).
9 projects are currently under development on the triangle between Union, Grand and the BQE. For the record, that’s two Scaranos, two Fischers, one Bricolage, one Melzer/Mandl, on Gilman, on e S3 and one Kutnicki Bernstein.

Greenpoint Home for the Aged

NAG is working with North Brooklyn Development to protect the tenants of the Greenpoint Home for the Aged. (A fantastic building, by the way, part of the Greenpoint Historic District.)
[via Brownstoner]

Metropolitan Cinema Actually Coming Along

Still no GL, so as a public service, here is some of the local news from the internets. First off, Metropolitan Cinema swears they’ll be open by the Spring of ’09. I’ll believe it when I see it – this is the second slowest project in the area (the slowest is 80 Metropolitan, which despite having a small army working six days a week, every week, is moving verrry sloooowly).
[via Curbed]

Crying Wolf

09/21/2008 | 1 Comment

So the administration that asked for a blank check to go to war – and promised to use it responsibly – now wants a blank check to fix Wall Street? The administration that did a heckuva job, Brownie, in New Orleans (and hasn’t exactly impressed us in Galveston), wants us to trust them to get it right on Wall Street? The administration that has stretched every inch its been given into a light year, wants 700 billion inches, no strings attached?
Why do I get the feeling I know how this story ends?
Wall Street has got itself in a hell of a pickle, and they need help. Part of that pickle is the complete lack of regulation and oversight that leads to a transparent and open market (yes, regulation fosters a more open market), and for that we can blame Washington. Part of that pickle is the fact that Wall Street made some incredibly boneheaded investments.
Once again, Republican fiscal conservatism has broken the bank. Democrats, as usual, need to take the grown up view, act responsibly and clean up the mess. But let’s not hand Bush & Co. a blank check. Get it right, and get it in writing. Retain all avenues of congressional oversight. Yes, Henry Paulson seems like an grown up, sensible person. But he still works for George W. Bush. There is one chance here, don’t screw it up. Again.



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