Somebody help me understand this bailout thing.

[Tim01]

I honestly hope I just don't get it.
It looks to me like the govt is just going to give the banks, which are failing, a bunch more money.Now,seriously, they are the ones who screwed it up in the first place, right? So they get free money.
And the people who actually have the mortgages? Why not help them with the mortgage? They get to keep their house, and they will be able(hopefully) to buy food and stuff, which should stimulate the economy.
The freakin' bank guys aren't going down to the local walmart(where a bunch of poor people work) to buy their groceries and clothing.

Am I just missing it?

[Botany]

1. like merrill lynch?

where 1 currency trader lost $400 million but showed a $120 million profit for his self ..
and in 2008 the firm lost 27.6 billion but gave out 3.2 billion in bonuses to top execs and that
money was from bail out funds.

what don't you get?

[DJ13]

2. "Why not help them with the mortgage?"

Instead of just handing over money with no strings the government should have given vouchers for the same amount of money as the stimulus to households that could have paid down debt.

The banks would have still gotten the money, consumers would have had their debt burden reduced, and it would have been a true long term stimulus.

[FreakinDJ]

3. Its more about World Monetary policy

If we want to buy shit with US dollars made in China - they have to be worth some thing

We had nothing to export to get all our dollars back because RATpubliCONs just love "Free Trade" (which ain't really free) and there were these HUGE trade deficits. So all them "Smart Bankers" cooked up a scheme to sell them our debt

Will the whole thing is built on a house of cards and is looking a lot like the same old Enron scam (which a lot of foreign investors got ripped off in also) and then some one....


Aw Fuck it - A saudi Prince owns 85% of AIG thats why

[notesdev]

4. Do you want the simple explanation or the in-depth one?

If you want the simple explanation it goes like this:

A lot of people have been stealing from you. Now that they screwed up so badly they can't steal from you anymore, the government is stealing from you to help them out.

If you want the full, need-to-use-your-whole-brain explanation... there are a number of places to get it. Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.com is perhaps my favorite source, but I can't do you justice without also pointing you to Karl Denninger, who you can find at market-ticker.org and who also has a large number of quite riveting videos on YouTube, just look up his name.

[FrenchieCat]

5. Yeah....you are just missing it.

and it's not about free money, it's about our economy....which includes jobs, wages, paying bills, putting food on the table, etc....

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/bailout-questions-answered/