(no subject)
I just fired off this simple message to my three elected Congressional officials:
"Just one thing: stop the bailouts. Corporations don't deserve free money from us, and it is a thumb in the dike. We have bankruptcy laws - so use them already.
What Congress needs do is FIX the problem on a long-term basis by RE-REGULATING. So act like a Democrat already, because by giving free money to corporations you are smelling an awful lot like a Republican. You next election is in jeopardy from centrists like me.
Xxx Xxxxx"
I never thought I'd come to regret voting for Obama, even if I wasn't one of the ones who thought he walked on water. I don't believe in his economic policy at all. Even though I have no doubt McCain would have been terrible for me and many other middle-classers, I can't help but wonder if he would have handled this particular issue better. Of course, I should remind myself that I am wondering about what he would do because he and all the other Republicans have yet to put forward a serious alternative - and we're how many months down the road, now? Their party really has turned into a bad joke.
But I digress: Obama is fucking up. You don't feed the bubble - it will just burst all over again... or I should say it will just keep hemorrhaging cash out its busted sides. It's burst - it happened, it's over. American banks aren't the only ones that did this, either - it was Americans themselves, buying houses, cars, and plasma screens they knew they couldn't afford. Yeah, Americans are "losing their homes" - in a literal sense, yes. But they're not homeless; no, they're living in apartments now, and learning to live within their means - and they probably managed to hang onto that plasma screen.
They'd been saying that this bubble was going to pop for the better part of a decade, now - lo and behold it finally happened. And we act surprised? And we throw cash at it?? No. You let the value go back down to a reality - the market resets, we take a small shot to the groin, but we live, learn, and move on. You say "Oh, yeah, I guess it was dumb to pay half a mil for my three bedroom crapshack."
It always comes back to the old saying "pay now, or pay later". Yeah, it hurts right now, but you take your lumps now, before this turns into something worse later. Just trying to reinflate the bubble is merely punting this problem down the road, and it will only grow into something bigger and meaner - and it will hurt that much worse when the bigger bubble bursts.