This may be obvious to everyone but me....
So, O.K...
I read a lot. I'll readily admit to not always understanding everything i read, but i do at least usually try, and Dkos has been one of my fave. places to do just that. I'm also just a bit beyond point and click literate, so if i screw up, i apologize in advance.
My question is this. As I understand it, the reason this latest financial crisis is just that....a crisis....is because all the banks are so tangled up with bad paper/bad debt/default-swap stuff that they've stopped lending to each other.
A sort of "I know I'm kinda O.K., but the rest of you might just be fucked, so im sitting on my kinda O.K. self 'till i know more" mentality.
The "fix" to this is a proposed bailout, wherein the treasury dept goes in and buys all the bad stuff so that the banks all feel better about both themselves, and their neighbors, and stop sitting on credit like its gonna hatch.
But...(and this is where im kinda confused....)
If the main problem is that the banks don't know who's safe and who's not, how the hell does the T.D. know? And if we follow that logically, isn't the first step NOT to cut a check, but to figure out who has what?
I mean...ok, we need to do something. (I think i sign onto that. maybe.)
but...if the main problem blocking credit flow is lack of knowledge, and THEN lack of funds, shouldn't the info come first?
shouldn't there first be some sort of general physical administered to all relevant banks, with some stamped "A O.K." and some "4F", and THEN an attempt to rehabilitate the problem?
Like....instead of putting all republicans in rehab because Mr. Gingrich has a problem, we institute mandatory drug testing first??
Again, apologies if I've done this wrong.
constructive snark welcomed.