$700 billion from us to save the banks. Good?

I think it's a case of 'fingers-crossed'... last Friday when this news broke (together with new regulation of short-trading brought in by the UK government), the stock market went through the roof with the biggest one day rise in history.

Only time will tell if this is sustainable.

That money could save a lot of people from starving - but which is more important?

These are the same financial institutions that insist 'You can't interfere with the market' and 'The unseen hand of the market will regulate things'. The first MBA president, his entire administration and the whole edifice of Wall Street either failed to see this coming or knew it was coming but failed to do anything about it.

but eventually aren't we headed to a mostly non-cash system where everything is virtual?

It's true, most of our money is not there. It's just imaginary, numbers on a piece of paper. Not like with Scrooge McDuck, who swims in his own. The money isn't stored in the banks dungeons, and there's no point in robbing them anymore. Banks only have little cash physically placed in them. When you make a deposit and leave your cash in the bank, it is immediately transferred to global stockmarket, where it will be invested in order to make more money, firstly to the bank itself and then to you as what they call the interest.

It's a tough decision. 7 billion could as far as I know save the state of affairs or it could double the inflation. No such measure has taken place in the history, so this would be the first one, thoguh HUGE. we know already, that what money loses its value, as it is going to now, banks will go corrupt. And in the early 90s in Finland for example, a lot of companies/corporations that had their money invested in certain banks survived. A lot of banks went corrupt and along them a lot of people and businesses, all lost their savings. And the state could only help those that it could with a low budget, because at that point there was no money to be collected. So a few survived. One or two banks, some big corporations and the rich because they had so much to begin with.

So with inflation the value of the currency decreases, meaning, that there's a lot of money about, but it's not worth anything. We all know what happened in Germany in the early 20th century, or what's going on in Zimbabwe right now, where inflation is at 100000%. Drawing physical money from the people is an inevitable measure. As long as everyone still has that money, there's no possibility the value of it would grow back to where it was a few years back. Otherwise everyone would be rich, and the prices would go up again, and... wait, that's just what's happening now. I think paying the sum is inevitable, but I'm not sure if 7 billion is the right amount. I'd like to hear some arguments behind it, but I for one can't make better suggestions. They've got professional economists counting the amount, and I believe in them more than in the average Joe Public who only knows the name of his dog.

One option, of course would be to close the international/national stock market and prevent income from all the corporations that are part of this cycle. And in the end, it's only 20 bucks per person.

Savings and Loan crisis deja-vu.  Take away responsible regulations.  Privatize the profits and to the public goes the losses when the crap hits the fan.

http://www.thismodernworld.com/






Edited by Slartibartfast - September 22 2008 at 13:22

I suppose it all depends on what funny business has gone on.  Maybe an evaluation of the executive's finances needs to be done by our friendly neighborhood Federal Bureau of Investigations, and if it appears that some of the more unscrupulous types have 4 or 5 too many homes, airplanes, yachts, sports cars, then these individuals should face the same spotlight as our former Enron buddies, and they should also be made to foot the bill.

It makes me so angry I really can't articulate anything but rage. 

As Brian says, they want all the profits, no regulation, privatize this and free-market that.   But when it all goes to hell because of their greed, then government is GOOD all of a sudden.  Then they're right in line for a hand-out like the welfare folks they hate.  The hypocrisy is stunning, just beyond belief. 

Oh yeah, and Bush says that no "punitive measures" should be allowed in the bill.  That's right, give them taxpayer dollars to reward their colossal f-ck up, but no, you can't punish anyone. 

Maybe it's necessary, who knows, that's not the point of my post.  The point is that these people should get called on their behavior rather than rewarded for it, and I don't really hear that happening in the media or in congress yet.  Those that broke laws or rules should also have their profits for the last few years taken back and be thrown out of the banking business--in a fair world.  I hope a few Reps and Sens speak out. 

Naivety.  Sure.  Just pissed off over this. 

I can has new revolution?

Isn't it interesting that the Fed. Reserve was partially created to help prevent our banks from failing and all that, then the great depression happened a few years later.


Anyways, I just sent a bunch of Emails to representatives.