The bailout is still a bad fucking idea

[Strangelet]

Niel Barofsky, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program - or NAMBLA - asserts that chances of the tax payer seeing much profit on investment is nil, if money is recouped at all. Mortgage modification and auto loan portion of tarp is never coming back, which in itself is 1/7 of the bailout funds.

And Tarp is only the tip of the iceberg. purchasing and subsidizing mortgage bonds, government treasury bonds, toxic assets, fdic insurance is also the way we've subsidized the banks through back door deals orchestrated by the federal reserve and the treasury department. And unlike tarp, none of these programs have pesky bonus restrictions.

All told total bank giveaway : 23.7 Trillion



the people who were against the bailout were vilified as heartless, free-marketeers



and the current "recovery" is touted as proof positive that it worked. But where are we really? this choice diatribe by peter schiff might be a good indication.

[King of Snake]

I've been following Schiff's blog for a while now. Ever since those clips started doing the youtubes of him predicting pretty much the whole crisis in detail a year before it happened while everyone else was telling him he was crazy. Now I don't now much about economy myself but that tells me maybe more people should listen to what this guy says.

[Strangelet]

yikes, i repeated the links. the second link should be this



I think its important to highlight this because it illustrates the breadth of opportunity for libertarian and progressive liberals to find common ground.

...and more here

[Strangelet]

on the other hand. lots of good news today. 3.5% growth in gdp third quarter.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...the-day-9.html

so who knows. maybe the world won't end.