[lit-ideas] The 700

Interesting stuff about the 700 billion:

1. Bush said a few months ago that there'd be no bailouts. Instead we have the 
biggest bail out of all time. Short of appropriating the means of production, 
this is the closest you'll get to a socialist revolution. And it was carried 
out by Bush et al.

2. If you add on the billions injected into the markets to aid liquidity the 
hundreds of billions required to nationalise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the 
hand out to AIG and there's easily been a trillion dollars (one thousand 
million) spent by the US government in propping up the financial system.

3. Add this money onto the huge tax breaks that Bush gave to the richest - more 
than likely many of the execs who were in part responsible for bringing the 
crisis into being. 

4. None of this trillion plus will go directly to the people who've lost homes 
because of the credit crunch. However, every cent paid out will be at the 
expense of the US taxpayer, proportionately borne by US workers, none of whom 
were directly responsible for the crisis. No wonder the stock markets bounced.

6. On the plus side, once this unravels the role of speculation in the money 
markets may well be lessened. This is a marginal operation that can make a 
stack of money for the practitioners and lose a stack for the assets they are 
trading. 

7. Last week might well mark the end of the rightist agenda. It lost itself in 
Iraq, was exposed by Katrina and is now close to bankrupcy after it's reliance 
on markets has been shown up. Watch how McCain tries to distance himself from 
it's trappings. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/economy.marketturmoil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/20/economy.gordonbrown

Simon Ward

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