While that number is certainly staggering, it differs from everything else on that list as a relatively small percentage of it is direct spending (most of it is loans, and purchasing existing debt, much like a collection agency does to generate revenue). I will agree that the upfront cost of this being 60% of our GDP is a bit scary, but so is the prospect of economic failure.
Is it? Would this economic failure actually happen without taking $80,000 per family of four, and loaning it to banks in order for them to dig themselves out of a hole they (or the Fed, perhaps) purposefully dug themselves into? Isn't there another way? What about helping out the people who got duped into getting these fucked up mortgages?
A pretty large portion of that money is going to purchase those shitty loans from the banks that gave them, so that those very same people might have some chance to repay what they borrowed. I think we can all see what a spark to the economy came out of just handing out money to people in the form of a tax stimulus.
I am no economist, so what I say in this matter is pretty worthless, but my rudimentary understanding of the state of our economy is that a lot of it rests on the relative health of a relatively few very large companies -- a handful of lending and investment banks and auto manufacturers that are being bailed out -- which are among those being "bailed out"
I'm no economist either. I've been trying to wrap my head around this, and I can't, really. Steve Forbes might understand, and he says the Fed created this mess intentionally:
I do know that even though a vast majority of the population was against the initial $600 billion bailout, it still passed handily, with Obama's help, and that was part of the reason I didn't vote for him.
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I am no economist, so what I say in this matter is pretty worthless, but my rudimentary understanding of the state of our economy is that a lot of it rests on the relative health of a relatively few very large companies -- a handful of lending and investment banks and auto manufacturers that are being bailed out -- which are among those being "bailed out"
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFxZDTAXEhg
I do know that even though a vast majority of the population was against the initial $600 billion bailout, it still passed handily, with Obama's help, and that was part of the reason I didn't vote for him.
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