I'm still trying to figure out what this bailout is all about. It sounds like the government is promising to buy assets from investors that made poor choices. Not only that but they are promising to pay too much for those assets. I don't see how this is anything but a bailout for the rich.
And what are they going to do for the poor saps who are getting booted out of their homes? This plan actually makes it harder for people who have lost their property through foreclosure to ever get it back. Supporting asset prices at inflated levels will guarantee they will not be able to afford replacements for a much longer time.
Why not help property owners retain their property? That provides a real benefit to the economy and indirectly bails out careless investors. The investors should be encouraged to do their part by writing down the mortgages on the overvalued properties they financed.
I can see why there is a need for a bailout now but the plan being floated sounds like a very bad Republican plan. And it sounds like the Administration is planning on pushing it through before anyone realizes what they have done. They have to have a crisis to do something this radical.
We need to muddle along with smaller targeted bailouts until after the election when a more thoughtful plan can be designed. A crisis during an election is the wrong time to solve such a complicated problem.
Call it trickle up economics. Let those at the top hope they might get some value out of this bailout.