The Marketing of the $700 Bllion Wall Street Bailout

I'm no financial expert, but it seems to me that the Wall St bailout that's going to cost taxpayers (that's you and me) $700 billion dollars is little more than a marketing pitch. You can't kid a kidder, and you can't market to a marketer. I know spin when I hear it.

What do we get for our money? What's really going to change? What say do we have? Remember the tagline of the movie, Wall St? "Every dream has a price." Payment is now due.

The bailout is being sold with a heavy dose of fear the same way Washington has sold us its increasingly outrageous policies since 9/11. We're told that a bunch of lunatics ran Wall St like it was a casino and now benevolent big daddy will fix it - just in time for the election.

"We’re deep into Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole,” said Alan S. Blinder, an economist at Princeton and a former vice chairman of the board of governors at the Federal Reserve.

Damn, I wish there was a candidate with some answers. I haven't heard any yet that sound like they'll actually happen.

Worse yet, Associated Press reports, $700 million may not be enough to save some banks.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reisch says the bailout is a bad idea that shouldn't involve taxpayers' wallets.

Jeff Jarvis points out

"We could be spending a lot less to get a lot more...."We’re spending $700 billion to bail out the idiots who got us into this mess and we end up with nothing to show for it but the bag we’re left holding and maybe a disaster averted (we hope)."

"we could give 4.4 million Americans free college educations at private institutions. We could give 23 million Americans free college educations at public institutions like mine. That alone would improve our competitive position and transform dying industries.

What we need: regulations to keep these bohos from running roughshod over our economy again, and an immediate end to the Golden Parachute the executives of failed Wall St firms are reportedly receiving for running their companies into bankruptcy.

What we're getting instead: an urgent pitch by everyone from Democrats to Republicans saying that we better bail out the Wall St cowboys fast, before the whole world starts a tailspin. It sounds like marketing spin to me. What's it sound like to you?

In fact, in the face of national elections, we, the people, have the opportunity to vote for change. To vote for an end to the crazy policies that got us into this mess. Umair Haque writes: "There will probably never - at least in our lifetimes - be an opportunity for total economic reinvention this tremendous."

Hi BL:

I love this post. You make some very valid points and I think we should take this up one level, so I bookmarked it on Delicious.

Cheers,
Michael

Thanks Michael - the scariest part is that Paulson is demanding absolute power plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency.” And sorry, but I don't trust those fuckers in washington any farther than i can throw them.

BL- Interesting points! This financial crisis is going to take a "total economic reinvention," both as a nation, and as individuals as we review and reinvent how we both make and spend money. Thanks for the discussion!

Found and interesting comment while listening to NPR today. The premise was that either way, we're in trouble with Paulson. Either a) when he was telling us everything was OK up until just a few weeks ago, he really believed that, and therefore is clearly not qualified to have sole authority over the 700B, or b) he did know, and was lying to us about the state of the economy. in which case, he's clearly not qualified to have sole authority over the 700B.

Rereading this post today helped me put together my own reflections in the aftermath of the vote in House. As usual, you called it spot on.

http://saltlakecityutahblog.com/2008/09/29/quick-pr-check-up-in-the-aftermath-of-failed-wall-street-bailout-vote/