Saturday, October 04, 2008

On The Cost Of Bailing Out Ignorant Incumbents And Manipulative Bankers



"This isn't about a bailout of Wall Street, it's a buy-in, so that we can turn our economy around," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The advertised value of the "Bailout" that was just passed by Congress (and will be signed by quite possibly the worst President of all-time) is anywhere between $700 and $850 billion.

That's total BS - because it will cost many multiples of that when it's all said and done.

But that figure also ignores the money ALREADY squandered.

Consider just the price of gasoline. In the past 12 months, gasoline is up roughly 75 cents per gallon since the Federal Reserve started *bailing out* the banking/mortgage market. DON'T EVEN TRY TO SUGGEST THERE'S NO CAUSALITY.

Continuing on. As a nation we consumer roughly 400 million gallons of gasoline per day. So, thanks to the 12 month failed *lower-interest-rate bailout*, we have been spending $300 million PER DAY more on gasoline. Multiply that by 365 days and you'll realize that, already, the bailout has cost....

$109.5 billion smackeroos and counting.

Then you have to add in higher electricity bills, higher home heating bills, higher costs for transported goods - LIKE FOOD, higher air and rail travel costs,....

Oh and don't forget the all the people whose incomes are down or GONE because their industry was leveraged to $2.50 gasoline - retailers, the boating industry, restaurants, etc.

And the cost of Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae,...

All of these bailouts will fail precisely for the reason that they are endeavors to divorce *prices* from *intrinsic value*.

Economic forces are some of the most powerful on Earth; good luck to any Moron trying to fight them.

1 comment:

Taylor Conant said...

I am not questioning your thesis that the bailout caused higher gas prices, rather I am just trying to learn from you when I ask: how does the bailout lead to higher gas prices?

I have a hard time understanding what affects the price of oil, gold, etc. Hasn't oil been falling since the bailout hit high gear back in July/August? And as for gasoline specifically, haven't environmental factors such as a bad hurricane season that wiped out a lot of refining capacity lately, contributed to high gas prices (ignoring oil prices)?

I would like to understand how each thing is affecting the other better. I am guessing there is a simple causal relationship (such as something like "When a company issues more stock, this dilutes existing shareholders and the price of the stock falls as a result, everytime, no questions") I just can't think of it myself. Is it just all the money flowing around? How is that money getting from the capital impaired super-banks, to gasoline prices, while skipping oil on the way there?