Monday 16 March 2009

Bailouts & Bullshit

Last Friday John Stossel’s special TV investigation ‘Bailouts & Bull’ aired in the States – but TV3, who have the rights here in New Zealand, won’t be airing it here.  Why?

Too controversial.

Stossel points out that the US bailouts and stimulus will be costing each American worker $16,000 each -- $16,000 with which they could have stimulated their own personal economies.

He talks to economists who say we should just let the bubble burst: that the market needs to self-correct.

That more government action only causes more damage.

That it was the government’s own policies and organisations who inflated the bubble, and the government is not the answer to it – especially if their best answer is to reinflate it.

That instead of increasing spending, government should cut spending.

That all the action promised by the government only impedes and delays the necessary private action from investors and entrepreneurs . . . just as it did in Great Depression I.

And it’s not just about the Bailouts themselves– Stossel dynamites plenty of other bullshit too, like what the “stimulus” is being spent on!

Watch all six parts of the Stossel Special below.  It’s the best thing you can do today.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The Stossel is brilliant: I watched the series of six yesterday.


And then to give a home grown example of bureaucratic insanity, as I've just posted on Hickey:

... does anybody else see the irony in these two quotes from today’s media:

From government press releases, via NZX: http://www.nzx.com/news/economy/4876702

Quote: “The Government is set to embark on an overhaul of the rules surrounding overseas investment, as it looks to attract more foreign investors to New Zealand.”

And then the below from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/business/2264120/BNZ-to-fight-big-tax-bill

“Bank of New Zealand will square off against the Inland Revenue Department in the High Court in Wellington today in a case that could eventually cost the big banks about $2 billion in unpaid taxes and interest. …

If the Inland Revenue wins its case, it would affect foreign investors’ perception of New Zealand, he said.”

So we have government acknowledging the need for foreign investment, while their most powerful department is doing it's damnedess to disrupt such investment. And, of course, in the banks case, even if the IRD win, then who pays the tax bill? I suggest every customer of our banks, that's probably all of us, as the they have to try and get a then huge loss back.

Anonymous said...

"So is all this spending going to help?"

"I hope so"

OMFG!!!!

Paul Walker said...

" ... TV3, who have the rights here in New Zealand, won’t be airing it here."

I was wondering if we would ever see this programme here. It would be great if we did, Stossel points out things that need to be said and voters need to know.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that, PC. Excellent.

I was just about to contact TV3 to request they screen it here (and suggest others do the same) when it dawned on me that *TV2* screens 20/20 in NZ.

Are you sure TV3 has the rights?