Joetta Forsyth, PhD
The United States is facing the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Financial institutions are failing, as is confidence in the financial system.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have testified that Congress must act immediately to bail out troubled financial institutions, or we could face a financial collapse. There is much furor over the proposed $700 billion bailout, which didn’t get the required number of votes today to pass the House. Why, taxpayers ask, should people who were responsible and didn’t buy a house that they couldn’t afford, pay to bail out people who did, along with Wall Street fat cats? Exacerbating the problem is the fact the some of the people who are viewed as contributing to the crisis are now asking Americans to trust them to solve the crisis, using what could be an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars.
I share the same fury. And there is plenty of blame to go around. However, I would like to focus on the immediate problem. We are being told that something has to be done immediately, or we might have a financial collapse.
The key questions are:
- Are we really facing a financial collapse?
- Will this collapse happen rapidly or can we intervene if necessary later?
- What would be the consequences of a financial collapse?
Continue reading ‘America’s Financial Crisis’
