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by danteembermage 6241 days ago
Careful, you've got an abstraction layer that's maybe not appropriate. Imagine for a moment that I am a person near the end of my working life and very wisely and prudently put most of my retirement funds in a portfolio of church bonds, municipal bonds, and long-term corporate bonds including GM's. "The financial sector...rapidly burn[ing] through their political capital" doesn't imply that I should get five cents on the dollar while people behind me in line get forty. I have been receiving a paltry interest rate for years precisely because I was promised I was first in line in the event of a bankruptcy.

There are real people behind these massive losses, and the fact that Wall Street bilked me with transaction costs on the way in to this portfolio means I'm more deserving of sympathy not disdain.
1 comments
akamaka 6241 days ago
A lot of people are hurting right now, and you're quite right that investors both large and small have been hit the hardest. But after a year spent clamouring for government help, whether bail-outs for big banks or compensation for individuals who bought ABCPs, investors have lost their place at the front of the political line.

They still have the judicial branch to turn to, but the days of executive branch fast-tracking are gone, and there's little point in complaining about it.

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danteembermage 6241 days ago
You're right that losing your place in the front of the political line has dire consequences, and certainly investors have lost their place at the front of it, but think really carefully about who was campaigning for government help and even more important, for whose benefit were the auto bailouts in the first place.

I think it would be difficult to claim that the answer to either question is the firms' bondholders. It's true, they may have indirectly benefited if the bailouts had succeeded, but the purpose of the bailout was never to help the holders of GM's debt. I don't really think punishing misbehavior should be pertinent to creditor hierarchy in bankruptcy, but if we intend to punish clamoring then I think this proposed settlement may have things slightly backwards.

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Nwallins 6241 days ago
> investors have lost their place at the front of the political line.

That's the shame. They were at the front of a legal, financial line. That one's place in the political line should trump the former is the cause for concern.

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