After 8 years of Bush/Cheney lies, deceit, fiscal irresponsibility, ill-begotten wars, domestic spying, fear-mongering, etc, we are in a deep hole that will take years to climb out of. I am sure none of wants bailouts, but sometimes the medicine doesn’t taste very good.
Oh behave!!! During part of the ‘Bush/Cheney’ era, we had a Democrat control Congress. The President does not control the country like a dictator. He can only sign or veto bills that congress gives him. You really want to change things… change Congress (House and Senate). In addition, Clinton handed Bush the Tech-Bubble, which Bush seemed to handle ok until Greenspan suggested that ARMs are a great way to finance houses(near the lowest interest rates no less – when fixed was near 4.0%). Low interest rates were not the problem (BTW, we are currently at a negative effective interest rate because of the printing of money), but low quality of credit underwriting is a very big problem. Greenspan didn’t understand why inflation was not getting controlled when raising the fed rates.. and didn’t seem to connect the problem to option-ARM, pick-a-pay (NINJAs).. which show an artificially low rate with a hidden gotcha at the back-end.
As for where we are now… yes the $700Bil TARP deal is annoying, but it is no giveaway. BofA alone is paying the Fed $405Mil per quarter (4 quarters per year = $1.63B a year on interest alone) for their TARP loan. Freddie Mac is paying $1.1B a quarter for theirs (a resulting 10% interest rate on their TARP loan – look up usury and anti usury laws. Limit is 10% for personal loans). That said, all of the TARP money has to be repaid, either directly or from Gov ownership of the company in stock. The several trillion (1 trillion = 1000Billion) that Obama has committed to, are give-aways. No repayment, no interest. If TARP made you mad, this should really piss you off.. unless you take the position that whatever a Dem president does is ok but what ever a Rep president does is wrong – in which case you are a hypocrite. Obamas ‘recovery’ money has an annoying amount of pork in it. From the TARP money, the citizens may actually profit… from Obama’s ‘recovery program’, the citizens are likely screwed.
I am not skewering only the Dems here, both sides (Dems & Repubs) deserved to get skewered. They play against the populace from the extremes and ignore the mainstream. I don’t even get into who is worse because they are both deserve a royal reaming.
Finally, a bit of sneakiness in the TARP – and not one that people are considering or that the media is covering. BofA is paying about a 3.5% interest rate to the Fed on their TARP funds. These funds cost the Fed around the range of 1.5% to 2.0% in treasury interest. This means the Fed is making 1% to 1.5% (spread) on money that was used in TARP from BofA. This is not the sneakiness.. the following is: Why is Freddie and Fannie having to pay 10% on their TARP funds(not 3.5%)? It is simple. Goldman Sachs and the MBA want the business that Freddie and Fannie has (and to have the government underwrite the risks.. so that Goldman/MBA have no risk). Bernanke/Paulson chose a rate for Freddie’s and Fannie’s TARP funds that could drive them into bankruptcy without looking like that is what they were really doing. Part of the TARP agreement is a section that makes Bernanke/Paulson immune from prosecution for acts taken under the TARP (which bank is selected, survives, and what they pay in interest). By the way, Paulson is ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs… I wonder what interest rate Paulson had Goldman paid on their TARP money?
Finally, direct to comments: ill-begotten wars; you notice that Obama has increased the feet on the ground in Afghanistan. Not exactly scaling down eh? One thing that happens to incoming presidents is that they get ‘read into’ all of the classified info when they take office. They get to see everything that the media and general public do not see. fear-mongering; What do you call the crap going around behind the push for Universal Health Care – particularly considering that the government programs for Medicare/Medicaid are such a ‘success’.
Ok.. now off my rant and taking my Quaaludes chased by Prozak .. all good and numb in a few minutes…
