I cannot believe the half-assed short-sighted solution to the financial crisis the Treasury Department has concocted... and Pres. Bush, the genius, is now backing. Yes, banks are dropping like flies. Banks like Lehman Brothers and even the venerable Merrill Lynch are gone. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now "zombie" lenders, technically bankrupt but kept alive only by virtue of government take-over. Not to mention the insurance institution AIG is hanging on by a wing and a pray... er, government handout.
In the face of this financial storm, it is little surprise banks have adopted a "siege mentality", nearly stopping inter-bank exchanges, each hoping to ride it out on its own. The government's solution? Spend more money of course... to the tune of $700 billion or more. On what? "Illiquid assets." Which is confuse-the-taxpayersese for properties devalued by the collapse of the Housing Bubble, which the banks are stuck with worthless mortgages on.
Yup. The government is going to spend money on worthless chunks of real estate. This is their "brilliant plan" to revitalize the economy.
This is not a "bailout"... this is madness!
Let these banks die, I say. Let them learn their lesson. With this bailout, there will be no consequences from their reckless investments during the Housing Bubble; no lessons learned. As for consumer confidence... knowing my bank is around only because of a bailout doesn't make me feel any better about the way they handle my money!
The United States government is the largest holder of debt in the world, and now it's going to buy more debt?! In the form of devalued, worthless homes?!? The Bush administration has made the largest national debt increase of all time, and now it's going to add even more debt from the financial sector to it?!?!? Hasn't anyone heard of the "straw that broke the camel's back?"
After all the insanity from the Bush administration: the needless war in Iraq, and the skyrocketing national debt to sustain it, the ultra-conservative justices appointed, the attacks on American civil rights in the name of national security, while (irony time!) our border with Mexico remains wide open; this is the final insult. Bush's successor will get handed all this shit, plus more national debt that can't be eliminated by a balanced budget, because it's in the form of ownership of a bunch of worthless real estate scattered about the country.
Let me make it clear: this bailout will make the economy move in the short-haul... any form of government spending always pushes the economy along a bit... but in the long-haul, the price may be more than we can afford.
