Bailout after Bailout after Bailout

This article was of particular interest to me so let's talk about it:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_06/b4118000455725.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story

I don't suppose Obama/Bush or Paulsen/Geithner would admit they knew ahead of time that their $700B bailout late last year wasn't going to work. But it is hard for me to see how they couldn't. It's only been three months and they are already talking about $4T and a bad bank idea. And that smells fishy to me. As those who know me would attest, I saw this coming. So why couldn't they?

I just love this quote from the article I linked above: "New Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is exploring the creation of a government-funded "bad bank" to buy up mortgage-backed securities and other troubled assets from banks in hopes of boosting their capital levels so they can begin lending again."

So it's not just enough to get all those bad loans they've made in the past off their books, they have to get them to make still more loans? How stupid can these people actually be? Do they really think that debt spending is going to produce a healthy economy? I suppose they know that 70% of our growth since the 90's has been consumer spending and debt has been the primary driver of all of that spending, so they must think that is the only way to grow the economy. It all has me wondering if growth is what we really want if this is where it gets us.

Meanwhile still more layoffs were announced today by Fedex, Cessna, and others. Every day the announcements are coming now. And each month the numbers grow larger. ABC news reported today that 4.5 million people are collecting unemployment. The highest number ever.

The other big news was Obama's televised disgust at the $18B in bonuses paid out to Wall Street companies who received hundreds of billions in bailout finds last year. Sure, it's 40% less than last year, they say, but it is still the sixth highest payout ever! I'm sure you feel the same disgust Obama and I do at this news. But there is a much bigger problem brewing that nobody is talking about yet. You mix more and more bailout money for Wall street with Unemployment at record levels with big bonuses for the fat cats and you've got yourself a recipe for social strife (also known as riots in the streets). In many counties this means a coup d'etat.

Remember Congress and President Bush did the opposite of what the American people wanted last October when they passed the $700B bank bailout. And it didn't work. And now, as soon as this economic stimulus becomes law, you just watch them come back to the troth for more Wall Street funds. Heck they're already writing about it at BusinessWeek.