Ballmer: Congress must 'stabilize' financial crisis

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expressed hope on Tuesday that the U.S. Congress will take action to address a deepening financial crisis, which he warned could ripple across spending on all levels of the economy.

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On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bailout plan proposed by the White House.

"I trust that before the end of the week, we have some resolution, at least in the U.S. Congress, that will help to stabilize the situation. We need that; I hope we get that," Ballmer said at a news conference in Oslo, Norway, according to the Reuters news agency.

After the vote on the bailout plan fell through Monday, Microsoft called for Congress to reconsider the legislation in order to "re-instill confidence and stability in the financial markets."

The financial crisis, Ballmer noted, extends beyond the borders of the United States to European banks, and affects businesses and consumers generally.

"Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly...spending by the financial-services industry," Reuters quoted Ballmer as saying.

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[dragonbite]

Ok, why does Balmer talking about Economics not seem like a good idea?

Or is Balmer whining to have Congress fix the economy so he can still afford that 1,000' yacht (for Tuesdays)?

[catch23]

He is the CEO of one of the most powerful companies in history?
Seems to make him qualified to talk about business and economics to me.
Or anyone else not a mindless, MS bashing fool.

[Kwasiowusu]

Hey Ballmer, if you are so keen on giving hundreds of Billions of dollars of taxpayers money to a bunch of reckless gamblers on Wall Street, why don't you and Gates hand over your over $60 Billion in personal wealth to save Wall street?
Fair is fair, right?

[celticbrewer]

Gates and Ballmer already give tons of their money to the truly needy.

'Opposed to democrats who give OUR money to the truly LAZY.

[Kwasiowusu]

"Gates and Ballmer already give tons of their money to the truly needy. "

Yes.
But Ballmer is suggesting we give our hundreds of bilions of our tax dollars to a bunch of irreponsible gamblers, who paid themselves bonuses of a massive over $35 billion last Christmas alone (even while they had these toxic loans on their books). If he thinks its such a great idea, he and Gates can start it off by handing out their $60 Billion pesonal fortunes to these reprobates.

[Perry_Clease]

"He is the CEO of one of the most powerful companies in history?
Seems to make him qualified to talk about business and economics to me.
Or anyone else not a mindless, MS bashing fool."

Exactly! I am no MicroSoft FanBoy, but Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, and other CEOs, needs to watch out for their businesses.

[Kwasiowusu]

Perry_Clease : "but Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, and other CEOs, needs to watch out for their businesses. "

By all means watch out for your business, but not on my dime. Microsoft paid out over a billion dollars in bonuses last year, how much of that did I get?
Rightfully, I never got a dime in bonuses from Microsoft or any of these banks/investment banks that are in trouble, so why should my money go bail em out?
There is a reason they are private companies. The government's role does not extend to immunizing private companies against losses. Companies should deal with the consequences of their bad business decisions.

A bill that is loaded with not just bad mortgage paper, but bad car loans, bad credit card loans and every bad loan that the vermin Barney Frank could come up with, together with provisions that'd end up bailing out Chinese banks, European banks, etc. , has no busines getting passed.

[Renegade Knight]

The Bailout isn't about the companies. If it was just one company, it would go down in flames and eveyone would watch and feel glad it wasn't them. The bail out is about the issues created at every stage of the modern financial system. Tempations that it appears that no business could resist to the detriment of us all. The bail out is about preventing that detriment to us all. Regardless of the right or wrong of the companies it's the "us all" that the bail out is about.

[gsekse]

Of course he want's the bailout, practically every CEO of every company wants this. The natural course of economic correction will be painful, necessary, but painful. If we go into a severe recession or depression, people will not be able to buy entertainment items and other "technology". Hmmm... this will probably affect Microsoft? 8)

Not to worry, the automotive CEO's feel the same way for the same reasons.

[Commander_Spock]

Ah, Ah... Now we are all talking about "E-C-O-N-O-M-I-C-S"... Do the research and see how long Commander_Spock and Crew has been talking about this; and, was even called names. Besides, The "Redmond Campus" et al don't seem to be interpreting the Economic Rate of Return (ERR) message correctly. Now, who is having the last laugh. Eh, Eh!

[RobertinOhio]

F that on a STICK Ballmer! The last thing we need is a government bailout of the banks. These people took those bad mortgages and now they have to live with the consequences, and those consequences should not include the US taxpayer suffering with them.

A good portion of M$ business model is in the disposable income verticle, such as Xboxs and such and a lot of people need credit to buy those. Ballmer knows if the economy goes bad for a while, M$'s disposable income products will not get sold.

[Renegade Knight]

The People, The Banks, The Securitys (stock type) Industry, Insurance, and some inermediaries that provide liquidity are all impacted. When all are impacted there is no system to replace what's lost. You are forced to save the crappy system we have to have anything at all. (Translated that means saving the economy from shock and paralysis which would likely cost a heck of a lot of us our jobs. Don't think recession. Think depression). Once saved it's time to Fix.

This is no easy thing the 'gubimint' faces. Your choice as a citizen is to pay a lot now, or a heck of a lot more later. Joe Citizen of course doesn't understand the difference. Joe Gubiment could have headed this off by jacking interest rates when Housing prices started to rise. But that would take a crystal ball, and back then the Feds were still worried about 9/11 aftershocks and lowered rates.

[Dr_Zinj]

Kwasiowusu makes a VERY good point. If those assets were good investments, everyone would be buying them up. Balmer, Gates, et al, would be scrambling to scarf them up. Warren Buffet was the smart one; cherry-picking the best early on, and leaving the real trash behind. The fact that Bush & Co are too stupid to realize is that those remaining assets are JUNK. What Bush & Co DO realize is that their own private personal investments in this junk is tanking and they want to foist their loss onto the average U.S. citizen.

[Renegade Knight]

They are good investmenets. At the right price. Had they been priced right...we would not be here now.

[ralfthedog]

How about a better bailout? If the bailout is about freeing up credit tied up by bad debt, why don't we let the bad debt die and spend the money insuring new debt, but only if the loan meets tight criteria and only for banks that can prove solvency?

Yes, some banks will fold. The assets of these banks will be sold. Good banks will grow to fill the ecological niches when people move their money. the economy will expand. Butterflies and kitty cats will dance among the flowers.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "How about a better bailout? If the bailout is about freeing up credit tied up by bad debt, why don't we let the bad debt die and spend the money insuring new debt, but only if the loan meets tight criteria and only for banks that can prove solvency?" Have you never heard of something called - "Residual Values"... so, why let the "objects" die? Huh!

[ralfthedog]

Spock, any residual value on a bad loan can be sold to good banks (Probably at a big discount). The assets of a bank that goes under do not disappear if they are real. If the assets only have pretend value, nothing is lost.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "Besides, The "Redmond Campus" et al don't seem to be interpreting the Economic Rate of Return (ERR) message correctly. Now, who is having the last laugh..."

And, this is why 2008 is not going to be like 1998...

"As a point of reference here is an extract from a 1998 Lotus Development Corporation communication; Re: Concerning the issues with 1-2-3 that are talked about in the documentation you gave me, most of the issues are related to converting files between older and newer versions of product and converting documents between Lotus and Microsoft. Anytime a file is saved backwards or saved with an older file format than the format the file was created under, such as saving a 1-2-3 , 97 file for Windows 95 into a WK1 format for DOS, then naturally we are expected to loose certain features due to technology and features that are present now that were not present 8 - 10 years ago. Similarly, if we try to convert a file from Lotus into Excel or Excel into Lotus, due to differences in the products not every feature will be converted perfectly with the file filters that are available. Both Lotus and Microsoft create similar spreadsheet programs; however, there are several differences in both programs and these differences will remain to distinguish the products apart. We do try to design conversion filters that will allow as much of the file formats as possible to be exchanged and converted without disrupting the actual file design and format.

In one of your letters you made mention of the @IRR and @ERR functions in the 1-2-3 product. By design the @IRR (notably "absent" in Open Office) will calculate the Internal Rate of Return; where the @ERR is used in conjunction with other formulas, posted was an "ERR" showing an error was received in the calculations. As far as I can see in the program I cannot find an @ERR function that will allow us to calculate an Economic Rate of Return"

In the below attached video - Substitute the "Voice of Authority" for "Wall Street" and the "Apple Ad" for "Main Street" ;-) :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

Live Long And Prosper.

[ralfthedog]

So what you are saying is if we don't all use OS/2 warp, the space marmots will eat our brains?

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "So what you are saying is if we don't all use OS/2 warp, the space marmots will eat our brains?" Well, at least it appears that after all the rumors about the "DEATH" of OS/2 Warp isn't are not true; and, it was apparently about the banks themselves (like one used to be known as W-A-M-U....)

Long Live OS/2; Now, All Your Base (BANKS) Are Belong To US! Final Price - $700,000,000,000.00. Gone!

[Commander_Spock]

This subject line reads; Re: "Congress must 'stabilize' financial crisis" - What "Financial Crisis"!!! Come on Let's Party like it is1998; and, it's soon going to be "Rocking New Year's Eve 2008"; So Let The Main Street "Implementable OOXML" Party Begin!

[Commander_Spock]

Correction: "So Let The Main Street "Implementable OOXML Standards" Party Begin" instead of "So Let The Main Street "Implementable OOXML" Party Begin".

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "So what you are saying is if we don't all use OS/2 warp, the space marmots will eat our brains?" Well, at least it appears that after all the rumors about the "DEATH" of OS/2 Warp are not true; and, it was apparently about the banks themselves (like one used to be known as W-A-M-U....)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU

Long Live OS/2; Now, All Your Base (BANKS) Are Belong To US! Final Price - $700,000,000,000.00. Gone! Gone! Gone!