• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Obama’s eggs went to bail out the banks.

    Edit: Obama was absolutely the best President of my lifetime. Acting as if his bank bailouts didn’t screw the working class is the same blind loyalty MAGA has for Trump. The guy chose expediency over equity, and only the wealthy prospered.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I’m not sure he specifically chose expediency. I think it came out that way because of his insistence on trying to negotiate with the Republicans after they vowed to block everything.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        He said in his SOTU address, as well as in multiple interviews, that he hated how the TARP bailouts were designed but attempting the alternative of bailing out the borrowers would’ve taken far longer. That was with control of the Senate and the House.

        I’m not convinced that Republicans had the stones to resist an equitable bailout while the banking industry was on fire. It’s not like they could force TARP without his approval. He made a call, and it wasn’t the right one. I’m not branding the guy. Good Presidents can make bad decisions.

    • butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I agree that it injected a tremendous amount of moral hazard into banking, but surely you aren’t implying that the working class paid for the bailouts? You know that the federal government made money on the bailouts, right? It literally cost negative money, it’s just that there weren’t consequences for the conmen who all should have been jailed and prohibited from running banks ever again.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The crisis was created by banks intentionally signing high-risk loans and essentially betting against them being repaid. The bailouts absolved the financial burden from the lenders, and left the borrowers holding the bill.

        The same bailouts were needed in the EU, but several nations absolved the borrowers. The banks still got their money, but without the widespread foreclosures and subsequent property value depreciation ripple.

        • butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Oh okay, I misunderstood your comment as implying that the working class, though tax revenue, bore the burden of bailing out the banks, rather than saying that the working class paid for it because working class people had their house foreclosed upon.