YouTube - Paulson, Kashkari and CONgress SKEWERED
Video discussing the irony of that $700B bailout.
The main point to take away I guess is just that the TARP was really designed to bail out the foreign banks (which we later on got to find out anyway since the only purchases of assets they made with it were overseas) and also that they didn't want to mention it at the time for fear of upsetting the locals about giving their tax money to foreign banks.
I'm a big fan of transparency myself, and I don't find lying about the actions being taken to be a good idea. It corrodes trust, makes the whole process politically unstable in the short and long term, and you can never take actions based on what's being said on the surface because everything being said is just for optics. Structural problems won't get better if nobody is allowed to talk about them or even know about it. Your democracy has real problems when something needs to be done and everyone in charge agrees the only way to solve the problem is by lying about it on TV.
Transparency of american markets and government is one of the big things that makes american markets so much better than everywhere else. Don't lose it.
Bailout vid
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