Green Taxi

Did anyone else hear that statistic on the cost of the war in Iraq during the Presidential Debate last night and find the number eerily familiar?  The current cost of the war is Iraq is something like $600 billion and we are currently spending $10 billion per month on the war.  Amazingly, this financial bailout package will cost the US $700 billion.

So, we spend 5 years arguing over the cost of Iraq and in the end it is really just the same as what we must pay to save Wall Street and slow the impending recession.  5 years versus something we put together in a week.  I’m not sure what is more frightening, the fact that a majority of the country has zero understanding that there is a bailout package being thrown together, or the fact that it costs as much, or more, than the war in Iraq.  Shouldn’t that make it just as important? 

Let’s be honest.  This bailout package is not going to save the economy.  We are going into a deep, dark recession that is going to hurt everyone.  It may stall it a bit so that the financial system does not collapse at the beginning of this dark time.  But, in the end, it is not changing the fact that people are still going to continue to foreclose on their mortgages at a record pace, that jobs will continue to be cut left and right, and that consumption is drying up everywhere.  This bailout package does nothing to address any of those issues.

And it shouldn’t.  But shouldn’t the public at least be aware of what it is?  I continue to be amazed by the amount of people who ask me where they should put their money?  The stock market, bonds, or real estate?  D!  None of the above!  All of these markets are imploding and none are safe, risk-free, or better than the other.  Have you not been watching the news the last two weeks?  Have you not seen what has happened?  No, you have not.  If you had, you would have sold stock in the market yesterday, the day after the largest bank failure in history.  The market closed higher on the day after the largest bank failure in history.  Yes, I just repeated that statement to stress its importance.  JP Morgan buying WaMu from the FDIC is not a good thing.  It’s a good thing for JP Morgan and Jamie Dimon, and it’s a good thing for those people holding more than $100k in WaMu (lucky idiots).  It’s not a good thing for anyone else.

Wake up people.  This bailout is a big deal.  The debate last night barely touched on it, and the candidates dodged it like a pie toss.  They talked a lot about Iraq and Afghanistan (an incredibly important, unanimous-decision war that will not cost nearly as much as this weeks bailout package).  But spend some time explaining to the American people that they are all going to struggle to survive for the next several years?  Naw…that wouldn’t get me elected.  Let’s avoid that and talk about our new spending programs ideas.

The rant will end now, but the pain is only beginning.  Read every article you can about what is going on with all of these companies in trouble.  Read every article you can about this bailout package that is (hopefully) coming.  Read about the new offices and programs that will be formed to help save the economy.  It is your and my duty to understand these things.  The future of the power of our country and economy depend on it.

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