bump
I don’t know who is right, Paulson or Kovacevich, but I do know this; if Tarp was undertaken to save the currency, it was the right thing to do. If it was undertaken to save a few banks it was the wrong thing to do. Let’s face it, our money has no backing other than people’s willingness to accept it as payment. You can’t exchange it for anything. If you introduce a risk premium for every dollar transaction you reduce its value accordingly and that would have been a spiraling disaster. But a few banks and their stock go under, well, that life in capital(ism) city. I know it was the government that coerced them into making bad loans, but I didn’t see them objecting once they found a way to make some money and shift the risk.