Stock Market Information

Even after Congress continued to debate the details of a $700 billion dollar bailout of financial institutions across the country aimed at letting the government step in and purchase sour mortgage securities that are currently clogging up the system of credit that our government runs on. There are still plenty of questions as to how the bailout will work and who it will benefit, however.

Specifically, the bailout is unpopular amongst most voters. Why, they argue, should the government spend taxpayer money to bail out the financial sector that got itself into this mess? Shouldn’t they be allowed to fail? The answer is a little of column A, and a little of column B. Certainly the government nor taxpayers actually want to dump hundreds of billions of dollars into bailing out institutions in the financial services industry, but they may have no choice. As it stands the country’s growth has been fueled and built upon by credit and the ease of lending. Without that crucial credit line, many businesses won’t be able to get the money they need for expansion or to retain jobs. Worse still consumers won’t be able to get the mortgages they need to purchase a home or buy the car they need to get to work.

So that puts both the American public and the government between a rock and a hard place. Will they risk collapsing the dollar’s value which has already been battered by excess government spending and be forced to raise taxes to meet the country’s obligation in the future? Or will they allow these firms to fail, possibly triggering a series of events leading America into a deep economic depression with no end in sight? It’s hard to tell at this stage of the game, but we’re going to find out after today.