Goodfellas

clipped from www.realclearmarkets.com The basic pattern of the Stimulus Depression continues: the more the government tries to stimulate it, the more depressed the economy gets. According to the latest report in the New York Times, after hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, the stimulus is not working. The banks who were supposed to be saved by the first round of bailouts are actually in worse shape and need more federal cash. The Times notes that the source of the problem is that "Private investors are scarce. For all but a small group of healthy banks, bankers and analysts say, the government may be the only investor left." But the obvious question is: why are private investors scarce? Maybe it has something to do with the terms of the "stimulus" aimed at them. Much more of this mob-style "stimulus," and private shareholders will have been driven completely out of the financial industry—which will then be taken over by the goodfellas at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.