It's good to have friends in high places

October 21, 2011 7:05 AM

Even better, the press reaction, especially from the right wing, can be counted on to get this wrong and claim that the government had stolen capitalism. Capitalism didn't die in 2008. That's a convenient story, but it isn't true. You can't expropriate a broke man or a broke business; there's nothing to take, even if you want to. The truth is much simpler: The taxpayer was just plain robbed by the government and banks acting together.
posted by 445supermag (4 comments total)

Could you make a clearer introduction to this article you want us to read, instead of just pulling a quote from it? Maybe give us something about market-ticker.org, who's hosting it? Or at least give us a summary of the argument.

Thanks.
posted by benito.strauss at 7:14 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Didn't TARP turn a profit?
posted by Aizkolari at 7:15 AM on October 21, 2011

Didn't TARP turn a profit?

Perhaps bailing out our largest corporations can become an engine of economic growth.
posted by Trurl at 7:20 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here's the TL;DR summary of the article:
The Too Big To Fail banks should have been destroyed by the credit collapse in the summer of 2008 as they had nowhere near enough capital to cover their losses. Rather than take over the banks, the government gave them a sweetheart deal with practically free money, allowing the banks to return to profit at taxpayers expense (as taxpayers are ultimately footing the bill for the increased government debt).
posted by exogenous at 7:28 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]