[quote=briansd1][quote=CA renter] What I do not approve of are the bailouts of the very people who got us into this mess. This cannot be stated emphatically enough.[/quote]

I agree with you…. but that’s the path not taken. What’s done is done.

Letting the financial sector collapse in 2008 would have required the government nationalize all the big banks and socialize the economy. No chance that would happen in America.

Up until the collapse of Lehman, the people in charge though that the market + some government and Fed tweeking could handle it.

I’m not saying that the bailout programs that we got were the best solutions. But bailouts of some sorts were absolutely necessary.[/quote]

Perhaps if we had nationalized the banking system in 2008, we could have removed the profit motive that has made the financial sector grow to such a disproportionate size — and caused all our bubbles, and resultant busts. We could, instead, have focused on the REAL economy — developments that would have improved the lives of our citizens and people around the world, in addition to producing profits that are based on something tangible.