Comments on: When Did Rube Goldberg Take Over the Country ?

By: The Downward Cycle (Not Spiral) of the World Economy « econ365

The Downward Cycle (Not Spiral) of the World Economy « econ365 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:55:43 +0000

[...] or designing grand plans to fix complicated situations. The comedy of this reminded Mark Cuban of Rube Goldberg. What will not be funny is when American based company begin to layoff employees in massive waves [...]

By: Mike B

Mike B — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:25:05 +0000

That’s why my solution is to load a bunch of C-17′s with $20 bills and start air-dropping cash directly to the people. We’ve pumped hundreds of billions to the banks already in the hope that they would start lending, and the plan is to now pump $700B more with the same hope (sound like the definition of insanity to anyone beside me?).

Sounds like the banks are the problem. Solution: Take the banks out of the loop and drop the cash directly on the people. (85 tons of money per C17 works out to $1.7B per sortie … you know, it might just be cheaper than the Paulson plan).

By: TomH

TomH — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:59:57 +0000

The problem with the current Govt crises is a little different from Hank Paulson’s alter ego. Rube Goldberg developed comically, complicated fixes for simple problems; Hank presented a comically, complicated fix to an un-comically, complicated problem.

This was made more evident when the Fed gave AIG an additional $38B loan to cover what the $85B could not. Rube Goldberg has evolved into Hank Paulson.

By: Clayton Williams

Clayton Williams — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:49:41 +0000

Rube Goldberg’s Alarm Clock vs Federal Reserve- Comparable?
Uh, starts in with the garbage man, picking up the garbage at six o’clock in the morning. This doesn’t move. And, as a rope goes though the window, it’s attached to a mule’s neck and it pulls the rope and the mule kicks over a pedestal with a statue of an Indian with a bow and arrow, and the bow punctures an ice bucket. And the ice falls on a set of false teeth which start to chatter, and that bites an elephant’s tail and the elephant, I hope I remember this, the elephant lifts his trunk and starts a mechanism of a toy maestro leading a sad quartet. And the quartet sings and the girl breaks down crying into a plant and the plant grows and tickles a man’s feet, who is sitting on a, a very complicated-looking apparatus, and starts rocking and, uh, that works a crane which pulls up the bed that the sleeper’s in and he slides into a pair of slippers which are on wheels and they propel him into the bathroom. [Both laugh] But this doesn’t really move. They have two there that move.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:05:16 +0000

Jack, re: your comment
Mr. Paulson has stated that he will not stay on as Sec. of Treasury in
the next administration–so you’ve got about 3+ months to trust him. He
has already assigned the management of the “rescue/bailout” to the
young man (age 35) who wrote Paulson’s original plan,
a Mr. Neel Kashkari, also formerly an employee of Goldman Sachs.
Sharp questions, Mr. Cuban.
Best of luck to all.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:39:37 +0000

Now is not a time to assign blame. What’s done is done. We should all look towards the future. And wth a warrior like Hank Paulson in charge, i think the future looks bright.

By: Steff

Steff — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:11:28 +0000

I guess I’m cynical too. Let see, we’re giving money to the people who got us into this mess and it’s being overseen by the people who should have been paying attention in the first place. I think were screwed.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:02:14 +0000

Guys…everbody needs to take a DEEP breath and RELAX. The financial markets are facing a bit of difficulty right now, but we have the best man on the job to tackle those problems….Hank Paulson.

Hank Paulson is one of the best money managers in the world. He has told us that he will likely earn a profit for us on these securities he will be buying from the various financial institutions. Why don’t we just let him do his job. If in 10-15 years we don’t earn any profits, then maybe we should ask for an explanation.

Otherwise, I say let the experts do their jobs, and solve the problem. Hank himself has a net worth of $700 Million. I think he may know a thing or two about making money.

By: C Rice

C Rice — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:40:00 +0000

If it were possible to sell short on the bail-out, I would put about
half of what’s left in my 401(k) into it.

I was certain that Value Jet was going down in flames when their
jet crashed, and I am certain that this will go down in flames
as well. It has Charlie Foxtrot written all over it.

By: Barry Gitarts

Barry Gitarts — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:43:38 +0000

I’m adding this to my list of great quotes:

“Call me a cynic, but I dont trust anything that doesnt offer me a realtime data stream