Why Nothing the U.S. Government Does Will Help the Current Situation

Honestly, it can be summed up in a five words, "Trickle down economics don't work" or how about, "They just don't get it". We (the American Gov't) have thrown the capitalist economic system under the bus, supposedly to 'save' it. Right now the government keeps throwing everything it possibly can at this problem, but there targeting the wrong end.

The engine that drives our economy, (and just about any economy for that matter) is the people. Yet, we don't seem to be first inline to get any assistance. It would have been cheaper to just buy up the shitty mortgages that people were given (I'm not defending the stupid homeowners who got more than they could reasonably afford and then couldn't afford it). I think the most commonly tossed around number was $300 Billion or so for that. But nope, we have given banks access to OVER $700 Billion in accessible funds (most of that through a sweetheart deal with Citigroup wherein the gov't absorbs the majority of FUTURE losses). We did that, and banks went around like O.C. housewives on a shopping spree. Buying up other banks, hoarding cash, laying off employees, and other generally non-corrective behavior.

Ok, now that the government has put all this money in to the system, things are gonna look up right? Eh, well not really. Now we have this little problem of inflation, well quite yet, but wait for it. Right now they are concerned with deflation. But we just injected BILLIONS into the market/economy right? Yep, that's the problem, when things DO start to turn around naturally of course inflation will KILL us. We will have most likely over a trillion dollars that needs to be removed from the system to make the dollar competitive in the currency market. How can we stem the flow of money? Raise interest rates... but in a bad economy... not gonna happen. So how are we gonna get this money BACK out of the market when we need to? I have NO idea. I haven't researched that far on what tools the gov't has to do that. Just something that I noticed.

Now as far as why it won't work, they have given money to the banks to lend. But not to the consumer to spend. I mean what idiot is gonna go and try and take out a loan or purchase something on credit if he doesn't know if hes next on the list to get the proverbial 'axe'. People don't spend, companies don't make money. Companies don't make money, MORE people get laid off. So on so forth, vicious cycle ya see? And the feds are losing options as far as trying to jump start lending. The benchmark interest rate can't really get any lower than it is now (between 0 and .25 percent currently).

Solution to the problem: Let free markets be free, if a company needs to/deserves to fail, then LET IT!!! Isn't that what we prided ourselves on for years. But now we have the capitalization of wealth and the socialization of debt. So when times are tough we backpedal on what supposedly makes us so 'great'?