Every family has one: that perpetual-screw-up relative who incessantly asks for a Bailout (then blows the money on Lottery tickets, or the latest get-rich-quick scheme, or whatever). And as long as you keep giving it to them, they'll keep asking... and never learn how to make it on their own.
The Investment Banks, the Big Three Auto-Makers, AmEx, maybe even DHL now--where's it going to end? Who'll be next to play Great-Depression-Era starving urchin before Congress, begging for a handout (or at least some more gruel...) According to the WSJ, as many as 52 companies are now on track to collect bailout money.
Well. Some experts say that a Bankruptcy Reorganization may actually be a better option in the long-run for some of these faltering institutions. AIG is one such named example. And they've already burned through their original bailout funds and are now asking for more... as though we taxpayers even had it to give. And the fact that AIG continues to engender more bad PR by hosting events/meetings at spa-like settings (except that now they instruct those spas and whatnot to keep AIG's name hush-hush)... So stoopid. It would be far better, AIG (from a PR perspective anyway), to stop with the $400 business-meals and stuff, and maybe get your ladies-who-lunch wives to throw a Potluck Fundraising Event or something... or at least pack you a brown-bag lunch. Just a thought.
And if you need a bailout, you better hurry up and stand on line... because they're going faster than tickets to Obama's Inauguration.
Here are some previous posts of mine on this topic:
http://theadventuresofwonk.blogspot.com/2008/10/bailout-for-us-auto-makers.html
http://theadventuresofwonk.blogspot.com/2008/10/calling-bullsht-on-bailout-part-1.html
http://theadventuresofwonk.blogspot.com/2008/10/treasury-department-redacts-bailout.html
12 November 2008
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I couldn't agree with you more. It's not the government's responsibility to employ workers. More importantly, it's not the government's responsibility to help failing companies. If the federal government is going to give money away, why not give it to those who can run a successful business? If it gives money to someone who can't run a successful business now (i.e. the Big Three) why would they be able to run a profitable one later? If they won't--and they probably won't--our country, whether we like it or not, ends up continually investing in those who can't turn a profit. From what I know about investing, that's not the way to do it.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Killer_Buffalo. I'm not heartless--I hate the thought of all those auto-workers who will suffer if the Big Three crash... And I'd like to help them.
ReplyDeleteBut if "helping" them now just amounts to delaying the inevitable crash that will come sooner or later... I say, let's help them find other jobs, for example, rather than dumping more money into a hopeless industry that has historically refused to even help itself.