Yesterday I wrote that McCain's $300 billion bailout plan didn't sound so bad at first blush.
Well, at second blush, it does seem pretty bad. Here's Brad DeLong, who knows a lot more about this than I do:
The McCain plan is:
* Take $300 billion.
* Pay double current market value to banks that have troubled mortgages on their books, thus:
o Give a present of $100 billion to the bankers who made the loans.
o Acquire and regularize the mortgages of only two-thirds as many homeowners as could have been accomplished if the $300 billion were invested wisely.There's a big difference here: Democrats want to prevent depression and support the financial markets by investing taxpayer money in banks with troubled assets. Republicans want to give taxpayers money away to the shareholders and managers of banks with troubled assets.
I would say that this is unbelievable, but I do believe it.
I sit corrected.
