I have decided...

[ZEE]

Pay attention. I don't feel like I win, since I don't give a ****. Pity that you're too stupid to understand that.

[Az]

posting in this thread

[Kidlicious]

Talk about trying too hard.

[Dauphin]

It would be more useful if ignored posts didn't show up at all, rather than it said "This message is hidden because [e.g.] KrazyHorse is on your ignore list.".

[ZEE]

Talk about trying too hard.

[Dauphin]

Also, quoted posts should be ignored if the original poster is ignored.

[KrazyHorse]

That is true

[Grandpa Troll]

Pay attention. I don't feel like I win, since I don't give a ****. Pity that you're too stupid to understand that.

Im hurt, a Canadian said a baaaadd thing about me...

Wait, you do care because you responded...

[Darius871]

if I seem to not respond to your posts, you should draw your own conclusions.

So I should infer that your non-response to the below means I'm blacklisted? Why can't you just tell us who is and isn't?!?!?!?!?

In other words, you think that the public DOESN'T want to be repaid immediately.

And I think that you're absolutely wrong on that.

They could barely be convinced to give the banks money when the administration AND the banks were both in favour of doing it. Now when the banks say they don't need the money you think the will will be there to say no to repayment?

1) I didn't say they don't want it paid back immediately, just that they don't want it paid back irresponsibly (or what the nanny state tells them is irresponsibly).

2) Even supposing #1 is sorely mistaken, I don't have much faith that Congress would aggressively respond to public concerns in that regard if there is an argument on the table that for the sake of system-wide stability a thorough completion of stress-testing (which has a timeframe that is not only indefinite but "sworn to secrecy" as the CCO put it to me) and explicit regulatory clean bill of health must be a prerequisite of any voluntary returns, much less that secretive Treasury/Fed officials would be so responsive. Don't forget that polls showed majority opposition to the initial TARP bill also, but Congress nonetheless bit the bullet and found systemic risk more important than Joe Schlub's uninformed mob anger. They could make the same trade-off tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Don't be silly. All the healthy banks are going to repay the money early, as well as some of the not-so-healthy ones (the ones that, if TARP is a good idea, we WANT to have the money). Only desperately ill ones will keep the cash.

Of course healthy banks will repay early, i.e. not only earlier than less healthy banks but also earlier than the government expected; I never actually denied that. What disturbs me is instead the question of how early, and the fact that repayment is being impeded at all.

Darius, those articles don't say anything like what you've claimed they say.

The first I just googled quick and it didn't have the specific comments I recalled, but it at least makes clear that initially "U.S. Bank was told, not asked, to participate." More to my point, at about the same time he clearly said "the Minneapolis-based company must first undergo a federal 'stress test,' but it will then seek to return $6.6 billion in TARP funds it had received... 'Following those outcomes, it is my intent that, given permission...that this company would like to emerge from the TARP assets as soon as possible'" (emphasis added).

As for the second article, "Davis said he wants to pay back the $6.6 billion capital investment from taxpayers, if federal officials will allow it" (emphasis added) at least implies what I've been saying, namely 1) intent to repay ASAP as the taxpayers would like, but 2) being legally barred from repaying without Uncle Sam's say-so.

The same brick wall was said of TCF's firm and publicized intent to return TARP money: "TCF Financial Corp. has moved to pay back the federal government the hundreds of millions of TARP bailout funds it received in November, calling its participation in the banking-assistance program 'a competitive disadvantage' ... 'We believe participation in TARP has created a competitive disadvantage for TCF and it is in the best interest of our shareholders to redeem these shares.' ... The payback still needs government approval" (emphasis added). TCF's effort was even more forcefully outspoken than Davis' and was also a month ago, but lo and behold, TCF is still holding the hot potato as we speak. Why do you think that is? The only possible explanations are that regulators either A) denied or B) delayed the request; in either case, the taxpayer's will in your view - "immediate" payment - has apparently fallen on deaf ears, which is precisely my point.

Anyway, I admit Davis' public comments weren't quite as forceful as my posts made them seem, but my interpretation's colored by some inside information, namely what that CCO had to say about the regulators' total control over repayment absent certain prerequisites which are themselves under the regulators' total control. Behind the scenes it's a lot more frustrating than even Davis lets on.

[KrazyHorse]

You're not on my ignore list, but that conversation with you was boring me. I basically think that you're sorely misjudging likely public reactions as well as dramatically overstating what is already a pair of articles based on innuendo.

Arguing about either of those propositions isn't likely to change either of our minds. If and when you bring up any new interesting viewpoints or data I will be happy to discuss it with you.

You're actually generally interesting, but you have an occasional tendency to try to justify what are (in my opinion) drastically wrong opinions with long posts which are barely on point.

[DanS]

Also, quoted posts should be ignored if the original poster is ignored.

Unfortunately, that's not half the problem. There are folks like NGR who take it as their sacred duty to set the idiots straight. There needs to be an "I'm setting the idiots straight" check-box for that, so that KH's reading can be unencumbered by the good Samaritans' desire to educate.

[Wiglaf]

All in all, KrazyHorse is probably the biggest douche bag on the site.

[Darius871]

You're not on my ignore list, but that conversation with you was boring me.

I know that, just poking fun at the fact that topics bore more often than posters do, meaning the inference the OP suggests is pretty useless.

[KrazyHorse]

All in all, KrazyHorse is probably the biggest douche bag on the site.

I do my best

[MrFun]

to vastly expand my ignore list to include those who are uninteresting as well as those who are aggravatingly stupid. I will not be informing the new additions of their status, so if I seem to not respond to your posts, you should draw your own conclusions.

Thank you all for your kind attention

(cue somebody posting something to claim that I am on their ignore list)

Damn it. So does this mean you're going to not only Ignore me on here, but also ignore me when we have future DC get togethers?