That's exactly what most of our conservative brethren seem to not realize (or refuse to realize) that it prevented a complete collapse that would have made the Great depression seem like fun times...and they forget that TARP was also started by one of their own and continued by Obama. They act like this was all Obama's idea.
Anyone that has studied history would know that the only thing that turned around the great depression was the intersession of the government (and no...WWII did not pull us out...id did contribute, but without the government programs behind that, we would have still been in a depression after the war ended and probably a deeper one with all the spending and destruction that ensued during the war). The bailout was the right thing to do with the banks to prevent them from failing. Where our government really fucked up was when they didn't throw in a whole ball of strings attached to that from the get go. The fact that a large quantity of that money went to these disgustingly gross bonuses to executives instead of trickling down to smaller backs highlights the hell out of it. These execs should go to jail for taking that money. Where the government is continuing to fuck up, thanks to the Republicans and their adamant defense of the very people who got us into this situation on Wall Street, is not passing realistic reforms and preventing banks and other financial institutions from becoming too big to fail. Too big to fail means too big to exist. The bill that was passed is a watered down version that while better than nothing, doesn't go anywhere near far enough to prevent this from happening again. Wall street has this selective memory issue. Once things started to get better, they fell right back into old habits and started to treat the financial industry as their personal casino. One would think we would learn from our pain...but I guess not. Eric -----Original Message----- From: Robert Munn [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 10:39 AM To: cf-community Subject: Re: Mixed views on the state of the US economy On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > That's a hard question. I'll just say that without government interference, > this recession would probably resemble the recession of 1920-21 more than > the great depression. What's worse is that most of the so-called stimulus money has been spent on government jobs and benefits so far, none of which really helps private sector employment. No wonder the unemployment rate isn't falling: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069772167897834.ht ml I think we would be in a huge mess without TARP, which prevented a major collapse of the banking system ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:320381 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
