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My first inclination would be to argue that the rich have derived the greatest benefit, but that would he highly inaccurate since the "rich" is far to nebulous a description.
The rich , of course. Reading about where the money went is all it takes(bonuses, parties, huge "retirement " packages, office remodeling). The "rich" are the upper 2% of Americans who have all the money.
The rich would have benefited greatly by not bailing them out, because the companies would have tanked in value and the rich could have bought them up for pennies.
of course the rich benefited the most, since they are still able to play their derivative games with artificial government support. also, it should be noted that dollar devaluation hurts the poor disproportionately, and no one can argue that reckless money printing helps devalue the dollar.
The rich would have benefited greatly by not bailing them out, because the companies would have tanked in value and the rich could have bought them up for pennies.
Uh, they're the ones who would have been on the receiving end of the tanking, so buying up their own worthless stocks for pennies -- which really would have amounted to holding their positions -- would at best give them the opportunity to get back to where they were before the tankage occurred.
Anyway, the biggest beneficiary has been the government as most of the TARP money has been paid back with interest.
Uh, they're the ones who would have been on the receiving end of the tanking, so buying up their own worthless stocks for pennies -- which really would have amounted to holding their positions -- would at best give them the opportunity to get back to where they were before the tankage occurred.
Anyway, the biggest beneficiary has been the government as most of the TARP money has been paid back with interest.
Uh, they're the ones who would have been on the receiving end of the tanking, so buying up their own worthless stocks for pennies -- which really would have amounted to holding their positions -- would at best give them the opportunity to get back to where they were before the tankage occurred.
Anyway, the biggest beneficiary has been the government as most of the TARP money has been paid back with interest.
The rich could have waited for a recovery and would have sat through a tanking of a stock, while the middle class/poor would have received margin calls and been pushed out.
The rich would have been harmed the most if the companies were worth pennies, but they arent, they are a product of a recession and the rich are in a better position to hold on for the long term without being pushed out of a stock.
And btw, the only way the government could see a profit, is if you ignore the fact that they had to borrow the funds to re-loan out. Sure, they might have seen a greater return then loaned out, but they are not seeing a greater return then borrowed to fund.
interesting article on the dollar's dive from the telegraph, in part:
"It's important America continues to have a strong currency," said US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week. "We've made clear our commitment to a strong dollar," added Larry Summers, the Head of President Obama's National Economic Council.
These men insult our intelligence. The US government desperately wants a weaker dollar – so boosting exports while lowering the value of America's massive foreign debt. The currency markets will keep betting against the greenback as they know the Federal Reserve will do nothing to stop a weaker dollar coming true. "Benign currency neglect" is the cornerstone of Obama's recovery strategy.
The danger is, though, that "the rope slips" and steady decline turns into nosedive. If the dollar did tip into free fall, US inflation would soar and interest rates would skyrocket – whatever the Fed now says. The world's largest economy would then face "stagflation" – the nightmare combination of recession and high inflation.
This danger is very real, not least because the rest of the world is seriously concerned at America's wildly expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. That's the fundamental reason the dollar is falling.
Just over a year ago, America's monetary base was equal to 6pc of national income. Now, after a year of money printing, it's 12pc. The US has expanded its basic money supply by a staggering 108pc in 12 months. No wonder the currency markets are alarmed about future US inflation. No wonder there is a widespread assumption so-called "quantitative easing" – or QE – will continue, funding yet more bank bailouts and other forms of wasteful government spending.
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