Bad Credit Blues

So Who Won with the US Government Bailout?

Of course, this has been written about before, both by me and pleny of other writers who are a lot more famous (or should be). But the Obama US government bailout got discussed a lot in the very early days. Not enough time had passed to make any of the objective, backward looking comments that are always easier (and more accurate) than predictions.

Inspector General Neil Barofsky, the man who oversees the $700 billion bailout stills wonders how much of the money will ever get paid back, and he does not expect to get it all returned. He also concludes that the effort to save Wall Street may have averted a crisis, but it also came at a great expense to those of us who pay taxes. Of course, most of us who pay taxes have some interest in Wall Street, through our retirement plans, and that cannot be ignored either.

Where’s the Accounting?

The government rules to enforce recipients to account for how they spent bailout money seem to be lax or absent. So banks and investment firms, if they paid back money or not, really do not need to report how hey spent their checks.

Is Anybody Winning?

Well home prices are still soft and unemployment still spikes. So it would certainly be too early to declare homeowners or workers on the winning end of the stick. And most of us found that our credit interest rates have risen while the money we earn on our savings account is so low it isn’t worth consideration. So take some points away from consumers who either save or use credit. And it is still hard to get loans for things like cars and homes, even for people with decent credit!

So, who’s winning? The stock market seems to be crawling its way back up, and this should be good news for people with retirement accounts, or any type of interest in the stock exchange.

The Future of the Bailout

The President Obama administration is working on a pan to help smaller banks too. This may provide some good news for consumers and small business people who need some looser credit. The actual relief has been slow to trickle down to the people who paid for it, but hopefully, some adjustments in the plan will help more.

Expect this post on who the bailout helped to be continued again.