[quote=briansd1]Warren Buffett operates within the existing system that we have. Of all the big financiers, I find Warren Buffett to be fair minded, with the inclination to doing right by society (but also to serve himself).
What was the alternative to the government bailouts of 2008? Of course, the bailouts were not implemented in the most elegant ways; but we didn’t have the benefits of going back a decade and erasing the bad policies that inflated the bubble.
I’d personally like to see some retribution and punishment of the people who caused the crisis.[/quote]
So which is it? Do want the people who were responsible to be punished? Or do you want them to be handed a bunch of taxpayer money? Because the second thing is what happened, and that’s what you seem to be praising.
As for what the alternatives to the bailout would have been, here’s one: don’t give away money hand over fist to the participants and bondholders in the very industry that caused the crisis.
For a more serious answer, I refer you to John Hussman’s writings on the assorted bailouts and what better alternatives would have been over at his site… I am pretty much entirely in agreement with him on the bailout topic.
