Quote of the Day, Nationalizing AIG Edition
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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“No, no. Relax. We couldn’t possibly be socialists. Socialists only nationalize successful businesses.”
– John Scalzi
About Alex Knapp
Alex Knapp writes about pretty much everything under the sun, including politics, art, religion, philosophy, sports, music, culture, and science.
What is a bailout anyway but a reverse windfall profits tax – think of it as a stimulus check for the government.
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Hilarious.
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Is a loan the same as nationalization of a business? AIG has plenty of hard assets to secure the loan. Those assets include the “government backed” securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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“Socialists only nationalize successful businesses.”
And then promptly run them into the ground. But that’s a story for another day.
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So what you’re saying, is: In Capitalist America, failure socializes you?(*)
(*)See, this is why OTB needs a moderation system, this should cost me something…
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Steve Plunk:
No, not necessarily. However when you combine it with the government getting an 80% equity stake it is.
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Crust, I would disagree. AIG has plenty of assets to back the loan and the government has no intention of running the business if AIG defaults. The 80% stake is only in the case of default. This is not anywhere near nationalization of a business.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalizations but they always carried the implied backing of the government.
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But an 80% stake in AIG doesn’t imply government backing? AIG may not have been like Freddie and Fannie last week, but it’s quite a bit closer now.
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