Unfortunately, it also links itself (obliquely) to the financial crisis we're in. Mr. Taibbi's thesis is that we (Americans) will put up with practically anything, so long as someone gives us the right stimulus at the right time, even if the rest of the time they've been pounding on our, um... toes... with a jackhammer. Even the reformers will tell you that the current bailout deal (which just died today) is too good to be true, as far as the banks are concerned.
There will be oversight (like we've had so far - spying, eavesdropping, politicization of every government department, the war in Iraq) over how the money is spent. There will be a cap on executive salaries and retirement/termination packages ("is $1 million a year enough? Or would 2 be better?"). And if the securities we're buying with this bailout don't prove to have their purchased value five years down the road, we can tax the companies we bought them from and make them pay us all back.
Or something.
Or will we simply continue to accept whatever the government does, no matter who does it, in the hopes that we will still be able to charge that TV upgrade we've been wanting to our children's college fund under the "we'll pay it back later" umbrella?
I realize this is mostly a load of old snark (which I usually reserve for actual political campaigns) and not much in the way of useful information. I do find it fascinating that one of the leftiest of left-wingers, Dennis Kucinich, is absolutely opposed to the bailout right alongside the Republican "we really really HATE socialism" crowd. Economics makes strange bedfellows, indeed.
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