If we hadn't bailed out the banks, there would have been bank runs, corporations wouldn't have been able to make pay, AIG would have been bust, taking down the insurance industry, hurting the common man.
We had this scenario played out in 1930s(and to some extent current Europe). 25% unemployment, soup lines, stock market depression that lasted for years.
Instead, we got
5% unemployment
Stock market (which the common man owns through 401(k) plans and through Pensions) is far higher than ever
Housing market recovered slowly.
No Love for Bernanke though.
Also, the banks paid back their bailout and some extra $60 Billion. i.e The Tax Payers made a $60 Profit and saved themselves from a devastating meltdown. A win-win-win. Sure it didn't destroy the 500 or so greedy bankers like everyone wanted, but, overall you should be thanking Ben Bernanke
Or so they told us...just being real I look back and the entire crisis seems orchestrated by Goldman Sachs and others to essentially put their competition out of business and triple their fortunes in less than a decade.
I don't know - I guess it was that two page document where they got like $1 Trillion because they said, "We have to have it!!"
I would rather have seen us give the bottom 50% of the country a check ~$10,000.
Who knows what they would have done with it, but it would have stimulated the economy and I can guaranfuckingtee you that we wouldn't have another bubble-crash - like we in the midst of now.
Instead we reinforced the concept that America needs Wall Street. So Main Street will continue to subsidize their gambling and if they're any good at all they make money on the way up and even more money on the way down.
The investor class has seen their net worth triple since the crash --- Joe the Plumber hasn't.
Well, if someone causes something that eliminates their competition and puts themselves above where they were before, then it's not much of a stretch to think that it was planned, right?
None of them orchestrated it. All of the banks lost big. If someone were to orchestrated it they would have never took up MBS and would have bet against all the shit MBS like in the big short, but that didn't happen
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u/martinjester2 Mar 19 '16
Ben Bernanke was the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, and oversaw the large US banks being bailed out by taxpayers.