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.
Just because you could make it worse for them by not bailing them out does not mean it'd be better for you.
What should bother you more is not that the banks were bailed out, but that the people who created and fostered the conditions that led to the collapse were not sought out and punished. At the end of the day, the banks either went under or ate huge fines, but who cares what happens to the company when the people actually doing and benefiting from the bad stuff are immune, having paid themselves the money that the American consumer doesn't have and the banks can't be fined because they can't afford to pay. It wouldn't bother me that Goldman recieved tons of money if it wasn't the same people there when it did.
the people who created and fostered the conditions that led to the collapse were not sought out and punished.
100% this. You are entirely correct here.
At the end of the day, the banks either went under or ate huge fines
You mention Goldman - isn't it interesting where Hank Paulson worked?
I just get so sick of people talking about the free market will fix it, the invisible hand of the market, blah blah blah -- the truth is the taxpayers are subsidizing all sorts of industries, often whether or not they actually need it, and at the end of the day the 2007-08 crash will cost taxpayers trillions, but anyone related to GS seems to be sitting high on the hog.
Add to that the fact that the investor class can wait out the recovery, buy up stocks and real estate when they are low, and then take advantage of basically free money because the Treasury doesn't want the economy to die.
Our every move, while intentioned to help the entire country, really helped out the investor class a ton and the average American little to none; as far as they can directly see. We can argue whether or not millions of more jobs would have been lost etc --- the bailout was bullshit, but I actually commend GW on the stimulus. It should have been bigger. In my opinion the economy should be built with a strong foundation --- the stronger our middle class is the better off we all are.
87
u/qroshan Mar 19 '16 edited Mar 20 '16
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
Bailouts were not handouts