Do you believe that the Government Bailouts helped, just kept the scum floating

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   LAURENS WRIGHTposted 12 years ago

   Do you believe that the Government Bailouts helped, just kept the scum floating or funded the CEO's
   
   A lot of money bailed out the auto-makers, the banks and the financial agencies.  Do you think that this was money well invested?  Do you think that the 700 billion could have been used to fund energy investments, recycling, fund inventions and to invest in new technology?  Do you think that using the borrowed money should have been used failed businesses?

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2. 66

   LandmarkWealthposted 12 years ago

   The bank bailouts were actually profitable to the tax payer to the tune of several hundred billion dollars..  That still does not make it a good idea in that it creates moral hazard and still should not have been done.  The auto bailout has and will continue to cost the tax payer billions. The reality is that no bailout of private enterprise should ever take place.  Nor should the Gov't be investing in private enterprise either.  New technology and innovations have to come from the private sector via private capital formation.  Gov't officials will never be effective at dispersing capital.  They play favorites with their friends and invest in unviable entities that could never be profitable in private industry and ultimately cost the taxpayer more money.

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   peoplepower73posted 12 years ago

   As far as GM goes, it was the right thing to do.  Because thousands of GM workers would have been out on the street. As far as the banks and financial agencies, It was the wrong thing to do. Because their recklessness and greed and corruption created the financial meltdown.  The CEO's and brokers essentially privatized their gains and nationalized their debt.  GM going broke was not the cause, but the symptom of deregulation of the Glass-Stegal Act which would have prevented the greed and corruption and protected the man on the street.

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4. 73

   d.williamposted 12 years ago

   The only people who benefited from the bailouts were the wall street shysters, banks, large corporations,  and the wealthy.  That was one of the worst debacles in the history of the U.S.
   It changed nothing in Washington, or with corporate america.  Washington politicians still get their high salaries, the best (free) health coverage, exorbitant retirement packages even after one term in office, that the average citizen has to work a life time for, insider information that they exploit, and more.  Those businesses who were "too big to fail" lost nothing, and continue doing business as usual with record breaking profits and personal 'bonuses' and 'golden parachutes'.
   There must be logical limitations put on those who exploit others and amass vast fortunes by hurting others.  This is NOT redistribution of wealth, it is common sense to stop the greed that fuels this world today.   We can never trust the greedy to oversee themselves.  That will always be like putting a fox in charge of guarding the hen house.   There is no common sense left in washington that can not be bought with money.
   If every person in this country had been given $100,000.00 dollars and those huge thieving companies were allowed to fail we would not be in this predicament today.  The dissolving of those monopolies would have made way for thousands of small businesses to replace them and the $$ invested in the American people would have been spent back into the economy instead of trillions of dollars going into CEO private bank accounts. 
   Voting those who created this tragedy back into office is surely the epitome of insanity:  Doing the same things over and over again and hoping for a different result each time - that IS insanity.

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't agree with all of your comments.  But I must point out that if everyone was simply given 100k. 100k wouldn't be worth anything anymore due to inflation.  If we gave everyone a million dollars, it wouldn't be enough to buy a small home.

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      d.williamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't expect 2 many will agree with me in today's world of the exaltation of greed above all else. The 100k amt was metaphorical but even 1mil would have been cheaper than what was done.

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I meant the impact of monetary velocity in giving away money. Greed was not the cause of the financial crisis as much as social engineering of the MBS market by the GSE's.  I guess you could call that greed in the sense of pursuit of political power.

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      d.williamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      either way the result was the same: the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Not Really, Money placed on a bank balance sheet doesn't have the same effect on inflation.  I didn't personally agree with TARP.  But the tax payers made out quite well on it anyway. The return was several hundred billion to the treasury.

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      d.williamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      how did the taxpayer make out on the bail out?  Is there something i missed?

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The Treasury was paid back in many cases in common stock of the banks which had appreciated signifigantly and was sold for a profit.  The banks were profitable, unfortunately we lost money on the auto bailout.

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      d.williamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OK i get it now. corporations are the same as people, so they are the tax payers who made out, not the individual citizens.

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No the US Treasury dept.  The same people that gave them money (US Treasury) got it back and then some.  Technically all the stock is yet to be sold.  The Treasury just recently sold some GM stock two weeks ago.

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