The Bush administration claims that it is for the free market and privatization, so how are they going to explain that they just nationalized the nation’s largest insurance company, AIG?
Even though they said they would not bail out the sinking company, they just used $85 Billion of the taxpayer’s money to buy 80% of AIG’s (pretty much worthless) stock. If some other country did this, free-marketers would be screaming that those countries were going communist (or at least socialist).
And this is on top of the government taking over the previously private Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just this month, and the investment bank Bear Stearns just before that.
So why did I mention McCain in the headline? The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the safeguards that had been in place since the depression, and helped make the current crisis possible. It should be no surprise that the primary author of this bill was none other than Phil Gramm, McCain’s primary economic advisor and his probable choice for Secretary of the Treasury. McCain also strongly supported the bill, and has long been a champion of deregulation, although in the last two days he has suddenly reversed course and now says that more regulation is necessary.
UPDATE: Be sure to read this satirical piece from the YellowDailyNews.
UPDATE 2: A comic to go with this story:
