Saturday, January 22, 2011

A world without TARP



I talk about why the world would have been better without TARP.

5 comments:

OhioJOE said...

Absolutely a marvelous talk. Finally, somebody who knows about banking and economics. There is no doubt in my mind that unemployment would not be quite as bad in an non-TARP world.

carlo said...

Maybe Bush and the congress didn't have a crystal ball like you. Maybe the felt that the danger of a depression was there and they didn't feel like standing around with their hands in their pockets.

John said...

carlo, I don't have a crystal ball. I have a sound knowledge of economics and I don't have to worry about re-election. That's all that's needed, really ;)

A depression now is better than a depression tomorrow. There still has not been a single long depression in American history that wasn't caused by government intervention.

BOSMAN said...

Great Piece John,

You make some excellent points. The problem is, no one definitely knew at the time what would happen if they didn't do the bail outs.

No President wants to be remembered for a depression. Especially a REPUBLICAN one. If you know what I mean.

John said...

I admit there was a lot of insecurity. But I believe there is a gerat underlying problem when, as soon as we feel insecure, we reach for government intervention.

I wrote about the crisis back then, when it happened. Problem is I wrote about it in Swedish. I kind of want to translate it to english just to show people I was right then already :P A lot of my predictions came true (and I was just 17).

I understand it's about politics, not wanting to be remembered for a depression. But I believe that the Bush legacy would have been better in the long run if he had allowed the market to cleanse itself. Yes, it's painful, but as soon as it's over everyone realizes it was actually a good idea. And it gets worst the longer you wait. It's kind of like going to the dentist in that sense.

/John