One of the few things Bush has done right on economic issues. But tell that to GOP, which was against it from the beginning, and now stubbornly refuses to take credit for TARP taking us from the brink of financial collapse and starting of improvement in the economy. If it weren't for "Obama factor" and his misspent "stimulus" and other "stimulating" programs and regulations we would be in normal robust V-shape recovery at this point.
Instead, in absence of Republicans taking credit for TARP, Obama and Dems are attributing any improvement in the economic numbers (real, perceived and outright phony) to the phony "stimulus". The Party of No isn't even capable to say "yes" to the winning issue, so they are left with nothing.
'Splain that, please. Many say that TARP saved us from financial collapse, but none describe the mechanism by which that was accomplished, nor do they describe how it so definately would have collapsed had TARP not taken place. The best I can see is that some entities would have failed (GM and UAW, a few big corrupt banks) and some would have survived and thrived. This almost reminds me of the global warming debate, where "the science is already settled".
Oh, and what's this "improvement in the economy" that people keep talking about?
LLS
Most of the voters are so clueless about capital markets that they cannot be convinced backstopping the “greedy banks” was a good idea. They think it is obvious that giving money to the people to spend must drive the economy, and can’t fathom that doing so creates no net economic activity as it stole from Peter to give to Paul.
If you’ve seen any of the recent WSJ articles on the issue, surveys have shown the more liberal people are, the more ignorant of economics. But the scores on those econ surveys are nothing to brag about even for the self-labeled conservatives and libertarians.