Ten of the nation's largest banks are starting to repay a total of $68B they received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) fund. Without getting into the vagaries or a debate over the appropriateness of the bail-out, it appears that good old capitalism may be responsible for the pay-back: Management wants to be able to go back to their old ways, sitting at the top of the fiscal pyramid and collecting their large bonuses.
Nevertheless, as Treasury Department handed out the taxpayer's investments, it received warrants from the banks giving it the right to purchase stock at a fixed price down the road. One hopes that Treasury knew what it was doing and will get some return on that investment.
But seriously, the odds of the banks negotiating a fair market return for taxpayers is in the ball-park of Ares 1X getting down-range.
Along those lines, the Treasury Secretary is now starting to make deals with the banks in the rescue program. First up, Old National Bancorp which gave the Treasury Department $1.2M for warrants that may have been worth $5.81M. If this trend holds with the ten repaying banks, and those that will follow later, the banks could pocket 80% of the profits we taxpayers should have received.
Now contrast that with the generally accepted return of $7 for each $1 spent in the space program. Sounds like good old capitalism to us.
Now tell us again why the administration can't come up with a measly $3B?
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Now contrast that with the generally accepted return of $7 for each $1 spent in the space program.
Where did you hear this?
"...the banks could pocket 80% of the profits we taxpayers should have received.
...
Now tell us again why the administration can't come up with a measly $3B?"
Errr, didn't you answer yourself?
Because we gave it all to the banks already and they're going to keep 80% of it!
"Now tell us again why the administration can't come up with a measly $3B?"
Simply put: lack of vision. Their eyes are so firmly fixed to the bottom line that anything that requires looking up to aspirations and inspiring the human spirit automatically sounds like a waste of money, no matter how potentially beneficial it is.
~
Ben the Space Brit
NASA is so unproductive that no amount of money will help them out. The best thing to do is break up the agency, end the cold war structure, try and see if a new political concensus may produce better outputs.
Since the NASA budget happens every year, an increase the in the NASA budget requires an increase in revenue. However, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bank bailouts, and the stimulus are supposed to be temporary, so they can be paid for with T-bills. As long as the Chinese remain clueless about bubble capitalism, these shenanigans will continue. Once people realize that the economy of the United States is just a larger version of Argentina 2002 or Germany 1923 or present day Zimbabwe, then we are in for a wild ride.
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