Bernanke and the western Central Banks stepped in to provide a jolt to the paper markets, and of course, the commodity markets including precious metals.
Intraday commentary on this here.
Steve Schwarzman, Chairman (and co-founder with Peter G. Peterson) of Blackstone and a Prince among crony capitalists, was on Bloomberg television today. Blackrock is the world's largest private equity fund.
Last year Steve referred to any attempt to raise taxes on his income via changes to the 15% rate on carried interest as 'a war,' the equivalent of 'Hitler invading Poland in 1939.' This was said in a private meeting, and was a big departure from his smoothly polished public persona.
His solution to the financial deficit is to have poor and lower income people pay more federal income taxes, in addition to state, sales, gasoline, and payroll taxes, to 'broaden the tax base' as it were, so they can have 'more skin in the game.' His own taxes should obviously remain unchanged.
I was intrigued by this particular general principle that Steve shared: "Whenever credit is more constrained, it is extended to someone. The key is to be that someone." No matter what it takes. And at advantageous rates I presume, in order to buy distressed assets like sovereign assets on the cheap.
Steve strongly endorsed Mitt Romney for President as a personal choice saying, "I've made money with that man." 16x their money on the first, and 24 x on the second to be exact. And he hopes to make and keep even more with Mitt as President.
Speaking of money, here is a short primer on Modern Monetary Theory.
And the Regulatory Process in Efficient Markets
