I've thought about writing this article since the "bailouts" first started coming down the pike but procrastinated but I want to get this down before I hear someone else say it and then it won't seem original. Up until now I've never heard ANYONE talk about this and from day one I've been baffled as to why.
Everyone except the people who received the loot were against the bailouts 100%. Nobody bought into the BS about "to big to fail" for the most part even uninterested laypeople could tell that printing money out of thin air and handing it to well connected bankers at the expense of future generations of taxpayers was wrong. So this article isn't to go into detail about the bailouts or how wrong they are in principle, but rather to show that there were other avenues they could've chosen if they weren't so damn greedy.
Before I get to far I want to point out, that I believe bailouts (organized theft) is wrong, and never can be justified.
Now essentially the bailouts were given to banks in order to help their balance sheets since they were involved in a myriad of shady deals (CDO's subprime etc) all of which are completely worthless and the market was realizing it. So the bankers made unfathomable money during the boom, and when it went bust they were left holding the bag, or would've been if DC wasn't on their payroll. So they were reckless as all hell and were given as much money as they needed to offset their gambling debts.
As this article points out the total cost of the bailouts might reach 24 trillion dollars. This is the equivalent to 80,000 dollars for every man woman and child in this country right now. A staggering sum to say the least that a family of 4 is now in debt an extra 320,000 dollars more than they already are. Even if you are a naysayer and doubt the 24 trillion, hell say it's half say it's 12 trillion, that is 160,000 for a family of four.
So we all realize how screwed up that is, you don't need someone to point it out, and sadly most people have accepted it and moved on instead of going berserk (literally). However I don't think most people realize just how hard and vigorously they were raped. They don't consider this option.
Which is that the government gives a family of 4 160,000 dollars but then the money gets sent to their banks and pays off their loans. Now only maybe half of America has a mortgage anyway so this money would be more than enough to pay off their house, car, credit cards, student loans etc.
So the banks still get the money for all the loans and the people are either debt free or sitting on a small mountain of cash (if they weren't in debt).
As the last 2 years have shown us, the bailouts, stimulus (insert positive and painless phrase here) haven't done a damn thing. They were supposed to save jobs, save our homes, bring back manufacturing and just general economic health to our land. NONE of that has happened unemployment is still well into the double digit range.
So under the sensible bailout plan, you would be debt free, the banks balance sheets are cleaned up and for the short term things would be good. instead though, and here is the worst part, the banks get all the money now, and they get the money again when you keep paying your mortgage. So they get double.
So face it America, you took it rectally and hard, meanwhile the bastards in DC laugh their way to the bank.
Note: Don't think for a second that I think people wouldn't just rush back into debt or that this plan would somehow save the economy long term. I don't think that is possible. However I do think it would've bought us maybe 5 good years and not that, that's worth it but it's a helluva lot better than what we got. I also think that it is as fair as any bailout could be since the smart people could expatriate with their cash instead of going down with the ship. I also realize this money is "supposed" to be paid back but if you think that it will I've got some gorgeous ocean front property in Idaho I'd love to sell you. Plus with all the loans paid back they can begin to make sensible loans and could pay it back legitimately but that ain't gonna happen.
