Lazy Post: Cutted and Pasted

Did America Get Punk'd on the Bailout?
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/113758/did_america_get_punk'd_on_the_bailout_/?page=entire

In short: Sirota makes some interesting points about the nature of the current credit crunch; in the main asserting that it was part of the reason for the Wall Street Bailout and that it was largely a fabricated crisis that didn't actually exist.

Funny thing though...here's the edited comment of Jon B on that page, entitled "toxic waste, not loans":

I'm going to quibble with Sirota about the reason that was "advertised" for the bailout. If I recall, it was a mish mash of drivel that included the idea that banks were going to crash touching off a Wall Street panic unless the federal government purchased the troubled assets or toxic waste. Getting banks to lend was an "important goal" as well, but not the lead reason...after all TARP stands for Troubled Assets Relief Program....[skipped portion]...Yes, the TARP did eventually punk us, (not because it was supposed to get banks to lend, it was to buy toxic debt), because the TARP is being used far beyond buying the toxic debts mainly because the idiots of high finance don't know what to do to save themselves.

So yes, we have been punked but I think it pays to be stricter about the actual unfolding of events and how they were justified. Like another poster in the comments I think it pays to note exactly who was empowered to fix Wall Street. Most of the major actors are the very people responsible for this toxic mortgage fiasco in the first place. The architects of the crisis are now themselves in charge of the TARP funds and how they are allocated.

You can't make this shit up, folks!