The bailout from Oct. 3 to today; a retrospective
According to a Reuters report, the ‘adult industry’ will ask the government for a $5 billion bailout. Say it isn’t so.
Members of the Financial Stability Oversight Board, which is the group overseeing the bailout, admitted recently that they have no way of knowing for sure how the bailout money is being used. They also admitted that it is difficult to isolate the effects of the bailout.
The government is also considering providing money to suppliers of the domestic auto industry on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.
A report issued by the Financial Stability Oversight Board stated; ‘We have made significant progress, but there is no single action the federal government can take to end the financial market turmoil and the economic downturn.’ ‘We are confident we are pursuing the right strategy.’ Because there are some very smart people who make up the board, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s not like learning Yahtzee
It took a rather complex set of events to plunge us into a recession, and addressing each variable while determining the order in which to address each variable, cannot be an easy task. Our economy has gone through phases beyond the normal cycles it goes through, and with new drivers and an evolution away from manufacturing and into technology, it is quite different than the thirties.
We didn’t have the same trading partners then. We didn’t make markets in every security in the blink of any eye. We didn’t have robots taking an active part in building cars. We didn’t all have a dozen credit cards in 1934. It’s hard to look at old economic models and apply them to America in 2009.
With $250 billion going to banks, the AP found that most of the funds are not accounted for. The original idea, and don’t forget, the original plan with the bailout was to inject money into the credit markets to get banks to make loans again. Are banks loaning their new found funds? Nobody knows.
So with taxpayer money going to banks, Citigroup, the Big3 and potentially the porn industry, are we better off than we were three months ago? It’s anyone’s guess.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
They may put Madoff in prison because he made off with investors money , What about Henry Paulson ?