Political Physics: The Wisdom of the Crowd
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A blogumn by Monique King-Viehland
Bailout Plan – Good, Bad or Ugly?
On Friday, October 3rd, President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (aka “the bailout bill”). The 451-page law authorizes the United States Secretary of the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion to purchase distressed assets, especially mortgage-backed securities, from the nation’s banks. Supporters of the plan argued that unprecedented market intervention was critical to prevent further erosion of confidence in the credit markets and that failure to act could have lead to an economic depression. However, opponents objected to the massive cost of the plan, the speed with which the bill passed and claimed that better alternatives were not considered.
I’m sure we’ve all been following the talk about the plan – willingly or unwillingly – since you cannot turn on a TV without hearing about it. So I thought I’d add my two cents to the discussion, but first I’d like to know what you think?
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[poll id=”3″]
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[poll id=”5″]
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I’d love to get your responses to the poll questions above and feel free to provide additional explanations, opinions, etc. in the comments.
Next week I plan to share my thoughts on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and I will incorporate the results of the poll and your comments.
See you next week!
I feel like this is the same as W pulling the copper wire out of the walls as he is being evicted from the white house. It’s his final gift to all his friends in big business.
I feel like this is the same as W pulling the copper wire out of the walls as he is being evicted from the white house. It’s his final gift to all his friends in big business.
I’m with Christian. You know, a couple years ago, they tried to privatize social security (i.e. take TONS of the govt’s money & stick it in the market for “safe keeping”?). When they didn’t get their way on that, they just waited a couple years….then came up with this scheme. I’m sure i’m over simplifying things. But this is only the latest scheme to hand oodles of cash to big business.
I’m with Christian. You know, a couple years ago, they tried to privatize social security (i.e. take TONS of the govt’s money & stick it in the market for “safe keeping”?). When they didn’t get their way on that, they just waited a couple years….then came up with this scheme. I’m sure i’m over simplifying things. But this is only the latest scheme to hand oodles of cash to big business.
That copper wire removal image is hilarious. This is a great post! I was so torn by this after the early King Paulson 2.5 page “GIMME MONEY!!” bill. That was clearly, obviously a bad idea. BUT, fear for country was soooo drummed up so it seemed like our only option was to give moolah to bankers. Now it just seems like we got tricked on some con, like the entire country got an email from an Ethiopian widow and we gave up our banking info. DUPED AGAIN!
That copper wire removal image is hilarious. This is a great post! I was so torn by this after the early King Paulson 2.5 page “GIMME MONEY!!” bill. That was clearly, obviously a bad idea. BUT, fear for country was soooo drummed up so it seemed like our only option was to give moolah to bankers. Now it just seems like we got tricked on some con, like the entire country got an email from an Ethiopian widow and we gave up our banking info. DUPED AGAIN!
Thanks folks for your votes and responses thus far! After looking at the poll results and reading your comments (all of which are interesting) it makes it even harder for me not to respond, but alas I must wait until next week.
Thanks folks for your votes and responses thus far! After looking at the poll results and reading your comments (all of which are interesting) it makes it even harder for me not to respond, but alas I must wait until next week.