How Much is $700 Billion?
“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed”. Senator Joe Biden in a television interview. Herbert Hoover was president in in 1929 and TV didn’t exist.
I get that we’re all human and therefore prone to making mistakes, but really? Is it wrong to expect our elected officials to have at least a grappling of US history? I mean, I may not know who won the American Revolution (special shout out to Dr. Tostivan on that one), but I’m in sales for fucks sake and not running for Vice President of our fair nation.
I can’t even get my arms wrapped around $700 billion dollars. How many Venti Soy Lattes is that? How many football fields is that? What percentage is that amount when compared to what the US has spent in Iraq in the last year, or two? So before I can get into the “is this the right thing to do” mindset, I need a context with which to regard $700 billion dollars.
Gee-Dubya did a good job tonight. And I mean that. This is one of those (rare) occasions when his 5th grade command of the English language is a good thing as he was able to take an extremely complex initiative and make it, for the most part, understandable to Wal-Mart Moms and Nascar Dads everywhere. I also appreciated his comment “”I’m a strong believer in free enterprise, so my natural instinct is to oppose government intervention, but these are not normal circumstances.” That Bush’s natural inclination is to oppose the bailout is all I need to convince me that it is the right move since I disagree with the man on everything.
Now begins the media and pundit analysis. Can we agree, I wonder, that no one really knows for sure if this is the right decision or if it will make any difference at all? Although history was NOT my subject growing up ( I was too busy passing notes about some boy or another), not even the stock market crash of 1929 and the resulting depression had the complexities that we have in our current economic climate. No one knows that by pulling lever A, that you’ll get B, C and D.
And while I appreciated Bush’s attempts at explaining the what-does-this-mean- to-me question tonight- it did fall a bit short because I’m guessing that most of us need more details.
For example, if I’m a homeowner and I’m either in or nearly in foreclosure, can this bail-out somehow let me keep my house? What if I’m a homeowner and I have an enormous mortgage that I can no longer afford, I’m current on my payments, will the bailout pave the way for me to restructure my mortgage so that I’m not killing myself. The President tonight said that the bailout would help create jobs, I’d like to hear more about that. I’d also like to know more about how the bailout positively/negatively/neutrally impacts baby-boomers who expect to retire in the next 1, 5 or 10 years. Since the Department of Treasury figures so prominently, I’d like to know more about that agency and the people who are now managing the resources associated with Freddie and Fannie.
Overall, if I understand it right, the bailout keeps CEO’s from using their golden parachute when their company has capsized and it allows the stock market to stabilize by forgiving debt related (in part ) to housing lending.
Since Obama and McCain will be in Washington with Gee-Dubya tomorrow getting their doctorate in Economics and Political Science in a one-day course, McCain has suggested that he won’t campaign and would like to post-pone the debate scheduled for Friday so that he can focus on the country and on reading the Cliff’s Notes for the one-day crash course he’ll be getting tomorrow. Obama’s point is that multitasking is a critical success factor for the POTUS and that the debate should continue as schedule. Palin is trading recipes for chocolate mousse with Carla Bruni otherwise I’m sure she’d be happy to participate in the debates. Joe Biden is looking at his presidential flash-cards but after he finishes the google search on “when was tv invented”…
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JavaJennifer — one of your best blogs ever! I, too, am combing the internet to read articles and analyses of this to learn more. $700 billion is just not in my line of sight or part of my world; wonder how GW and group arrived at that figure?
Well stated Java Jennifer -
First – Biden is to the democrats what Dan Quayle was to the republicans. ‘Nuf said.
The bailout: How exactly did we get to this figure, again? No one seems to know.
WHY? again, why do we need to have this bailout? No one seems to be able to adequately articulate this either. I hear vague statements about “protecting my savings accounts” or “protecting my 401K” or “protecting my mortgage” – but these are all just dead wrong. So, why, again WHY the bailout? Really?
My opinion on this is the free market will correct itself. (hears gasps) No, really, the free market will level out itself – IF allowed to. One of the key problems is the unnecessary tampering and interventions we have grown accustom to lately.
I’m not bailing out failed companies – of any kind – only to have the same people who were charged with oversight the first time around be again charged with oversight – armed with our $700b + check.
I’m also not bailing out individuals who are defaulting on ANYTHING – loans, mortgages – or who just have a lot of debt.
I work hard and am responsible with my money, this doesn’t mean that I should suddenly have to shoulder the debts of others – sorry – not doing it (precisely why I hate mostly liberal ideas of hand-outs and “taxing businesses and “wealthy” more!) I feel this plan is just an extension of that.
This election vote will be tough for me if either McCain or O-I’ll-just-stand-back-and-see-what-others-decide-to-do-Bama
Votes for a bailout.
I didn’t listen REALLY closely to that guy who will be in a different house soon, but I only caught TWO mispronounced words. And they say progress is slow…And I wonder if they gave all of us who borrowed money on homes the difference between what we borrowed and what our places are worth today how far the 700B would go. I’ll buy my own latte, thanks.