This is, perhaps, the most engaging and accessible explanation of the current "Great Recession" I have come across. In this 59-minute podcast, Ira Glass and his cohorts at Chicago Public Radio and NPR create an ultra-simplified world of just one eager dollhouse buyer, a would-be banker with $10 in his pocket, and a young man with $90 he wants to put into a savings account to explain the financial mess we find ourselves in. This recording explains why TARP is called TARP, what insolvency is all about, what the term toxic assets means, and why America's biggest banks are afraid to "mark it to market" or re-value those toxic assets.
After listening I have a better appreciation for the state of all things financial but I am left wondering, what's the best way out of this morass?
Discussion Questions
1. Can you point to an underlying cause that precipitated this crisis?
2. Does the government nationalize the banks for a time, robbing banks' shareholders of their investments but allowing banks to start over with a clean slate? Does it help the banks get back on their feet by purchasing toxic assets with taxpayer money at artificially high prices? What are the short and long term effects of these different strategies?
3. Do you think the United States has "learned its lesson"? Will people (and businesses and governments) change their behavior? Or are we doomed to repeat this process?
4. Are there safeguards the government can introduce that will keep this from happening in the future?
58 comments:
You can't listen to this without zoning out multiple times. When it comes down to it if nationalizing banks would help the banks from profusely bleeding money then let the government do it. I'm sick of all these ignorant Americans who call it socialism. CLearly they aren't aware that large amounts of socialism already clearly exist in the U.S. Secondly, as the economy is getting progressively worse, the secretary of the treasury's power is being increased gradually. Tertiarilly, I doubt the banks and citizens of the US will learn their lesson after this because almost 68 years ago we promised the same things after the Great Depression and well look where we are now. I do not believe there are any safeguards the government can introduce that will stop people from doing whatever they want to do.
There are multiple causes for the recession that we are in right now. Yes some are more obvious than others but they are all equally important and need to be dealt with. Nationalizing banks mayb or may not be the way out of the recession. So far the banks have been helped by the government too much in my opinion and need to make more sacrifices instead of constantly asking for money. I think it is kind of funny and ironic that banks can keep money safe 99% from robberies and such yet they cannot maintain/keep/protect the money that the national government gives to them. It is like they have no clue how to handle money and keep asking for more and more to try new things.I do think that many people have learned there lesson. Like you said in class today, so far there have been no riot's at the G-20 Summit in London. There maybe some safeguards that the government can put on the citizens but at this point in the recession, I don't think the government would be able to enforce these safeguards as easily since some people have lost some faith in the system.
The cause is most likely people feeling so good about themselves that they they go out and buy nice things, causing them to borrow from banks, but they end up not paying back the money because they're just like, "Whatever." Having a ton of people act this way leaves nothing for the businesses to hold onto, leading them to lay off employees, which leads to those employees not having enough money to pay back their loans.
Wouldn't buying toxic assets just give the banks more money that people can go and borrow and not pay back? Many people probably don't understand the details of the current economic crisis, so they might be dumb and borrow money since it's available, which ends up bringing the banks back to what it was trying to get out of.
The underlying cause of this economic crisis involving the banks was the unwise loaning of money to people who didn't have the proper resources to repay their loans. Like the girl in the radio show they forgot that they would have to pay the bank back, and the bank forgot that they had to check the background of anyone they loaned their money to. The nationalizing of banks would give the government to much power and would open the door for government to nationalize other industries like the car and real estate industries. The government can institute safegaurd like making banks check the background for people seeking loans and look at their income, credit history, and their outstanding debts to determine if they have sufficient assets to pay the bank back in due time. Maybe the American people will lear from their mistakes but I doubt it. A similar event occured in the 1930's and started with banks just like this one did. Perhaps these banks should be allowed to fail so that the people will learn that it isn't wise to loan people money for a $100 dog house at 6% interest.
Varun Kunchala
Perhaps the banks should have been more stingy with their loans before the current crisis instead of now. The high accessibility of loans allowed for less than desirable potential homeowners to obtain a mortgage and subsequently default on it leaving the banks with the homes as compensation. These homes were not able to sell and thus became toxic assets. I believe a solution would be to expand the loan protection insurance industry which banks then should be forced/encouraged to purchase. The premiums are currently high on this form of insurance so it is likely that aspect must change to make this universal.
This podcast was an hour long, and isn't something that I would ordinarily listen to. I think they tried to explain to average Americans what was happening to our economy. I do not think that there is one underlying cause of this economic crisis. Our situation was caused by many faults in our system. People borrowing moeny that they could not pay back and the greed of those who lend them the money. Nationalizing banks is not all the way bad, but also not very good. It is best to try and keep the government out of the banking system if possible. As much as I would like to think that we have learned our lesson, it is very likely that people will eventually go back to the way they lived before. The government should implement processes that will prevent this all from happening again.
The most obvious cause of the current recession is the bad loans the banks were giving out due to the lack of regulations coming from the government. The banks gave people loans that they couldnt pay for, and then when they didnt have the money to pay for the loans anymore all the houses were foreclosed on and we stumbled into the current recesion we face today. The main reason this recession occured was due to the lack of regulations from the government. Governments are established to make sure that everything runs smoothly, and when some people don't have the government on their backs, they do stupid things, as we have seen, and cause the entire nation to pay for their mistakes. The government needs to regulate the banks, much like a kindergarten teacher, and keep them from putting that paper clip into the socket, and causing another recession.
With them discussing just how important Citibank and Bank of America is to our economy as well as the world's economy, it only seems necessary that our government do whatever it can to save them. If that is us taking it over or giving them bailout money, we need to do that for our near and far future. That's only part of it though. Just so the world economies aren't failing doesn't solve the problem. The banking system, how people can get loans, etc HAS to be changed. We can't stop at bailouts and slapping the bankers on the hands, the system has to be checked and redone. Yes, it'll be us, the taxpayers, who will have the brunt of this. But can we afford it either way?
It goes along with the mortgage problem. The banks gave loans to people that they knew couldn’t pay it back. They should have checked into the people more thoroughly. So people who can’t afford it don’t deserve a new house. If the government buys the toxic assets at artificially high prices, it will help the banks, but that means the taxpayers will have lost money. So if this does happen, then the govt. needs to regulate the banks to make sure they don’t do this dumb stuff again like lending money to people who can’t pay it back. Hopefully these banks have learned their lesson. They need to make sure to check on the people they are about to give a loan to. They need to stop just thinking oh yeah it doesn’t matter who I’m lending to, they’ll pay it back and I’ll make a ton of money. Quit being so greedy. If the govt. does regulate the banks, then hopefully they can make sure the banks don’t let dead beats like Caitlyn buy their doll houses.
I think that this banking crisis is due to many people taking out loans that they never pay back. When people do not pay back their loans then this crfeates a downward spiral that causes are economy to suffer. Also the government needs to stop nationalizing companies, we are not a socalist economy and Obama is not like the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez who has nationalized all the oil in his country, also known as stealing.
Listening to the podcast, I learned new things that I didn't know before about the banking issue. But, I still think that America's government spending is an endless cycle. Since we are already so far into debt, when we finally surface from this, there's a great possibility that it can happen again. Because it is so easy for us and everyone else to borrow money and promise to pay it back later, it leaves no boundaries and allows anything to be possible. Money is always going to be borrowed and owed, and it's just something that we're going to struggle with forever. Something has to be changed about how people borrow and lend out money because if not, the problem is going to persist.
As far as the cause of this recession goes, I would have to point in large part to the business cycle. After a long period of prosperity that continued into the 21st century, people became overconfident, to the extent that it seemed like nothing could fail. No credit seemed to low for a loan, and as the economy continued to expand indefinitely, the very basis upon which it was built was simply not stable. Eventually, this "house of cards" came crashing down, and thus we find ourselves here today. Will the economy fix itself? Yes. We are stuck in a business cycle, and every recession is followed by recovery. Will it take awhile? Probably, but it will eventually fix itself. Enter Barrack Obama and his extravagant bailout plans. Will they help drag this nation out of a recession faster than it would naturally recover? It is likely. Only time will tell, but at least Obama is making an attempt at reform. Will we learn our lesson? Definitely not. Again, we live in a business cycle, and after a few years of recovery, our economy will be off and running again, destined for the same collapse that we find ourselves in now.
In my opinion it will take something much more than this recession, or any recession for that matter, for the United States to "learn their lesson." The general behavior or most citizens takes centuries to change. When the most powerful and the most influential people aren't even affected it's hard to change the minds of other's. Maybe slowly and periodically the US will change the economic patterns based on previous happenings, but this just seems so far from our time.
Nationalizing the banks appears to be the best action plan right now, as the banks apparently cannot take care of themselves. One positive outlook on this entire experience is the knowledge gained by every american, banker or not, that comes with surviving in such a devastating economic time. Such as the loaning of money to unreliable and untrustworthy people. the problem was not caused by this one singular problem though, and in fact I believe that it was just bad timing. Very bad timing as under those certain circumstances and conditions we produced an incredible problem.
Well the government where the ones forcing the banks to give out loans to people who the banks would normally reject to. I personally think the government should downsize everything and we should be capitalists again (what Ron Paul wanted). It has become very evident that the government can’t do anything right and I think republicans along with Democrats would agree with that.
Listening to this podcast was very interesting. All the input they had to say about the US banks was astonishing. But i dont think America will ever learn from the mistakes. We may do it differently but i doubt we will ever find a way to stop it completely. It is scary to think that the banks may be government owned but if thats the way things have to be until we get our heads out of the water so be it.
The podcast delivered on it's promise, I really felt a great deal of understanding after listening. Thing is, my personality still won't allow me to form a one sided opinion. I can see both sides to every issue. I don't relish the idea of the government taking the bank's reigns but at the same time, I don't like the idea of taxpayers being stuck with assets that aren't really beneficial.What a mess.I don't think there's a distinct formula that caused all this trouble,many factors contributed to the loss of stability.I'd expect it to happen again. Even if we learned to avoid some causes others would come into the picture as time progressed.
-Charmecia Morris
The only way we could greatly help our economy right now would be to help the banks restore their balance sheets. However, the bailout money the banks are receiving are given to the banks and then loaned out to the people. This is the opposite of what we want because banks should use the bailout money to restore their capital and therefore their balance sheets, but the more they loan out, the less they have to keep for themselves to restore the balance sheets. The reason for these increased loans are simply because of our ever-increasing standard of living, as stated in the podcast. Therefore, the U.S. hasn't learned and I don't think will ever learn from this recession because the U.S. lifestyle gets more expensive all the time. We have become so accustomed to luxury items that we find it hard to live without them.
Nationalizing the banks means they will be controlled by the government. That's socialism even if others believe it isn't. It may seem to be the best solution at this time, but that doesn't mean it will be the best later down the road. If the government controls the banks now what will make them give it back.
It seems the best way to try and help repair the economy is through fixing the banks. Since the banks and the people who were loaned money were irresponsible, someone will have to bail the banks out. The government will probably nationalize the banks to fix the problem. This may help temporarily but it is a terrible long term goal. The nation should not have nationalized banks, because that causes great problems. I think once the government has control over the banks they will not give up the power.
Courtney Rodriguez
I feel like the crisis stems from many people taking out loans that they are unable to pay back. People were overconfident from the economic success we experienced into the 21st century. The business cycle says that the economy will go back down. However, I don't think most people believed that. People that were not truly qualified were able to take out loans that they could not pay back. I don't think there is one thing that will help fix the economy, but a mixture of various solutions.
I think this crisis is the effect of people taking out loans they are unable to repay. I honestly dont think people will ever learn thier lesson though. The government is partly to blame because they did not establish and carry out certain regualtions. Some states are not experiencing the recession as harshly as others so it's hard for people to realize the full impact of the down economy. I do not believe there are any safeguards the government can introduce that will stop people from spending the amount of money they want to spend. People have to realize the negative state of the economy themselves before there can be any changes made.
The government should do whatever it takes to save the banks but taking them over for even a short period of time should be a last resort. Companies have grown accustomed to constantly growing and profits always going up. Our economy can't sustain that constant growth forever and there are no safeguards the government can install to prevent times of lesser spending.
Although I don't think that nationalizing the banks would be the only solution, I do agree that it could be a start. We are in the this because of the banks giving out loans that people are unable to pay back. If the banks were better regulated, this problem wouldn't exist. The only thing that worries me about nationalizing banks is the fact that the government won't want to give them back up, when the time comes. I feel that more regulation is definately needed, but it will take much more than just fixing the banks to end this recession.
The number one problem with the nation's current economic crisis involving the banks is the frequent loaning of money. The people being loaned money from the banks will never be able to repay these loans. This cycle is endless, since banks will continue to loan money to the people, and people will continue to owe money to the banks.
As stated in the podcast, one of the main causes of the recession was bank lending money out to people who could not pay the money back. I really do not think American will “learn their lesson”. Once the economy begins to boom again, many people will forget the crisis the nation is currently facing and this recession will become a thing of the past- the business cycle will continue. As for a possible safeguard to prevent this from happening again- perhaps King Obama can just "fire" the CEOs of the banking corporations as well.
Well one of the main reasons why we are in such a crisis stage is due in large fact to the banks themselves. The banks lent out the money to people who bought houses beyond their payrolls, and once the banks tried to collect the money for the loans given to these people, the people flat out walked away, leaving the house in the banks hands while the bank loses tons of money. As for nationalizing the banks i am not sure how much it would help their situation. Although I believe that a lot of the time people learn from their mistakes, sometimes it does not matter if the problems that are faced are new problems. The great depression and all other recessions had their own reasons for occurring, although there is the chance that we don't learn and end up in the same situation down the road. There are somethings that would help to avoid these kinds of crisis, but in the end all it takes is one mistake to launch a society into a recession.
The clear point... even if no one wants to say it is that some people don't need to be buying houses... there are people out there that cannot pay back the loans they receive from the banks for a down payment... we are in trouble because of the tendency some people have to spend frivolously (on anything besides affliction clothing) and sometimes even when they lack the funds... banks need to do more background checks and have a series of projections to see if these people can pay them back within a set amount of time... the banks were too vulnerable and need to protect themselves more to prevent this from happening in the future.
There are various interpretations of what the main cause of this econcomic crisis is and I feel that the problem with banks is one cause. Like the podcast stated, people who are borrowing money from banks and fail to pay them back are a big part of the problem we are facing with banks today. I think everyone plays a role in the issue we face. Banks need to check each person they are lending money to more thoroughly. People, who lended money from banks, should try to pay back the banks and more regulation from governments is needed. I hope that people can learn their lesson, but I'm not too confident that they will. Though it may be simple for Keynes and other economists to describe ways to get out of a recession, it's definitely not as easy to put his words into action.
I think many people abuse the privileges they get from bank. Banks do everything to keep their people happy even if it means lending them a lot of money. This can be seen as a trap for people who have knowledge at all on how the bank works. If they are not eligible to have any kind of loans, i think the banks should not provide them with it. This is one of the reasons why our economy is going down, because people don't pay back the money they owe. As of Now, it would be hard for one to change their ways in such a manner that they have to control on what they buy, what they spend on and things lik that.
ANN THARAKAN
Honestly, I used to truly believe that it was stupid for the government to be pouring so much money into banks and saving what should be left to save themselves. However, I believe since so much money has already been invested that something drastic should be done, atleast temporarily. Also, I don't believe that the government can do anything to change the spending habits of Americans. (Besides maybe nothing.) I don't think Americans will ever change their habits unless they can feel the effects of their choices, and maybe they would if the government stopped funneling money into bottomless pits.
Amid the banking crisis, I'm not sure that nationalizing banks is necessarily the proper solution. Now where I don't have an alternative, I don't know how the citizens would feel about doing this. I really think it will just increase riots and even more ignorant, people and republicans will spread this "socialism/communism" crap. If people are freaking out just because Obama goes to an economic summit, I'm sure the reaction to nationalizing banks will be far worse. As far as learning their lessons, I think the banks will have learned their lessons, but that doesn't mean CEO's of giant companies will have.
Although times now are much worse than they have ever been (as stats show), I believe our economy is going through a cycle. It kind of makes me think of global warming in a sense. There are all these stats saying that the world is so much worse now and we are affecting it so much, yet the world has been going through these warm and cold cycles for quite some time now. And it's not like it isn't snowing anymore. I think we can all agree that it was still pretty dang cold this winter. But the same thing goes for the economy. Stats keep saying that we are worse than previous times, which we may be, but the economy will bounce right back because it is a cycle it goes through. Just like global warming.
1st off: This is an hour long! I should have the option of leaving this up to the last minute, not the lash hour!
The solution seems obvious, though I'm sure it's more complicated than the simplified version give on this broadcast. As stated in the recording, the U.S. should just take its own advice and temporarily nationalize the banks. It's the only logical solution. With the per capita debt as high as the GDP, it is doubtful that the average American (who started this in the first place) can handle bailing out the banks.
bbboorrriiinnngggg..... lets get one thing straight here this banking crisis is due to many poor people taking out loans that they do not have the cash money to pay it back. When people do not pay back this creates some stuff that will lead to a downward hill which we will never be able to climb back from. Also the government needs to stop buying companies this is bs, they should just let them go under like anyother company before this recession happened. i mean i saw a lot of companies some and go and there was no bailing it out or anything. everyone needs to go watch that southpark episode!
Every time I think about the bank situation and the bailouts I get so frustrated because of exactly what the pocast said. Consumers owe what our GDP is. Everything we make would have to go straight back into paying off debts. This is where natural economics meets stubborn individuals. The happy medium to pay of the debts, of sacrifice and gain, is so small that it would be basically impossible to find. American's don't want to give up their luxury, but we can't stand the thought of loosing it through means we can't control. The bail outs keep everything afloat, but I honestly don't think American has learned anything. All we will take away from this is one new way to get out of a terrible recession. The worst part of this recession is that no single body or industry was responsible for it. EVERYBODY was. It's times like this that I see the business cycle as more of a rut than a cycle.
1. The insolvency is most likely derived from the depreciation of the dollar due to excessive foreign investments and toxic loans for investments that devalue our currency and degrade our GDP.
2. I don't believe that it is effectually robbing investors. Rather the advocacy should be to freeze those investments, promise a meta-freeze interest rate under all deliberate speed of our Fiscal Advisors, and nationalize and then reinstitutionalize. The government must be at artificial prices lest we experience those artificial prices become truth for the consumer as the price level flies and the dollar depreciates under foreign conditions because our GDP is suffering from stagnancy.
Finally, this problem is more psychoanalytical than it is empirical or arithmetic. If the governments makes their intentions to be to nationalize the banks, investors will flip, call in their investment, and further cripple the bank as we have seen under the conditions of bailouts. Moreover, this is very similar to companies undergoing takeovers. Stockholders frantically sell as they believe that stock is going to be crippled and removed from market or sold at its final state for less than they purchased for. This is further evidenced by the advocacy of just randomly claiming that nationalization has occurred one friday evening.
I believe the government should step in and help our banks in this time of crisis. It does not make sense for the goverment to sit idle while our economy gets progressively worse istead of taking action to fix it. Furthermore, because of the state we are in now the government really has no other choice but to step in in an attempt to fix the economic problems.
The problem was created by the American dream the though that every American should own a home a picket fence and have a dog named joey schwartz. But unfortunatly the Granola family purchased this home with an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) aka toxic assets we now see strong banks buying out banks with toxic assets thus further bringing down the banking system as a whole. I believe the government should temporarily nationalize the banks. No we will not learn our lesson and this will happen again.
Austin Darsey
I think the banks are a joke this isnt adam cheers bank its the real world. The thing is the the banks are going under. you see it everyday these mom and pop banks are just going to get bought out by the big time banks but even the big timmers arnt workin out to good. THe gov't should just let the banks go to war and let them battle it out and lose then we can just keep money in a shoebox like nick veslka.
I dont think there is one underlying cause for the crisis that the economy is going through. The loans that banks give out are part of it. I believe that the reason for this is because banks give out large amounts of loans that the people cannot even pay back. When they dont pay back the bank gives out less loans causing people to not have money and also the banks cuts back on workers.
I don't think there is only one cause that brought our economy to the recession we are currently in. But, I think one of the biggest reasons we are in the recession is becuase humans are greedy. People continued to take out loans they could not pay back and banks let them. I am not totally for nationalizing the banks, but if it helps us get out of the hole we are in and stay out, then it may be a good idea to have the government step in and take a little bit of control over the decisions the banks make.
Well we cannot point to one underlying cause, but obviously giving out loans to everyone, including people who cannot afford it was a huge cause of this recession. It would be nice for everyone to be a homeowner because it's the American Dream and all, but reality is, that is not possible for a lot a people, and it's not fair to the people who actually work hard and buy homes within their means, because they have to suffer from the recession too, even though its not their fault. I don't think America has learned its lesson because we've had many recessions in the past, and we obviously haven't learned from those or else we wouldn't be in this mess right now.
The entire thing is outrageous, the low down payments and (starting) low adjustable rate mortgages where only established to bridge the gap between the amount of white and minority home owners. When these low prices came out, they were open to everyone, and I remember a show called "Flip that House" where they brought a crappy house, and made it better and sold it for a profit, that show promoted the idea, and when everyone thought they would do the same, they took out a loan, and managed to never resell or make a profit. And all the banks that never got their money back are now in the dumps because of the people in Congress who voted to pass that low down payment bill.
That's just wrong.
I think banks were one of the primary contributors in leading the US into a recession. By lending out loans without any real discretion, there will obviously be consequences. Certian limitations need to be placed for loans being given to citizens. I am sure we won't learn the lesson (which is reflected in the business cycle). There can be limitations which will help ease the process of recession, but these events will always occur.
One underlying cause that caused this to happen would have to be loans. When banks loan money to the people, they think they would return the money but sometimes that does not happen. As a result, we are where we are today. Houses on the market are extremely low due to the inability to repay the banks.
I'm cool with nationalizing the banks, whatever works. If that's too 'socialist' then so be it. Me thinks the government should make decisions based on an objective analysis of what they deem to be most efficient and productive, not based on some false and blurry sense of right and wrong. As for America learning its lesson, noone ever 'learns their lesson'. History consistently repeats itself, only the players and places change.
Sean Rogers
The reason this whole crisis happened is because banks offered too many loans to people who can not afford to pay them. People took advantage of the banks, and take out loans or mortgages for things they don't really need. I think that if the banks were nationalized, that would give the government too much power, and it probably wouldn't even help. The United States had definitly not learned its lesson. This has happened repeatedly in history, and we still haven't learned. Many people don't even know what causes recessions. They see that money is available in banks and try to take it.
I think the bank crisis is happening because of all the loans that people are failing to pay back. I think the problem is worsening because the government is failing to enforce strict regulations. Government control & nationalizing banks might resolve this issue, espically since the government seems to be bailing out everyone these days. This probably will never happen though , since it will be opposed by many.
m&m
I think an "underlying cause" of the recession is just the careless attitude of Americans who don't think about consequences before they do things like take out loans they could never pay back. The same goes for the banks that didn't bother to check people's credit before giving them those loans. People won't suddenly "learn their lesson" no matter how bad the economy gets. They may be a little more careful right now, but as soon as our econom is "fixed," people will start acting stupid with their money again. It seems to just be the way a lot of people are these days. As far as nationalizing the banks... I don't even pretend to completely understand all of this, and I'll admit I have no idea if that would be the best course of action. However, I do think that if it is the best plan, people should get over it and stop crying "socialism."
Can you point to an underlying cause that precipitated this crisis? From what In understood, the entire banking crisis can be blamed on the bad loans that banks lent out, these deadbeats who now cannot pay the bankers back. As for nationalization, although it is creeping socialism, I think U.S. needs to take its own advice. If nationalization has worked internationally, why can't it work in the U.S. (disregarding politics of course). I mean, we can't keep on waiting for the house market to fix itself, we need to fix the problem now. In addition,it will fix the banks in the long run. Buying toxic assets will just prolong the nightmare and hurt the taxpayers. The bad bankers should get punished, not the taxpayers.
The U.S. banks have learned their lesson and will check out the people before they give loans. However, it is unsure to say about future generations, like after couple of centuries. As of right now, I don't think the government needs to worry about safeguards: the people have learned their lesson. But, for extra security, they can prohibit the banks from loaning assets to people without jobs or those with bad credit history.
I believe it's the loans too. Just like the saying, "Your eyes are bigger than your belly." Meaning, they think they can eat a lot, but really can't. so, "People's eyes are bigger than their bank accounts." They simply just can't pay their loans. My father is a real estate investor now and he is constantly getting calls from banks about houses being foreclosed. When people can't pay their house payments, the banks evict them and either sell the house or auction it off. It may seem a little strict or rough to kick people out of their homes but it is the only way for the banks to stay in business. Hopefully soon everything will be back to normal.
Among the many underlying reasons of the recession is the obvious loan catastrophe. I also agree with Heather's comment about the careless attitude of American society. As far as nationalizing banks, I think that will probably continue to be a point of contention. I personally think that since many Americans are so against it, it will take a lot of work to institute it. Finally, America has definitely not learned its lesson. Maybe temporarily, but not for the long term.
Kenny Hoyt said...
The Government is in a sticky situation here. They could either take over the banks and take another stab at the free market or simply let the banks fail and prepare for the consequences. I am not and do not pretend to be an economist, I am just afraid that if we sacrifice the banks to the control of the government we are inviting them to intervening whenever a business is in trouble. As for what was stated earlier, there are socialist ideas in our government and economy now, but we should be wary in allowing or even inviting more of these ideals.
Andrew Jackson is a hero for a very important reason. He destroyed the Fed. However, through some flaky and almost illegal legislation, a new Fed was instituted a few decades later. The Fed does and always will equate to one thing: debt. It has the innocuous power of pulling money out of thin air which technically doesn't even exist since it's backed by American confidence (wtf?). So here we are, piling up fake money and drilling a hole in our seemingly bottomless pit of debt. Let's nationalize the banks. Obviously they can't be managed when they're left to their own decisions.
After listening to the podcast, this is my conclusion: Well we are America. We think we are the best, because for the most part we are. We're too arrogant to learn from our mistakes so here is one effect it has made on our country. We're in a recession and we're suffering. Point blank period. You would think that being a debt would open our eyes... NO NOT US!! Great Depression II anyone??
I can see where nationalizing banks seems like a promising idea, but i must say it is not something I am all for. Some may call it ignorant and stupid when i call is a socialist idea, but that is how i see it. With all the trouble the government it getting into, I dont think banks should be letting the government take control. I also don't like the idea of the government beind the ones in control of my money. But either way, I don't see a for sure thing that will get us out of this mess up with the banks , the government and their debt, unless they start being more careful about their loans, but I still dont think nationalizing it will make a impact for the better either.
--Jen Iles
Many reasons caused where we are right now. I personally think that the banks have been helped out too much from the government. However, nationalizing the banks could give the government too much power and perhaps maybe corruption might occur. There are other solutions that the government could take to solve this problem. However, realistically, I don't think there is not that much our government can do to stop what people are doing.
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