What happened a year ago seems so far away now.
- Bear got saved by the government and bought by JPMorgan Chase
- Lehman Brothers, not so lucky. Paulson let it go under. The bankruptcy had a domino effect, a run on the money market, a liquidity freeze, a collapse of confidence. Barclays bought part of Lehman at a good price.
- AIG was considered too big to fail and saved by the Fed.
- Merrill Lynch sold at $29 a share to Bank of America. John Thain got a good deal from Ken Lewis.
- Morgan Stanley was saved by Mitsubishi
- Goldman Sachs got money from Warren Buffett.
- The Fed got Congress to pass legislation to spend $700 billions on TARP.
The free market is not free. The Fed spent taxpayers' money so the free market can remain free for the bankers. How we got to the point where we couldn't let one financial institution fail without dire consequence to the whole global market is beyond me.
I am not sure if we are having any financial reform. Or any health care reform at all.
UPDATE 3:24PM:
Dow passed the 10,000 mark.
Dow 10000, big yawn! I am not any richer than last year :-) Unemployment in California is 12 something percent. Who is buying U.S stock anyway? I know some "fail to launch" 20 something who can't move out of their parent's house because they have no jobs. Hey, you don't think health care reform is going to pass. I think it will. It isn't going to please everyone though. I don't have gold-plated insurance, I am dreaming out loud that they will fix my problem somewhat.
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C'mon you s/b richer than you were a year ago if you have any stock holdings. Those kids should stay at home, it saves a bundle. I don't know if the health reform is any good or it will pass, I got headache just looking at those three words. November is around the corner, let's see how the medical insurance is going to be, more premium and less coverage? Every freaking year. I think nation wide unemployment is close to 10% so you guys are at 12%. We have billionaire Bloomberg here, if anything goes serious bad, I guess he can inject capital from his big pocket. Just buy New York City from the State. He got my vote.
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