Calling Out Paul Romer: WSJ
The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2009-02-06 09:48
by Karl Denninger
in Banking System
Ignore this thread
Calling Out Paul Romer: WSJ
 

Gee Paul, it would be nice if you admitted that you didn't invent the proposition you put forward in The Wall Street Journal today:

"The government has $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds that it can use to encourage new bank lending. If this money is directed to newly created good banks with pristine balance sheets, it could support $3.5 trillion in new lending with a modest 9-to-1 leverage. Right out of the gate, the newly created banks could do what the Fed has already been doing -- buying pools of loans originated by existing banks that meet high underwriting standards."

Uh huh.  Been reading a few Tickers Paul?

I know that I'm not the only one who has put forward this suggestion, but let's take a look here eh?

October 22, 2008: "Fiscal Cat 5 Hurricane Warning"

"If the bad debt defaults cause the collapse of the large money-center banks, then Congress should consider the creation of five or ten new banks with an initial capital infusion of $20 billion each, IPOing each immediately and attaching an onerous coupon (e.g. 10%) to the initial capital to strongly encourage its replacement with private capitalization.  This will provide a base lending support of $2 trillion into the economy."

And later, on January 30th, "On The Edge Of The Abyss":

"Be prepared to use the second half of the TARP funds to either internally capitalize new banks which will then be spun off to the public or add capitalization to existing good banks.  The cramdown and receivership of the bad banks will undoubtedly lead to lots of guaranteed deposits and good assets needing a home.  There are hundreds of perfectly solid existing banks that should be permitted to grow their asset and deposit base by feasting on the carrion of the deposed."

Standing on the backs of mice is perfectly fine Paul, but its outrageous for you to claim these ideas as your own.

Your "senior fellowship" should be revoked.

Discussion below (registration required to post)
 

Main Navigation
Full-Text Search & Archives
Archive Access
Get Adobe Flash player





Blogtalk 3:30 CT Mondays
Items To Look At


Discuss The Capital Markets along with daily technical analysis with our Gold Donor program.

Where We Are, Where We're Heading (2013) - The annual 2013 Ticker

Links and Blogroll
Our policy on reciprocal links: Send us an email with your information and why you think your blog or news site would make a good addition - in most cases reciprocal link requests will be granted.
Legal Disclaimer

The content on this site is provided without any warranty, express or implied. All opinions expressed on this site are those of the author and may contain errors or omissions.

NO MATERIAL HERE CONSTITUTES "INVESTMENT ADVICE" NOR IS IT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO STOCKS, OPTIONS, BONDS OR FUTURES.

The author may have a position in any company or security mentioned herein. Actions you undertake as a consequence of any analysis, opinion or advertisement on this site are your sole responsibility.

Looking for "The Best of Market Ticker"? Check out
Ticker Classics.

Visit the forum to discuss this and other investing-related topics; see the FAQ on the forum for information about Gold Donor status including access to our technical analysis video server.

Market charts, when present, used with permission of TD Ameritrade/ThinkOrSwim Inc. Neither TD Ameritrade or ThinkOrSwim have reviewed, approved or disapproved any content herein.

The Market Ticker content may be reproduced or excerpted online for non-commercial purposes provided full attribution is given and the original article source is linked to. Please contact Karl Denninger for reprint permission in other media or for commercial use.

Submissions may be sent "over the transom" to The Editor at any time. To be considered for publication your submission must include full and correct contact information and be related to an economic or political matter of the day. All submissions become the property of The Market Ticker.

Leads on stories of current economic and political interest are always welcome. Our fax tip line is 850-897-9364; please include contact information with your transmission.

 
Comments.......
User: Not logged on
Login Register Top Blog Top Blog Topics FAQ
Showing Page 1 of 2  First12Last
User Info Calling Out Paul Romer: WSJ in forum [Market-Ticker]
Mondocondo
Posts: 3686
Incept: 2007-12-03
Green
Miami
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
You should write to the Dean of Stanford University and point out that their institute is plagiarizing. Or, better yet, write to the Harvard and Yale Deans and point it out so they can diss Stanford.
Genesis
Posts: 130779
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
I contacted the University Provost via email. We'll see if I get a response.

----------
I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Keewaydin
Posts: 1711
Incept: 2007-08-22
Green
Just a fleshwound!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
It seems to me that disgracing him would be counterproductive. The more people advancing this idea the better, IMO.
Robertmc
Posts: 68
Incept: 2008-09-24

Tallahassee, FL
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
You might as well get used to it Karl. Between WallScreech and the mainstream media toadies, you won't find enough honesty to admit to a speeding ticket much less plagiarism.

----------
Sweet Poison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-....

Will
Posts: 76
Incept: 2008-12-26

Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
speaking of good and bad ideas, I keep trying to get through to my congress people and for days now the lines have been jammed. I can't get a message through to tell Chuck Schumer what a f**k he is and he should be ring fenced. I've called a few times a day all week. I hope the phones are not jammed with people just haggling over the petty details of the pointless stimulus plan.

ps - I would echo the sentiment of Keewaydin that at least better ideas are being repeated.
Dirtysouth
Posts: 2766
Incept: 2007-09-20
Green
Love Truth Honour ॐ
Banned
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
TF PILE ON! smiley

----------
Forest First...Trees Second
Feb 9 ~ Mar 11 ~ Apr 09 ~ May 09 ~ Jun 07 ~ Jul 07 ~ Jul 22 ~ Aug 06 ~ Sep 04 ~ Oct 04 ~ Nov 02 ~ Dec 02 ~ Dec 31
Viperjason
Posts: 1156
Incept: 2008-03-06
Green
Reno
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Genesis,
You need to fix the ticker...you stated Oct 22, 2007 when it was Oct 22, 2008.
Genesis
Posts: 130779
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Thanks - done.

----------
I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Xanares
Posts: 2595
Incept: 2008-11-10
Green
Between Sicily and Tunisia
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
You haven't spoken about this solution for a while, instead you've talked about the cramdown solution. Have you abandoned it or is the ground just far from fertile enough for it to grow anywhere in the current day?
Genesis
Posts: 130779
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Xanres, its all part of the same piece. Go look at the tickers referenced.

You cram down the existing banks and you use the TARP money for this purpose. If a cramdown won't work you liquidate.

----------
I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Xanares
Posts: 2595
Incept: 2008-11-10
Green
Between Sicily and Tunisia
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Got it. Just information overflow error creating a loop in the synaptic terminals.
Jstanley01
Posts: 8182
Incept: 2008-07-30
Silver A True American Patriot!
San Antonio, Texas
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
****-tard. Reminds me of, just the other day, seeing Pulitzer-prize-winning plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwins once again spewing pablum from her pie hole on PBS, as if she were some kind of an expert historian. Instead of bagging groceries, where she belongs, evidently she's still a "Harvard Overseer," where she's an alum.

Bald-facing lying permeates, not just high finance, but the entire spectrum of this culture's elites. Not only are there no consequences, often as not it's rewarded.

As unfun as the conflagrations of a depression may be -- to many of us personally -- unfortunately there's no better prescription to clear out this worthless deadwood.

http://www.slate.com/?id=2061056
http://hnn.us/articles/622.html

----------
You can't cheat an honest man. ~P.T. Barnum
Fugitivekind
Posts: 801
Incept: 2007-08-20
Green A True American Patriot!
Boston
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
I think he may have also read "To Obama: Your First 100 days" ticker from December 27, 2008

"Revoke the EESA/TARP. You can send a bill up to The House to revoke it. Do so. If we have insolvent big banks then instead use the remaining $350 billion to charter 10 new banks and immediately IPO them off to the public. This would support three and one half trillion dollars in lending, present nearly zero risk to taxpayers, might earn them a profit, and would provide support for the system as opposed to providing support to the fraudsters and ripoff artists who caused this mess. Mandate that every transaction that these new banks engage in is 100% public - complete, open book - until the entirety of that seed capital is replaced. Trust me - it will be, and fast, considering that these institutions will begin with zero debt and zero crap on their balance sheets."

----------
"I refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."
Barack Obama, Feb. 29, 2009
Architect
Posts: 830
Incept: 2007-07-11
Green
london UK
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,dear boy. Karl, you had better get used to it.
Genesis
Posts: 130779
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Heh, I don't care WHERE he got it, and there have been plenty of people advocating this.

What I'm absolutely certain of is that he didn't invent it on his own as a "first mover".

It is THAT which I am objecting to - the presentation of this as an "original idea."

----------
I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Kingfish
Posts: 158
Incept: 2008-10-17

Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/01/th....

He probably plagiarized this one.
Jstanley01
Posts: 8182
Incept: 2008-07-30
Silver A True American Patriot!
San Antonio, Texas
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
There's a descending order to stealing others' ideas, and an ascending order of sanctions:

1. Failure to attribute sources.
SANCTION: In a sane society, credibility is damaged or destroyed.

2. Plagiarism.
SANCTION: In a sane society, the academic and professional consequences are dire.

3. Copyright violations.
SANCTION: In a sane society, there are legal consequences; see the FBI warning at the beginning of every commercial DVD for details.

Edit: BTW, it's not unusual for an idea "whose time has come" to "originate" from multiple sources at the same time. Rectitude requires honesty, that's all. Romer's Johnny-come-lately timing is what nailed him at #1.

----------
You can't cheat an honest man. ~P.T. Barnum

Logastellus
Posts: 56
Incept: 2008-10-14

Atlanta
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Could be a simple case of cryptomnesia.

And before more people work themselves into a Day-of-Ashura-like apoplectic frenzy, hardly any ideas nowadays are truly "original." Did Shakespeare plagiarize Ovid?

Using the money to spawn new banks - I have NOT seen that anywhere else on the web except here. So, that idea seems to me to be truly Karl's. But I doubt it came to him one starry night, out of the blue. He probably did extensive reading on the subject and formulated his ideas thereafter. Nothing's wrong with that.
Genesis
Posts: 130779
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
I've seen it in a bunch of places, but I don't recall it showing up until the TARP was proposed and I proposed it in response.

There may have been others and that's ok - the point here being this is an old idea, many have voiced it, and promoting it is fine but claiming originality is not.

----------
I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Honorius
Posts: 430
Incept: 2008-05-21
Green
Asylum
Banned
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Quote:
It seems to me that disgracing him would be counterproductive. The more people advancing this idea the better, IMO.


Counter-intuitive yet this is pretty much the way to go.

At the end, what is important is not necessarly who gets the credit but if the thing you wanted gets done.

Plus, what are the chances of history remembering him as "the" dude that had the good idea?

People are still fighting over who discovered america.
Jstanley01
Posts: 8182
Incept: 2008-07-30
Silver A True American Patriot!
San Antonio, Texas
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Obviously, the Internet is not a scholarly milieu. Furthermore, no one owns an idea. Thing is, by failing to attribute, readers are cut off from other pertinent and potentially valuable lines of inquiry from the "original" source. Dishonestly hogging credit always stifles debate, whether in scientific discourse, a boardroom, or a barroom brawl.

----------
You can't cheat an honest man. ~P.T. Barnum
Laura
Posts: 3946
Incept: 2008-05-05
Green A True American Patriot!
Peoples Republic of Florida
Banned
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
smiley

----------
www.................
Andyturk
Posts: 25
Incept: 2008-01-05
Green
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
For what it's worth, Paul Romer is a friend and former boss of mine. He´s well respected in the economics world for good reason: he's one of the smartest guys I know. As soon as this Ticker went up, I told him about KD's issue and hoped the two could take care of the problem between themselves. Sadly, it seems to have gotten worse.

When I read the WSJ piece, I didn't think Romer was taking credit for someone else's idea. He didn't think he was either. IMO, a lot of knickers are being twisted unecessarily.

´Nuff said.
Mm^^
Posts: 2650
Incept: 2008-10-01
Green A True American Patriot!
Gone, Baby, Gone
Report This As A Bad Post Add To Your Ignored User List
Quote:
the point here being this is an old idea, many have voiced it, and promoting it is fine but claiming originality is not.


I don't know how to respond to this. I mean, I do, but not in any way that some reasonable people might attribute an "ulterior motive" to my comments.

I'll take a chance, on the premise that we have an "above board mentality" re: most of the posters here:

This is one of the classiest statements I have ever seen. (IOM)

----------
"I don't take no ****; I don't give no ****. I ain't in the **** business." Stan S**by, Air Force, retired, Special Insertion (get the pilot OUT now!), guy. He's got MY back, guys. Forever...

Login Register Top Blog Top Blog Topics FAQ
Showing Page 1 of 2  First12Last