As reviled as TARP is by the teabaggers and the Fox News crowd, it seems to have been a primary factor in bringing the Great Recession to an end.
Yet many voters oppose what appears to have been a successful and low-cost program. Republicans who voted for it have been mostly losing their primary battles and even democrats have been running away from it. Will both parties begin claim credit for it based on the recent news? Or will they keep their distance from it? People forget that TARP was passed under Bush with bipartisan support, although Obama got to spend some of the money later.
Granted all the facts aren't in yet. TARP could end up costing us more or we may even make a profit. It's likely that the final numbers won't deviate much from these projections. All the Big 3 automakers turned their first profit this year since 2004 and many of the bailed out banks aren't looking too shoddy either.|||
The source of the image is kind of funny as well.|||What did TARP stand for again...Taxpayers Assume Reaming Position?
Sorry, but nobody ever asked me if I'd mind trying to save, with my own money, the financial institutions that screwed us up in the first place. Sure, the government doesn't have to ask; by electing them we gave them the power to act for us. So it might work, and it might not. I'm leaning toward not.|||Not to be Debbie Downer here, but we aren't out of the woods yet. Interesting facts, though.|||Quote:
Granted all the facts aren't in yet.
In other words, suck that Kool-Aid! America's doing great!
|||Quote:Sorry, but nobody ever asked me if I'd mind trying to save, with my own money, the financial institutions that screwed us up in the first place.
Neither you nor I are economists. We'd probably have very little to contribute to the discussion among presidential advisors when TARP was being designed. 192 economists (we know of) were against it.
Quote:
So it might work, and it might not. I'm leaning toward not.
Most economists now consider $50 billion a steal when it comes to saving the financial industry and preventing the freezing of credit which would have resulted in the closure of numerous small businesses along with an increase in unemployment. Knowing the eventual cost and the possibly catastrophic negative outcome had TARP not been passed, would you still be against it?
Quote:
Not to be Debbie Downer here, but we aren't out of the woods yet. Interesting facts, though.
Correct. We still have a ways to go in terms of the economy. Nevertheless, the fall of Lehman Brothers is considered a major factor in the decline of the international financial system. TARP appears to have limited the damage considerably.
Quote:
In other words, suck that Kool-Aid! America's doing great!
The economy is still stuck and will be for awhile. However, it could (would?) have been far worse without TARP.
The second link is about the Stimulus bill and not TARP. Color me unsurprised that govt money is unaccounted for. TARP seems to be a far more successful and cost-effective measure than Obama's Stimulus bill. You should take that as a win for the GOP since TARP was passed under Dubya.|||No worry, GW2 will generate a spike in spending.|||Quote:
You should take that as a win for the GOP since TARP was passed under Dubya.
Believe me, I don't. Despite what my fans here think, I'm definitely not a fan of the GOP or B00sh. And the Presidency has limited fiscal authority, though everyone pretends he's really Da Man.
Besides, even though the Dems don't like to recognize the fact that they controlled for the last 2 crashing years of B00sh's reign, I am pretty much of the "pox on all their houses" mentality. I don't buy the horror story that Paulson peddled, I don't buy the line about "I've Abandoned Free Market Principles to Save the Free Market System", and I think that claiming anyone or anything is "too big to fail" is asinine.
EDIT -
And you people wonder why I'm so cranky?
Quote:
What the hell: How stealth banking bailout reached Obama’s desk; Update: Here comes the first O-veto; White House: We’ll work on it|||Quote:
Despite what my fans here think, I'm definitely not a fan of the GOP or B00sh.
Not a fan in the root-rrot-root-for-the-home-team kind of way but maybe in a lesser of two evils way?
Quote:
I don't buy the horror story that Paulson peddled, I don't buy the line about "I've Abandoned Free Market Principles to Save the Free Market System", and I think that claiming anyone or anything is "too big to fail" is asinine.
We've abandoned lost of things to protect those very things. Peace, for one.
Quote:
EDIT -
And you people wonder why I'm so cranky?
That bill got smacked down by Obama. It will be back again, no doubt.
Don't blame your crankiness on politics, which has always been a gutter game. Fess up that your threeway with Trann Coulter and Michelle Malkin hasn't happened yet and we might forgive you.
|||Quote:Not a fan in the root-rrot-root-for-the-home-team kind of way but maybe in a lesser of two evils way?
How about in the, "taking the car rather than the Acela train off the cliff" way? Prescription drug benefits and open borders, woot!
Quote:
We've abandoned lost of things to protect those very things. Peace, for one.
We were never a peaceful nation, and anyone claiming that isn't honest. What we <were> was not entangled in do-goodist Wilsonian internationalism. We supported what was in our national interest and if we spread peace and prosperity, great! <Now> people like Soros say the only way to have world peace is for the U.S. to die and give them all our stuff.
Quote:
That bill got smacked down by Obama. It will be back again, no doubt.
If a stealth bill is noticed before it is passed, and has to be denounced before it can be signed, is that actually a smackdown?
Quote:
Don't blame your crankiness on politics, which has always been a gutter game. Fess up that your threeway with Trann Coulter and Michelle Malkin hasn't happened yet and we might forgive you.
There was a three-way involving that gorgeous "mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it" and I was invited?! OMG, I wonder if I can get a rain check.
It's always so amusing that Lefty haters call those they disagree with trannies and faggots when they are supposedly defenders of the true LBGQTYXWP%!@ faith (oh, and raaaacists, too). Yet I'm vilified for saying they're a bunch of (word-filtered term for masturbators, rhymes with spankers).
P.S. Judge Napolitano and others make convincing arguments about TARP being unconstitutional, as well as giving even more unfettered power to an Imperial Presidency.
No comments:
Post a Comment