http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/whitewashing-the-auto-bailouts
Whitewashing the Auto Bailouts
Posted by Daniel Ikenson
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Any verdict on the outcome of the auto industry intervention must take into account, among other things, the billions of dollars in property confiscated from the auto companies’ debt-holders; the higher risk premium built into U.S. corporate debt as a result; the costs of denying the other, more successful auto producers the spoils of competition (including additional market share and access to the resources misallocated at Chrysler and GM); the costs of rewarding irresponsible actors (like the UAW) by insulating them from the outcomes of what should have been an apolitical bankruptcy proceeding; the effects of GM’s nationalization on production, investment, and public policy decisions; the diminution of U.S. moral authority to counsel foreign governments against market interventions that can adversely affect U.S. businesses competing abroad; and the corrosive impact on America’s institutions of the illegal diversion of TARP funds to achieve politically desirable outcomes.
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In that “confiscated from the auto companies’ debt-holders” is her 5k$ in bonds in her IRA. (Against my advice!)
Usually very non-political, that really put a knot in her shorts.
Mine too.
Not that it was a lot of money. 5k$ was about a ⅓ of a month’s pay when I was flying high.
She worked hard for her money. Scrimped and saved. Denied herself stuff. Because she was always afraid of being poor again.
It used to be that 5k$ was a LOT of money. But the politicians and bureaucrats have inflated away that value.
And, I know everyone thinks I have a tin foil hat.
But when the Gooferment just takes your stuff because they can and you don’t get mad, well then who has the tin foil hat?
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Reinke Faces Life 