Quote Originally Posted by Rucker61 View Post
We were about [yay] close to a financial depression. Did we spend too much? That's pretty likely. However, in January 2009, did we know how much was too little or too much? Nope, that was a pretty unique situation. I'd rather have erred on the side of too much than too little, because we've seen what a great depression looks like.
First, the depth of the recession was heavily overstated. One of the things I blame Bush for was buying the Chicken Little stories about how close we were to collapse. The economy was in far worse shape during the Carter administration. Unlike the 1970s, we actually had some points of vibrancy 5 years ago and the areas that were weak (overextended housing market and risk-ridden financial sector) needed to collapse to find their bottoms. I understand the press conveniently forgetting that fact but have been dumbfounded that Republicans and conservatives didn't fight the malarkey.

Second, yes, we DID know we were spending too much. Lots of financial analysts said we were spending too much; historical distance has shown us the Keynesian spending actually prolonged rather than relieved the Great Depression. Hell, lots of laymen knew we were spending too much on TARP.

Further, the best thing we could have done for the financial industry AND the auto industry was let them declare bankruptcy. Too-big-to-fail was a Geithner-inspired load of crap bought by both administrations. You want someone to quit playing with fire? Let them feel the pain of the burn -- don't let them burn someone else instead like Corzine and JP Morgan did with the blessing of the Chicago Futures Market and the SEC.

I understand you're liberal but at least do some research and thinking instead of mindlessly repeating the worn empty spin nuggets.