Too bad the Fed did not try to save the jobs of the horse and buggy drivers in the early part of the 20th century. Creative destruction is a core principle of Capitalism. The old disappears and new industry is created, Politicians forget about it in their desire for votes.
Sorry, can't let that one fly by. If you'd just left it at America, I would have agreed with you but you had to be political and specifically accuse Democrats, didn't ya.. 1. It's extraordinary to watch the fringes of the Republican party act like anti war beatniks of the 60s. Can't wait to see what your Peace and Love sign is gonna look like. A reverse swastika? Perfect symbol, no? 2. In your delusional world, the Vietnam war was started by Democrats? Read your history. Truman was the final actor of something started by Eisenhower. Want to talk about Nixon, Reagan or Bush and their quest for democracy and freedom in the world? And I don't mean to diminish the role that Democrats have played in human butchery. The truth is, the military industrial complex has both parties by the balls, and many a general have their dachas in Florida, Wyoming or Arizona thanks to the generous support of our specialized American corporations. Let's face it, America is powerful primarily because we the people earmark 30% of our tax dollars to ensure we have the world's best instruments of war, and what's the point of that if we don't use them frequently. Nevermind that our infrastructures are developing world level.
Arguing counterfactuals like that is extremely weak. There were plenty of mid-sized, non-TBTF b banks that could've taken up some of the slack. And yes, some banks just needed to fail. Obama "saving" GM was a bad joke. It might have been a bit worse and lasted a bit longer, but wouldn't have led to 13 more years of bubble mania.
The collapse of the Western economic system and the curse of Central Bankers. And the investors are weeping. And the traders are rejoicing.
Perhaps there is a misunderstanding. The only banks rescued were those that were solvent once the securities they held were properly evaluated. Insolvent bank, and there were many, went under. The Fed does not give money away to banks or anyone else. It's our money, and we wouldn't want them to. What they did was step in and evaluate illiquid, mortgage backed securities, discount them and buy them. These were not worthless securities, but the market for them had dried up because people were afraid of them.
So why should the Fed clean up after idiots who can't evaluate risk? What is the point of helping idiots who can't evaluate a risk that will blow up their company? Get real these "solvent Banks" as you state were not solvent since these instruments were worthless on a mark-to-market basis.
Because a government has more concerns about the human impact of letting large and small businesses go bankrupt, than to abide by a puritanical view of capitalism? I was appalled when the government bailed out so many too large to fail corporations, but hundreds of thousands of jobs were at stake and today these corporations have rebounded. To avoid a repeat, the proper solution is for government to set strict governance rules and ensure the next political party in power doesn't water these rules down or dismiss them...
Well yes, the huge bloody part was engineered by the DEMs. Eisenhower '52 (non-political but finally Republican) was already warning about the Military-Industrial complex. Ike fully knew the folly of War for the sake of War. IKE was only sending "advisors" to the war zone. For the young folks out there, that means those folks were OK with that. Volunteers. As opposed to getting drafted (fully legal commitment). Those folks were not OK with that. Not sure exactly where the draft was initiated, during JFK. The need for American cannon fodder in Vietnam was enormous. Citizens were of course alarmed at the volume of dead bodies. And in typical government fashion, instead of reducing the number of dead bodies, Congress decided that the piles of dead bodies should be done more in line with the general population, without any racial lines. Early '70s, the average white kid was in college. The "2-S" classification kept them out of harms way. So, the war mongers selected a "Lottery system". But the total effects of the lack of "government wisdom" has yet to be tallied. This unjust war was kicked off under JFK (Conscripts were starting to get killed). LBJ cranked it into high gear (). Nixon (my first Vote) ended the madness. Nixon did a lot of bad stuff. But ending that war was a huge piece of the right stuff. But my original question about what is the 50 year aftermath of the Vietnam disaster has not been addressed. The goal was to remove dictators. Two were removed (HItler and Hirohito). Vietnam War has been over for a half a century. The goal was to keep North Vietnam out of South Vietnam. Now there is no North and South Vietnam. Everybody is getting along? 52,000 American dead. What was accomplished? Why was there even a War ??