The Great Debate: Paulson's Bailout and the Economy

Point: It is important that Congress pass Secretary Paulson's economic bailout plan, and that they do so quickly, before more damage can be done. 

A financial crisis is upon us. Many of our largest financial institutions have built upon the foundations of mortgages, fueled by the housing boom that happened earlier in the decade. As these foundations have collapsed, so too have the institutions. Lehman Brothers, Freddie and Fannie, Countrywide Financial, and AIG have all succumbed to the domino effect. As other companies try to sell off assets to pay off their mounting debt, these assets become less and less valuable. This creates a positive feedback loop pulling the whole market farther into the vortex. Secretary Paulson's plan is intended to counter this trend before it is too late. The government will act to buy up these assets, thus saving the institutions and restoring security to the market. 

It is vital that we act now on this plan so that more companies do not fall while we debate the particulars. Furthermore, there must be no punitive measures thrown in against these institutions, or they will be disinclined to take part in them. If Paulson is not rapidly given the authority to act with no obstacles to impede him, the consequences to our economy may be disastrous

Counterpoint: This plan smells of bullshit to me. This financial crisis has been brought on, to some degree, by these companies themselves, who have been managed by people too stupid to realize that the housing market would not boom into eternity. Now we are supposed to throw billions of taxpayer money at them to cover for their mismanagement. And fiscal conservatives fail to see the hypocrisy when they denounce welfare. Wonderful. We can help people out during tough times, just as long as they're rich.

Bailing these big corporations is unfair to every other business in America. A mom and pop store goes down? Aw, that's too bad. You get nothing. Another investment bank collapses next week (and I'm looking at you, Morgan Stanley)? Shucks, if only you had failed sooner, we could have given you money too, but, well, you also get jack squat. That seems totally fair.

Plus, we're supposed to just give these people the money without any stipulations? I suppose lack of regulation is what made big banks like these so wealthy in the first place… And then led to their spectacular failure.

Obviously, a lack of oversight is one of the driving forces behind our current economic collapse. So even if we are to bail out these behemoths, we're going to have to put some rules down to prevent these circumstances from happening in the future. Either that, or we could skip the buyouts, grant their initial wishes in keeping government out of business, and let them die by their own sword.

Incontinent Point: Economy-sized jugs of pineapples always confused me—what economy are they talking about? Isn't our economy way bigger than those by like trillions of dollars? But maybe the pineapples are the bigger one because economies are theoretical, and therefore something tangible is infinitely bigger? 

Nevertheless, a lot of times I find the savings at Costco to actually not be all that great. You figure a $50 buy-in for a membership is going to get you some serious deal-age, but then you end up leaving the store every time with $200 less is your pocket, and you say to yourself, WTF? When are all these great savings going to happen? 

And how the hell am I going to eat 40 pounds of shrimp before it goes bad? I mean, I know from Forrest Gump there's like a million ways to prepare it, but we really only hear like eight in the movie, and I secretly think they're mostly the same thing anyway. I mean, one of them is shrimp-on-a-stick. That's not a separate recipe, it's a separate utensil! Am I right? And I heard that shellfish can give you hepatitis, or Asperger's, or something? Shit! I probably should have gotten an economy-sized bag of cocktail sauce, too. Maybe I can just use this barrel of ketchup? 

So anyways, that's why I think the economy is confusing.