Barney Frank rips this girl a new one

[jfraymond]

Originally Posted by Mr.Slave

Maybe it was cheaper for the government to give the companies the bailouts than it would have been to not get involved, let them fail and have to deal with that shitstorm once they did.. (kinda like voting. stepping around a puddle of puke only to step into a giant turd.)
I think it was mostly risk assessment that necessitated the bailouts.

HAHAHA....the term "cheaper" doesnt enter into the process at all.....the bailouts were given to gain control over the financial Industry. "Cheaper " would be to go ahead and let them pay back their loans and to have not forced Banks that didnt want or need a loan to take one. Hmmmm.....sound like anything that has been mentioned in the last few pages?

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by Mr.Slave

I'm not sure that what you suggest would have been cheaper though.. (?)

Found this on the net...very close to the figure I was kicking around in my head.

"CNNMoney.com took the total of the bank bailout, $700 billion, and added that to the $787 billion estimated cost of the stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That totals $1.487 trillion.

We then divide that number by 156.3 million, which was the total number of U.S. filers in 2008.
So: $1.487 trillion divided by 156.3 million equals $9,513.76 per U.S. taxpayer."

Keep in mind that this is from April, so it doesn't include anything they've dolled out since then, which would raise the dollar amount per person.

Originally Posted by jfraymond

HAHAHA....the term "cheaper" doesnt enter into the process at all.....the bailouts were given to gain control over the financial Industry. "Cheaper " would be to go ahead and let them pay back their loans and to have not forced Banks that didnt want or need a loan to take one. Hmmmm.....sound like anything that has been mentioned in the last few pages?

That is a very good point. How many smaller institutions were absorbed (bought out at a severly reduced rate) by a few large ones? Hell, B of A stated in the beginning that they didn't even need any bailout money, yet still showed up in Washington looking for thier share.

[Mr.Slave]

Originally Posted by ThinkTank

When has the government ever been conscious of spending?

easy come easy go.

Originally Posted by ThinkTank

That maybe one possibility.
Either the companies go belly up and get bought out by foreign companies or the government gets them. The government probably jumped at the chance to get a controlling position in the free market.

Or these billion dollar companies have friends in washington and saw an opportunity for free cash for their bonuses.

Both sound plausible to me.

You're right they could have been bought by another company, that actually didn't cross my mind.