Wall Street bailout

Being of a somewhat right wing bent, I am not entirely happy with the idea of government bailouts, but it is not the rightness or wrongness of the bailout which is currently exercising me.

Watching Question Time and This Week last night, it was amazing how many people were criticising the bailout, not on the grounds that it was morally wrong, but because the $700,000,000,000 figure mooted was in their opinion considerably more than the assets in question were worth.

The purpose of the bailout however is surely to provide liquidity to the markets by replacing the toxic packages with cash which the financial institutions can then use (hopefully more sensibly than previously) to get the economy moving again.

It is quite understandable that the avewrage person on the street might not understand this, I am far from expert myself, but one would have hoped that the panellists on both shows would have more of a clue. Perhaps they should put Guido on this week instead of Portillo, it would certainly be more entertaining.