This vile POS is still around

[Excaliber]

OK, I get it, just fun hyperbole, we can use more of that around here.

[Joe Wicked]

Ex,
I still don't like what the bailouts represent and I am hopeful that they can recover the economy but I don't buy that it was all good. I can see how the auto bailouts saved some jobs, but not the rest. I guess I am part of the "Show me the details" crowd and am very skeptical of things I do not fully understand until someone can show me and make me understand.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Maybe we can understand all of the good they did if he gets this next one he wants to give out spread around. No amount of money is going to create jobs around here as there weren't many to begin with. They keep talking about the infrastructure and how bad the highways all need repairs but nothing ever gets done. They did spend about 8 months working on the Pit River Bridge last year but that was only because the holes in it were getting so large they were afraid some small car was going to fall through into the lake.

Ron

[Excaliber]

Well bear in mind the bailouts were the product of Bush and his team of economic advisors (that is not blaming them, just recognizing the time line). Now it's interesting that Obama kept a number of those advisors in his administration as well. From what I've read on the situation it was SO desperate that SOMETHING had to be done NOW to stabilize the economy. The whole idea was NOT considered a perfect solution. In fact there were grave doubts about whether it would work at all. If it didn't work, were going down hard, desperate times call for desperate measures. In hind sight I'm amazed they were able to put together a plan of attack on such short notice and in fact they did at least "stabilize" the economy. For that, I tip my hat to Bush for having the balls to act, #1 and #2 for really working with Obama for a smooth transition of power. As much as he (Bush) must have known the next administration would really be on him for his failures, he STILL rose to the occasion and did what was right for the Nation. Gotta say, as much as I like to blame Bush (that's the way we play the game around here ), I admire the man as well.

[Ron61]

Ernie, are you off your medicine again?

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Oh I have the same feeling about both Bail out packages. To me it seemed like the 2nd one (Obama's) was a case of well the first one failed so lets make it much bigger and it won't fail. I read that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Sits well and rings true for me. Like I said though, I am not going to armchair QB a financial expert, but it is funny that the finance people are who got us into the mess, I guess they should be the ones to clean it up. I am just lucky to be working for the right company at the right time because we are doing well still. Our competitors are not, I could have easily left to one job with a competitor and would have been out of work now. So far to date I have gotten lucky. I am not comfortable relying on luck so that is why I want to know, and it seems that there is a lot of "it's ok, just sit back, and let us handle this" going on. That is what got us here.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Out political cartoon this morning was two Wall Street Executives telling people they are sorry for what they did. In the next panel they have the bubble with what they are thinking and it is We are sorry because we had to cut our bonuses to just $35 million because the bailout wasn't enough.

Ron