Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Le Massena: Paint in a Barrel


From a post by "Izzy" Kaminska (of all people) at FT:


8 comments:

GeneHayward said...

Love it! Gonna steal it. :)

The Arthurian said...

Hey, Gene. I had the same reaction as you. :)

Lots more Depression-era quotes in the Kaminska post at FT.

Jazzbumpa said...

The metaphor is severely flawed. Now, like then, the problem isn't a lack of things to paint. It's an unwillingness to dip a brush.

But not it's even worse. I lacking the wit to continue the imagery, but now pouring more money into the system doesn't result in it siting idly like paint in an unopened can. It results in more of the same highly leveraged speculative ventures that caused the problem in the first place.

JzB

Jazzbumpa said...

But NOW, it's even worse . . .

The Arthurian said...

Jazz, I was thinking Excess Reserves. I think paint-in-a-barrel is a severely excellent metaphor for excess reserves.

The Arthurian said...

... and QE++

nanute said...

If you put more paint in the barrel than the barrel can hold, something has to give

The Arthurian said...

Hey, Nute. Yeah, my wife would want me to paint something. She would put the paint, the paintbrush, and the something all on the credit card!

But if the Fed wants somebody to hold money, I'll hold it for them. And there is NO limit to how much money I am willing to hold.