JPF Home Page Forums Stop The Bailout

It's not a freebie, and the Treasury and the bill itself intend not to overpay for the assets. There is a very real possibility the government will get back the money and maybe more. Goldman-Sachs and Morgan Stanley may not even want to be a part of it because of the restrictions placed on compensation, etc. And, they changed status so that they can obtain capital via deposits, not to be a part of the rescue package. Plus, they may have been eligible regardless of status.

Does the whole think stink? Absolutely. Andrew is exactly right, deregulation and blowing hard about a free market is what caused this. Again, capitalism has fundamental flaws which require a strong government to referee, oversee, and regulate. The trick is doing it in the right places so as not to hinder human spirit and initiative. Capitalism is not a perfect system.

One fatal flaw of capitalism is unhindered self-interest, which leads to pursuing money at all costs, including ignoring the future, morality, other people, etc. It leads to creating financial vehicles so complicated nobody understands them, with the purpose of obfuscating the truth. It causes normally conservative companies and investors to abandon principal because "look how much money these other guys are making!". "Everybody's doing it!"

It's the government's job to regulate this, and they failed terribly. And yup, Brian is so right, everybody in Congress is to blame, regardless of party. And, as someone said, many of the same blowhards that allowed this are the ones "fixing" it. Dodd, Frank, the conservative wing of the Republican party, the list goes on. Lest somebody blame only the Democrats, Phil Gramm, who was running McCain's campaign, sneaked into some bill awhile ago much of the banking deregulation that helped cause all this...

But, everybody will probably vote down party lines, just like always. We'll all vote for our nice incumbent Congressman because we personally like him/her. And then we'll all wonder why nothing changes...