President George W. Bush, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Paulson initially told lawmakers the $700 billion was needed to buy troubled assets that banks were carrying on their books.
But last week, Paulson made it official: the government wouldn’t use any of the $700 billion to buy the toxic assets.
So far, the Treasury Department has pledged $250 billion for banks in return for partial ownership, a measure designed to encourage the institutions to boost lending and stabilize credit markets.
In addition, the administration has agreed to devote $40 billion to troubled insurer American International Group, leaving $60 billion available for additional bailout efforts through Jan. 20.
It’s sad that I was genuinely surprised to hear this news. How naive is that? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Yea, I heard about this too. I thought the bailout was a bad idea in the first place. We never should have done it. We especially didn't need to push a plan through Congress that quickly – it was all a political show to make people feel better (a bipartisan show, I might add).
Okay, that came out a bit harsh, haha…sorry…I was just pretty annoyed when that was going through Congress…
I have also been opposed to this bailout from the get-go.
Bottom Line: these financial companies sold a product (sub-prime mortgages) to their customers knowing that the product was bad. These financial companies should not receive government assistance when their bad choices come back to bite them in the ass. They deserve to go out of business so that better companies can rise up, having learned from their predecessor's mistakes. That's capitalism, plain and simple.
Regardless, the bailout was passed, and now needs to be handled responsibly. I don't understand how they are able to use the money for something that wasn't even on the table at the time when this plan was sold. There needs to be serious consequences, up to and including the termination of Secretary Paulson.
They probably can use the money for whatever they want because Paulson has pretty much full control of it. Congress probably should have thought of that when they passed it.
And I agree with you about the banks. Look, Teri, we agree on something! 🙂
So what does it mean when you (the American people) are fooled hundreds of millions of time by the people you keep re-electing?
Mexico is looking better and better.