Sunday, October 16, 2011

Tribal Allegiance

I've touched on this before, but I think it's important to keep in mind that Our Galtian Overlords don't necessarily know what's best for them, policy wise. Sure their lawyers and accountants and lobbyists might have a pretty good idea what some specific provision might mean for them, but there's no reason to think that they really understand how to run the macroeconomy for their benefit. I think a lot of the mess in the housing/mortgage markets post-bubble was due to the fact that the securitization contracts were poorly done, giving mortgage servicers very bad incentives, but I also think a lot of the mess was because the banskters didn't really know what was good for them, or at least their companies. It's hard to imagine that large scale principal modification with some sweeteners from the government, along with bankruptcy cramdown, wouldn't have actually been better for both the macroeconomy and the banks. But Our Galtian Overlords knew deadbeat homeowners, who made them look bad and hurt their fee fees, needed to be kicked in the face along with the hippies.