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Bailout: A Terrible Idea

September 25th, 2008 | Category: making millions

$700 Billion dollars is the amount of money the government is planning to give to the people that passed out bad loans and rated packages of these bad loans as AAA (the highest possible amount).  It is irresponsible.  Heads should roll for screwing up the market.  $700 Billion dollars is a huge pile of money to give to the people that just screwed up.  Read more about it at Bonddad.

I’ve already contacted my Senators and Congressional representative to oppose the bailout.  I don’t think I would say this often but, I agree with Newt Gingritch on this one.

I don’t know where the people that want a bailout are coming from.  I do know Bush wants the bailout.  I know the financial companies want the bailout.  I’m not so sure I know who or where the grass roots proponents are.

6 comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Danno September 26th, 2008 6:30 am

    The irony of the bailout (as I understand it) is that the Republican’s “no oversight free market” approach over the last few years is going to lead to the US Government actually taking majority ownership of a lot of these banks and companies — essentially one of the largest un-privatization moves in US history.

    I’m with you though. You can just tell by how quickly they’re pushing it through (just like Iraq) that the executives at these corporations that failed so epically are going to get out with a paycheck and leave the government with the bill. Bummer.

  2. Mark September 26th, 2008 10:22 am

    And where is the money going? That is the $700Billion question. Where will it go? It is to be distributed by a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, at his discretion and with little to no oversight. You can try and negotiate the finer points but Paulson (the Treasury secretary) has been wrong about the financial crisis for a long time. Why is this plan, which puts someone with a track record of being wrong in charge, a good one?

    Here is a quick summary too:
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10051790-38.html

  3. Ben September 26th, 2008 11:56 am

    The most frustrating part of all of this is that the perpetrators of this mass have already, for the most part, gotten away with it. I don’t think that any plausible action our government does or does not take will hurt “them” in any serious way. The real worry is how this plays out in the future. I’m no economist, but I do believe it’s important we keep separate the desire for justice and the desire for a working economy.

    Let’s investigate what happened and punish anyone who broke laws and hold accountable officials that made bad decisions, but not make that process part of our economic policy.

  4. Ben September 26th, 2008 12:29 pm

    Also, is it coincidence that both you and Lessig used the same splash image for coverage of this mess?

    http://action.change-congress.org/t/3392/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=1127

  5. Mark September 29th, 2008 10:36 am

    Yeah that image is under a creative commons license so nobody will get mad if i use it.

  6. el samayo grande September 30th, 2008 9:05 am

    The problem with calling our reps is that the big pushers of the current form of the bailout (which is better than Paulson’s original plan, but still bad) are Pelosi (and her best friend Eshoo), Feinstein and Boxer, as well as Emanuel (my congressman) and Durbin (one of my Senators). I suggest putting on a fake accent and calling congressmen in tough races for re-election.

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