I didn't know the FED could make loans to non-bank corporations. It doesn't seem right to bail out some but not others. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120106870.html
Just incredible, fucking incredible to say the least, 2 years later were finding out where all the trillions went to bailout and prop up the stock market. They will do anything to keep markets from collapsing. Funny how they dont stop the markets from getting to asset bubbles!!! 21,000 loan records. Talk about the Bubble ben bernanke propping up the markets. This is just getting more clear that the fed will do almost anything to prevent recessions and depressions from happening which tells you this is not a free market at all, its all a rigged game. The Fed's efforts to prop up the financial sector reached across a broad spectrum of the economy, benefiting stalwarts of American industry including General Electric and Caterpillar and household-name companies such as Verizon, Harley-Davidson and Toyota. The central bank's aid programs also supported U.S. subsidiaries of banks based in East Asia, Europe and Canada while rescuing money-market mutual funds held by millions of Americans. The biggest users of the Fed lending programs were some of the world's largest banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Swiss-based UBS and Britain's Barclays, according to more than 21,000 loan records released Wednesday under new financial regulatory legislation.
I don't think anyone would argue with you. But what I always come back to is that sometimes in extreme situations you have to accept a necessary evil. Is it fair to bail out some and not others? No. But wouldn't you consider bailing out the big boys if you thought their failure would bring the country down? of course. The question that is hard to answer is whether these entities were 'too big to fail'. For the most part, it's not hard for me to believe a lot of these were too big to fail. Here's what struck me from the article: "Fed officials emphasize that their actions were meant to stabilize a financial system that was on the verge of collapse in late 2008. They note that the actions worked to prevent a complete financial meltdown and that none of the special lending programs has lost money. (Some have recorded healthy profits for taxpayers.) " ""It is hard to say what would have happened without the facility, and how its absence might have affected GE, but overall the program was extremely effective in helping stabilize the market," GE spokesman Russell Wilkerson said by e-mail. Verizon spokesman Robert A. Varettoni said that it was "an extraordinary time," adding that there was no credit available otherwise at the time. " "The disclosure shows "how really profound the financial crisis was in the fall of 2008 and the firepower the Fed mustered in response," said analyst Karen Shaw Petrou of Federal Financial Analytics. " "Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher defended the Fed's actions during the financial crisis, saying the central bank "stepped into the breach" in its role as a lender of last resort. Click here! "That's what we are paid to do," he said. "We took an enormous amount of risk with the people's money," he acknowledged. But the crisis lending programs are now all closed, he said, "and we didn't lose a dime, and in fact we made money on every one of them." " -who am I to say all these people are full of shit, and that the whole thing was a big sham pulled on the American People? I'm willing to entertain that maybe something better could have been done, but I do think they did about the best they could in a true crisis.
you know it might be OK to bail out in those special situations but not to reward. All those crooks who created crisis are 5 times richer then before I don't mind bail them out but put them into JAIL after that and break their companies into small chunks and sell
I would say most are wealthier now than at the top of the market back in 2007. The bailout was for rich and no one else.
i have no problem with depression..i was fully prepared for it. this is when people who do have money-buy from those idiots,who margin themselves to the hilt. those companies according to "normal" capitalistic model should and must be allowed to fall, split into a pieces,management should be fired and then new owners start from scratch.. this is how it's suppose to work. not anymore i guess... turns out-those guys who sitting on cash,waiting for bargains,hoping that those capitalistic rules would work..they ended up wit h nothing..0.0001% on their savings account in shitty,bankrupt bank.. but those,who suppose to be in the deep shit-they just borrow even more..they didn't do shit for "economy" or country..many of them not even in trouble..they borrow even more and they use those money to buy their competitors..some of those competitors are forced by gvt to go bankrupt. WM is just a one example. and whatever left from free interest loans-they put them into stocks. this is why "common" investing model not going to work anymore...interesting times..
There are worse things than a depression; such as corporate fascism and socialism for the rich. If it's easy for you to get over, then you should question whether you're even a free market capitalist. Some of these companies took taxpayer money, then turned right around and screwed the taxpayer. There are zero consequences for those responsible and there were no concessions for those who took money. Let me give you an example. Credit companies took money then turned around and raised the rates on their cards. Mortgage brokers took money, but did not have to renegotiate mortgages. How do you like that? Come on...roll over...at least there's not gonna be a depression.
The guy is an obvious troll and I see very little evidence that a depression was avoided for large swathes of the populus. 43 million on food stamps, 20% unemployment, etc, etc...