Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF

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44. Assisting responsible homeowners with their house payments wouldn't have created a run on the banks

The problem is that bankers were right at the ear of the government; that's why it was a 'bank friendly' solution that the government adopted.

I have no problem with the banks having been bailed out; however, there weren't enough strings attached. Bonuses should have been suspended. Bonuses should be tied to profits; getting your worthless ass bailed out by the federal government hardly constitutes making a profit. It makes no sense to give bankers bonuses while people lose their houses because the economy is strangled of money. The banks should have been bailed out by helping people make their house payments.

The greater issue here is that we have all means of production tied to money. It isn't profitable to grow your own food; so instead of even trying; when we run out of money, we go to the food bank. We need to remember that a lot of things have intrinsic value; money does not. There is a lot of real estate in Detroit that would appear to have no financial value, but incredible intrinsic value; when will we learn to see this.

A lot of things that we do (or don't do) wouldn't make any sense if we were just trying to survive, instead of trying to get ahead financially.

Just as an example; we send our retirement money off to somewhere so that bankers and stockbrokers play with it. Every 10 years or so; they clean us out. Why don't we insist that money be invested locally? At least then; if we saw the business owner of a company we're investing in (through our retirement fund) driving around in a Mercedes, we could wonder: WTF? We could frequent the business and decide whether or not we want to continue investing.

We'd have a little more control over what kind of businesses go into our communities. I can see the wisdom of putting a layer between the 'retirement fund investor' and the business owner, but there's no reason the profit that goes to the 'investment broker' can't be kept local too.

The way it is now your retirement money is safer in your mattress. Of course they won't let you do that (or at least there are tax disincentives).