HoodaThunk?

I managed to get back to the hotel in time to catch the last half of President Bush’s address with regard to the financial crisis and the proposed bailout plan. Please note that I am holding out the possibility that he addressed an item very important to me without my catching it live but I’m commenting pretty much on what I’ve heard thus far.

First things first, there’s an important concept in this bailout plan that hasn’t been really brought into the public’s eye. The overall commentary on this is that Congress is putting $700 billion into buying out assets – effectively putting the money into the pockets of the financial firms that got us all into this mess to begin with. The sense is that these companies will pocket the cash and then just keep on doing business as they were before with the assets sitting around rotting in some government office. Those assets are loans attached to real property and as those loans are paid off (or sold) money will come back to the entity that holds the loans, which would be the government. It’s an investment, not an expense. It likely won’t be near that easy but it’s not as bleak as it’s been painted, either.

However, this leads directly to the item that I think hasn’t been addressed yet. I want to know exactly how the people who did what they did to get us into this are going to be kept from doing it again. We spend $700B in taxpayer money to get these companies back on their feet and we’re just supposed to trust them to do it right this time? I don’t think so. For $700B, I’m going to need a lot more assurance that something’s been done to keep an eye on these people and a close one at that.

I’m waiting.