So you vote for fascism, cronyism, and bailouts by taxpayer dollars ?
We deserve what we get - it’s no wonder our leaders are so corrupt. All the people want is to be given a lollipop and a pat on the head before going back to sleep to get fleeced by the “elite”.
That is an incredibly simplicity interpretation of this whole event.
It not obvious but I am totally and completely in agreement with you on a philosophical level. We’ve got whores coming out of the woodwork in D.C.
But we can’t just stand on our principles and then allow the country to sink back to the 1970s financially. It won’t cause any great lessons to be learned. We’ll just be the ones who get blamed for having european unemployment levels and China, India and Dubai will happily step in and create the financial markets we refuse to condone.
There is nothing inherently unethical about the financial markets. And if the Fed didn’t exist, the situation would be far, far worse because there would be nobody managing the US currency.
I know it seems like there are just a bunch of guys in expensive ties on Wall Street who are doing all this stuff without the approval, consent or even concern of the people on Main Street. And mostly that is true. But....and this is a really huge but, without those financial markets creating the new types of loans, mortgages, derivatives, collateralized debt obligations and junk bonds we do not have capitalism or entrepreneurs in America. We are the envy of the world because our markets are free enough to create innovative products which increase the amount of money that comes into our country from overseas. And despite what we hear from the democrats about our country being ‘owned’ by the Chinese, foreign investment in the U.S. is absolutely, completely and fabulously good for America and Americans. We should want MORE and not less of it. They don’t OWN us as much as they are now dependent upon our success in order for their investments to be profitable.
Everybody at Bear Stearns is now walking dead. They are all screwed. They failed on a scale which will be the stuff of entire books and business school lessons on what NOT to do. Nobody won here except you and me. And JP Morgan who got a great deal.
And we aren’t bailing out Bear Stearns. We are loaning them money for which we have assets as collateral and we also get paid back from the first money earned by Bear Stearns/JP Morgan. This is as solid as loan as is possible. We did it with Mexico in 2003. It’s not risking our tax dollars. It’s a chance to use that money to do some good without costing the taxpayers a dime (actually, it makes the taxpayers 3% interest).
But I agree with your sentiment. I’ve been poor. I’ve lived in towns with 1200 population and I’ve worked in warehouses. But I’m trying to give a little more balance perspective so everybody on FR doesn’t just take the spin at face value.