Bailout

sojo.net — After three decades of “concentrate the wealth,” we could really use some “spreading the wealth.” But the conversation about “spreading the wealth” goes to the heart of several ethical questions: What kind of society are we becoming? How much inequality can we handle? And have we completely forgotten the lessons of the last 70 years?

alternet.org — Markets are volatile and trending down while banks are still not lending despite frequent projections of massive unemployment and stagflation.

alternet.org — After all, the average autoworker only makes $56,650 a year, who do they think they are?

The New York Times — When they’re using taxpayer-provided capital, as they are now, Congress and the public have every right to require that the money be used to benefit the public directly, even if doing so crimps the banks’ profits. An even bigger problem is that the bailout was sold as a way to spur loans. If that never was — or no longer is — the primary aim, Congress and the public need to know that.

jewishjournal.com — In a speech at Georgetown University earlier this month, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan attributed the current financial meltdown to "lack of trust in the validity of accounting records of banks and other financial institutions" in the past year. Trust! Who knew? This is the same Greenspan who for years fought tooth and nail against federal efforts to monitor the trustworthiness of big banks.

Huffington Post — As we play pin the tail on the donkey for the betrayal of the free market, we must reflect soberly on how it was in fact an activist government that drove us into this cul-de-sac and attached a collective anchor to the ankles of Americans who were already treading water. Then let's be sure, as we swiftly move to implement our state-directed bailout, that we are—to quote Sen. Barack Obama on Iraq— "as careful getting out as we were careless getting in."