Tue 23 Sep 2008
Hey, Wait A Minute!
Posted by Matt under Business , Government , History , Life , Media , Money , TrendsRight now the news and media is jumping up and down a lot about the $700 billion dollar bailout of the U.S. banking system. For most people, it seems like a crazy amount of money. To put it in perspective, according to CNN, the U.S. government could give every man woman and child $2300 dollars a piece, 2000 McDonalds apple pies, or buy 6.6 billion barrels of crude oil.
700 billion dollars as seen on CNN
Where the whole thing gets complicated is that $700 billion may not even be enough to save the banking system. With the politicians arguing over whether to nationalize the banking system, it feels a little bit like we’re entering the twilight zone. Russia is supposed to have a nationalized banking system, not us. Which just goes to show how weighty this issue is in a real world context. These banks could litereally fail without continued government support.
As it is, these banks brought it on themselves by providing high risk loans and other services to a public that couldn’t hold up it’s end of the deal. As banks and lending institutions begin to take more risks, it seems like these sorts of problems continue to worsen. As important as banks are to the health of the nation, they need to make better decisions about their corporate lending policies…there just isn’t a better way to say it.
What if the bailout plan doesn’t work?
September 25th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
[...] filed in Uncategorized on Sep.25, 2008 “This may not even be enough…” [...]