> The government should have eaten all those banks, turfed the execs, and the sold them later for a massive profit a few years later basically wiping out most shareholder value and taking the profit into public coffers. That would actually be closer to capitalism than the bailout program.
The closest thing to capitalism that would have also massively benefited people - not major corporations - would be to let capitalism do its thing, aka punish those who overleveraged via market-based mechanisms.... like bankruptcy and liquidation. Those who didn't do stupid shit would benefit from the flood of assets.
We controlled variance - how well we did this is arguable - at a massive cost. Maybe it was worth it, but let's not act like there wasn't a huge cost to bear.
The closest thing to capitalism that would have also massively benefited people - not major corporations - would be to let capitalism do its thing, aka punish those who overleveraged via market-based mechanisms.... like bankruptcy and liquidation. Those who didn't do stupid shit would benefit from the flood of assets.
We controlled variance - how well we did this is arguable - at a massive cost. Maybe it was worth it, but let's not act like there wasn't a huge cost to bear.