My basement is filled with troubled assets. Where's my fucking bailout?

[Telly Savalas]

In boxes in my basement, there's a lot of stuff my wife and I have accumulated over the years. But given the state of the economy and the cold weather, there's simply no way we could recover the true value of these items at a garage sale. Therefore Henry Paulson is obligated to step in and have TARP purchase these troubled assets. This is especially true because due to lack of exercise and too many late night snacks, I've become too big to fail.

[liberalmuse]

1. Instead of being taxed...

I think I'm going to just write a check for my portion of the bailout. Of course I can't guarantee it will clear. However, when it bounces, I can then ask for a bailout to bailout my bailout. See, I know how this game is played.

[jobycom]

2. Shouldn't we at least get to write off interest on these loans

since our taxes are now giving them the money to loan us, so we can pay them back with interest?

[JDPriestly]

4. This is the part that makes no sense. The banks supposedly

failed because ordinary people didn't pay back their loans. (I don't believe that really has much to do with the failures.) So the Bushies, with Obama's approval apparently, are giving money to the banks to cover their losses to the ordinary people, but the ordinary people still owe the money. If I understand this correctly, the banks are being given a license to double-dip. They get made whole by the government and then they use the money (our tax money) to go after us to collect on unpaid loans.

This is totally unfair. If we as taxpayers are going into debt to pay the banks for money owed by other taxpayers, wouldn't it make sense if those who the unpaid loans should be forgiven at least in part?

Now, you might say, yeah, but the banks are supposed to pay the money back to the taxpayers. But I don't think that any of the banks really agreed to pay the money back. It's unclear to me what is supposed to happen, what obligations the bank have to the government once they get the money Paulson is handing out.

The bail-outs seem to be some sort of black hole in the financial universe. Money goes in, keeps going in and going in and nothing comes out. Loans are not forgiven and there is no assurance the bail-out money will be paid back to the government. It's just kind of a give-away to a bank.

What I'm wondering is how much of the Paulson money give-away-to the banks money is going to the Chinese and our other creditors. Are we borrowing money from our creditors to pay off those same creditors? I have a lot of questions about how this all works as you can see. If anyone has any answers, please advise. I'm really wondering about how this works.

[DS1]

3. I've become too big to fail

:spray: