700 billion

[zioshech]

Before launching into a rant about stuff that I have no clue about, I would like to say that Andrea now rolls around the floor of her nursery school all day like a little beef chub. She grabs anything within sight and puts in her mouth, then throws it to the ground before you even have the chance to take it away. And she made a new friend last week

Comments

[agershenson]

nope, incorrect. people that made entirely too little money went to lenders and asked- how big of a mortgage can you give me- normal. the lenders, knowing that they were only going to hold on to this debt for maybe a few months, said- this much. which of course was more than the poor saps could afford. but hey, the poor saps, the majority of them, are used to trusting guys in nice suits in fancy offices. so they took the mortgages on. the nice suits then turned around, and handed the mortgages as CDO's to other guys in nice suits. and at some point, some of the guys in nicest suits bought those CDO's like crazy. Hoping they can hand them off to some more guys in nice suits. only it don't work that way. so now the taxpayers are asked to bail out the guys in nice suits, because they played a risky game and lost. if those same guys played a risky game and won, they'd be screaming that they need tax breaks because they drive the economy

[zioshech]

But what's the end result of the bailout? So you give lots of money to the guys in the nice suits so they don't feel as "cash-strapped" and then what do they do with it? They invest it, lend it out... But if a progressively larger portion of the underlying economy is based on non-skilled workers who make 7 to 10 bucks an hour in the service industry, all of this money shuffling appears useless as an economic stimulus.

[agershenson]

well, no, this is different than an economic stimulus. the reason why the guys in nice suits are getting the money is because otherwise they will cease to exist, and turn into poor saps. the money will go to pay the debts of the nice suits- they won't be investing it anywhere.

oh, and I agree with you COMPLETELY about the last sentence

[marrazm]

Problem is, without this bailout, there would be a total market meltdown, which affects the credit markets. Without credit markets, most industries can't function, and the economy collapses.

It wasn't the RIGHT thing to do, but they really had no choice.

[zioshech]

yeah, I keep hearing that, but I also feel like there must be something fundamentally wrong with the economy and industry in this country so just shoving enormous amounts of money their way might not solve anything.

And the response of the internets is....

[anonymous]

http://www.buymyshitpile.com/

-myan myan

P.S. Andrea is 5 months old TODAY - April 23;)

[vinnipuh]

Happy 5 months, beefen'ka :)!

[sermal]

Happy Birthday!