Quote:
Originally Posted by HardDrive
I wonder how long its going to take people to figure out that Wall Street just bought an equity stake in the US government, and its 100% voting stock.
Seems to be a popular myth going around that its the government who is buying a stake in Wall Street.
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I don't follow your reasoning.
The U.S. government has no "equity"; it exists, ultimately, on taxes it collects from the citizens. Any assets the government "owns" are effectively property "owned" by the taxpayers.
The bailouts, represent certain private people (mostly in the financial sector, thus the use of the term "Wall Street") obtaining money from the government in exchange for "promises" to repay and "equity positions" in the (bankrupt) businesses these people are running.
Imagine, if you owned a business which you mismanaged and bankrupted, but rather than closing down your business, and having whatever assets it had left go to your private creditors, you instead received a "loan" from the government.
How could you conclude that such a situation put you in a position where you owned an "equity stake" in the U.S. government?
Such a situation would mean that the U.S. taxpayer (through the government) owned a piece of your bankrupt business, not the other way around.
The bailouts represent U.S. taxpayers being forced into positions of "ownership" in the bankrupt businesses receiving the bailout money and government-backed guaranteed loans.
The taxpayers are being royally screwed; we won't see any return on our "investment"!
Plain and simple, these bailouts represent
theft.