Arianna and Richard Quest Discuss Obama's Stimulus Plan

Arianna and Richard Quest joined host Rick Sanchez on "CNN Newsroom" to discuss Obama's stimulus plan. Watch the full segment below.

Comments

[concernvoter]

Since we have all these people with the answers, why didn't they run for president? Everybody have a say in something when someone else is holding office, but they can't run for nothing in politics themselves.

[Virginia Plain]

Why does Richard Quest have to shout ALL the time?

Arianna was talking a lot of sense and Quest just responded with condescending noise. Twit!

[Oldbuck]

I agree with one thing that we have to not put money in to Banks who have no equity holders and restructure and re regulate them to stop the bleeding kick their management out into the street the thing that got us to the point we are in is mergers we put a bunch of banks together that we felt we could not let fail. Promoted management in these fail banks and this is how we got some of the management we have today. Let's start over.

[aic4ever]

Even if you did want all kinds of more economic stimulus spending from the government, you're not seeing it. The Senate's bill does even less to stimulate than the House's did.
http://organizedexploitation.blogspot.com/2009/02/slicing-up-senates-spending.html

[imajoebob]

Nationalize? No. Federal investment in a new S&L system? Absolutely.

This mess started when the Reaganuts deregulated banking. The S&L crisis came when institutions created to invest deposits back into mortgages were deregulated, throwing them into the deep end of commercial investing, destroying almost every S&L, and looting the pieces for commercial banks. These banks then competed with investment banking, creating newer, more complex, riskier investments, leading to the crash.

Simplified, banks took collateralized mortgage loans, sold them in pieces. paying the investors with the monthly mortgage payments. When the loans defaulted they couldn't renegotiate because they needed the full payment to pay investors. These shares had been bought, pooled, syndicated, and resold 5 times over, so a chain of holders had no collateral.

Before, only S&Ls made home mortgages. They held a higher percent of assets, making them very stable. Most were state chartered and couldn't cross state lines. They were locally owned and operated, and integral parts of the community,. The avaricious Reganuts saw a huge pile of assets tied up in steady, reliable, modest return loans, and decided to go gambling with the house's money (no pun intended), which destroyed S&Ls, community banks, and our mortgage system.

If we used the$800B to seed new S&Ls, running them under the old rules, and have them buy up bad assets from the failing banks (at a discount). This would have stabilized the housing market while minimizing bank losses. Hopefully it's not too late.

[Dukedraven]

Your point makes sense to me, Arianna.The status quo with bank isn't working anymore and we need an aggressive plan to correct the problem. Stronger regulations on the banking system doesn't require nationalization.

[MsCanadian]

We need new banks, and smaller, local branches make sense.

[Hoisin]

Nationalization is the way to go, we should let it be structured by the same politicians who think $335M in STD prevention and $150M in honey bee insurance are the way to create jobs and jumpstart the economy in the near term. Nationalization is not going to stop 100% commissioned Mortgage Brokers from pushing exotic loans on some emotional female who has found her "dream house". You dopes may have heard of the FHA. The same organization who could easily see the number of loan defaults on subprime loans and they did nothing for years (short of slapping hands on very rare occasions). YOUR federal government (national if you must) intentionally looked the other way while people metaphorically put needles in their veins, strickly for the purpose of letting certain sectors grow, creating a bubble industry and giving people jobs where there should have been none. Now there are so many houses, there arent enough people to buy them. Great way to keep an economy humming along! Thanks Clinton! Thanks Greenspan!...but I digress! Good luck with a national bank.

[RTIII]

Start at the beginning: Thanks Ronnie!
.

[basta]

Nationalization. There, I said it. Yes, the Fed should be nationalized and the money supply should be controlled by the government. Banking (that being checking, loans, etc..) would not be nationalized, but money supply would be, and should be nationalized since this is one of the main responsibilities of governments, to issue currency. Currently, the government has to borrow money from the Fed which is controlled by private banks, then pay interest on the money it borrows and subsequently lends to the very same banks. That is the height of absurdity!

Arianna is smart and beautiful to boot. Arianna for Governor of California.

[AngieMom57]

I, for one, have encouraged all family and friends to close all accounts with Wells Fargo and Bank of America and to first look for a credit union and/or a locally owned bank to open savings and checking accounts...keep it SUSTAINABLE folks; time for the "haves" and the "have nots" to level the playing field.

FORGIVE CREDIT CARD DEBTS with these losers, how about that as stimulus....

[loonwalk]

I tried to call Senator Klobuchar this a.m. but the line was busy so after 45 minutes I sent a fax. Hope that works. (I'm not so worried about Klobuchar but quite worried about states with Senators like Coleman.)

Regarding Richard from across the pond Quest, see alternet.org for info from and about professor sheldon wolin's book. Nationalizing institutions can only mean a total-itarian remake of govmt. It's nearly here, folks. It's up to us to prevent it, I guess.

[northstar11]

yup, fight that nationalization .
keep capitalism,
especially in the big banks they really know how to do it
you know the drill government could run a pop stand
looks like neither can wall street banks

[breakingpoint]

When asked what his greatest accomplishment had been during his terms as President, Andrew Jackson replied, “I killed the Bank.”

In his will he wanted inscribed on the headstone of his grave “I Killed The Bank.” He was referring to the Central Bank a.k.a. The Federal Reserve.

Why?

It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.

It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.

It served mainly to make the rich richer.

It exercised too much control over members of Congress.

It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.

http://jischinger.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/kill-the-bank

[CaptainStormfield]

Right Wingers are beating us 100 to 1 on Capital Hill

The word on the street here in Washington is that the right is killing us with phone calls to Congress on the Obama economic recovery plan.

Those who worked for the election of Obama and are currently sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how his economic recovery bill turns out"it"s time to stop waiting. Stand up and fight!

Call 202-224-3121 (or use the toll-free service at 866-544-7573). Ask the operator to transfer you to one of your state"s senators. When connected, urge your senator to support the Obama economic recovery plan. Call back and repeat for your other senator.

Here"s what"s at stake. If enacted, President Obama"s economic recovery plan will be the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in the past 40 years. These are just some of the highlights:

$142 billion for a middle-class tax cut

$47 billion to extend unemployment benefits

$16 billion to expand food stamps

$17 billion in one-time payments to low-income Americans

$26 billion to expand access to health care

$87 billion to help states pay for Medicaid

$24 billion to modernize health information technology

$46 billion to fix bridges and roads

$80 billion to improve public education

$19 billion for school construction

$14 billion to make college more affordable

$32 billion for clean energy

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/3/121315/3223/133/692446

Feel free to C&P, and please repost.

[lj9283]

"Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bid to add $25 billion in infrastructure spending to an economic stimulus package sought by President Barack Obama.

In the first vote today on amending the Senate’s $885 billion plan, Democrats fell two votes short of the 60 needed to proceed on a proposal by Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, to boost funding for highways, mass-transit programs and water projects. The vote was 58 to 39 in favor of clearing the procedural hurdle.

Thirty-eight Republicans, along with Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, voted to thwart the amendment. Voting to proceed on it were 56 Democrats and two Republicans, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Christopher Bond of Missouri. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMoZ5SlJq._s&refer=home

You snooze you lose.