What the Liberal Left needs to learn from Wall St

1. There is no such thing as "free money." (Oh wait, I think Wall St needs to learn that one too.)
2. When something sucks, there is a reason. The Big 3 are currently sucking for a reason. Throwing money at them suggests their problems are a lack of money. GM is suffering from all kinds of anti-competitive practices, most of which are not directly improved by additional capital alone.
3. The interconnectedness of the global economy means that no one is safe from systemic risk: like devaluing the US$! (Didn't the Fed's balance sheet just double?) Isn't rapidly printing money in an environment of record debt to prevent a recession just postponing our financial problems rather than solving them? Throwing billions at companies that can't compete while encouraging the consumer to spend via stimulus payments doesn't change that the American economy isn't creating any new wealth that I know of. While no one wants a deep recession, aren't 6 to 36 months of economic hardship better than mortgaging our future and children's future to avoid the short term pain of the credit/housing crises? In my humble opinion, the liberal left needs to focus less on helping dying companies and more on the people who have lost their livelihoods. Provide (and possibly increase) the social assistance those families need and let the market shake out the winners and losers of the credit/housing crises. Our economy will be better off with fewer, healthier companies rather than keeping failing ones alive via bailouts. If GM fails in 10 years for the core reason they are currently in trouble: no one wants to buy the cars they sell in North America, the Fed isn't likely to get that $25B back. Instead, Congress and the Fed could use that $25B to help the families suffering from the job losses at GM, and in 10 years could recoup that money via taxes from the businesses created in the future out of the ashes of the credit crisis. Just sayin'.