Wednesday, September 24, 2008

This Is a Local Problem

Imposed on the rest of us.

Brick Oven calls for no bailout. A bailout would represent a transfer of wealth from those who work, purchase homes that they can afford, and generally live responsible lives to greedy bankers, irresponsible buyers, and a subgroup of people who did nothing wrong except have bad timing.

Protecting the third group does not justify the cost to the rest of us. Let the system crash. We will pick up the pieces and be stronger for it.

If the markets are forced to correct themselves now, or allowed to drift and forced to correct themselves more violently in two years, grown-ups will be forced to look objectively at what happened. The Federal Reserve chart above illustrates how wealth is eliminated. The red regions are those same regions with the inundated emergency rooms.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"A bailout would represent a transfer of wealth from those who work, purchase homes that they can afford, and generally live responsible lives to greedy bankers, irresponsible buyers...

Bill,

Although I initially bought into the "need" for a government bail-out, you've expressed exactly what I've been feeling.

I find myself increasingly doubting the need for bailing out bankers and Wall Street - and even irresponsible borrowers.

A I cannot find out how the $700 billion figure was arrived at, any details about how monies will be allocated/prioritized for buying up bad loans, nor what percentage of loan values are to be paid for them. I'm growing more skeptical by the minute.