Money

[zsof]

CG and I were trying to explain the financial crisis to Ro last night, which devolved into a discussion of politics and what Republicans believe and what Democrats believe. It was interesting and CG and I continued it after Ro was bored and had run outside to play

Comments

Re: bailout

[fatefox]

Agreed.

It makes me think of a quote about capitalism that I like. It's something along the lines of "Capitalism privatizes gains and spreads losses through the public."

Lots of this was caused by plain old American Greed(tm), because I know a lot of people who made less than me that were getting mortgages with a ballooning interest rate because everyone "expected" interest rates to stay low. Everyone but bankers, that is.

I don't mind a bailout of some sort, but it had better come with some practical regulations, everything from true oversight by something more than their own accountants to a really close look at executive salaries. I know execs work really hard for their 6+ digit incomes (no sarcasm intended for the most part) but when for example, the failed CEO of AT&T is fired with a multimillion dollar severance, something is wrong. I could've run AT&T into the ground for a lot less money. ;)

Honestly, can't the people who caused this mess be the ones to pay for the bulk of it? I don't mind helping out, but in proportion to the trouble I've caused. And if we're going to be the ones paying to fix this mess, I want to make damn sure this mess isn't going to happen again. :)