Jim Wright of Stone Kettle Station has a fantastic post about the bail out, and the hows and whys of the Wall Street Meltdown here. It’s well worth the time to read, and it’s nice to know that in my fumbling attempts at explanation to folks yesterday, I was getting it mostly right. Go, me.
- Those who failed to read the fine print on those interest only mortgages or utterly failed to see the implication of the conditions of the loan – or did, but thought, somehow, some way, that they would be able to refinance before the first balloon payment came due . . .
- Those greedy, dishonest bastards in the S&L business, who not satisfied with the pile of dough they were already sitting on, found a way to turn worthless loans into the largest bait and switch scam in history.
- Those in the rating agencies, who gave those worthless bonds AAA ratings, who allowed themselves to be deceived, who bowed to pressure from the S&L’s and from Wall Street Investment firms instead of actually doing their jobs.
So, I oopsed. Yeah, that 700 billion dollar bail out that passed? It didn’t pass. I plead lack of coffee. The House told the bail-out bill to go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut, and the stock market took a head dive, finishing up for the day 700+ points in the hole, and when I arrived at work, it was a very quiet panic zone. No one was running around screaming or anything, but people were quiet and tense, and I don’t think I waited on one customer who didn’t make at least some mention of it. Some nervous little joke, or asking what all I’d seen on the news (because, of course, I’m running a restaurant, so all I have to do all day is stand around and watch the TVs), or tsking sadly away over the affair. I spent a lot of today smiling brightly and assuring people, “Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. They’ll figure something out.”
I mean, ladies and gentlemen, when you’re looking to me to be your hopeful little ray of sunshine, you are deep in the shit. Seriously, y’all.
I also spent a fair amount of time today explaining, in simple terms, how we got into this mess, and roughly what the bail out might have meant. Guys. When I have to explain the economics to you, you are also deep in the shit. I mean, I barely know what I’m talking about. I’m just bright enough on the economic front to have a rough idea of who it’s safe to parrot.
Quite a lot of us are going to be unaffected — at least in the short term — by this event. By way of example — me: I have no stocks. Wall Street can plunge straight through to the chewy nougat center of the Earth, and I’m not going to lose a dime. I have no savings. Close all the banks you want, I won’t be getting any more broke. I do have a little debt, so if somehow during the pending economic collapse, the bank could manage to lose track of that, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings any. Of course, I might not be able to get any other loans or credit cards in the meantime, due to their not being any extra credit floating around for the likes of us, but hey, the last thing I need to be doing anyway is piling up more debt.
So, as long as the rest of you sheep and monkeys don’t panic, IE, pull all your money out of the banks in a fizzy freak-out A La the 1930′s, and/or stop going out to eat occasionally (so I can keep my job), me, and a lot of other people, will probably be okay. As I explained to one employee, hey, we’re already dirt fucking broke. You can’t get any more dirt fucking broke.
On the other hand, as I explained to another employee, that 700 billion dollars would have had to come from somewhere. Do you think it was going to get paid back to the government by Wall Street when they started making money again? You did? Are you dumb? Of course it isn’t. It’ll get paid back by you and me, in the form of higher taxes. Because, you know, me and you can afford to pay more taxes.
And besides, it’s really all moot point anyway, because the Bushies did an end-run around the failed bill anyways. Yes. They did. Please don’t tell me you’re surprised. I walked in the door at work, heard the news, and said to all and sundry, “I wonder how Bush is going to swipe the money anyways? Because you know he will.” I have witnesses.
(Photo credit: DownTownExpress.com.)

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