Well, there were strings attached. Just not the kind you and I see.

The strings look like this: "You're gonna make sure some of this money ends up in my campaign fund, right?"

It's all over the news this morning. In an article from the CT Post, titled "Where'd the bailout money go?":
...Well, apparently when banks borrow from you, they don't feel the same need to say how the money is spent...Some won't even talk about it: "We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for the Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.
Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given an accounting of exactly how the money was being used. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to," Kelly said. The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what't the plan for the rest?
None of the banks has provided specific answers. "we're not providing dolloar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for the Atlanta-besed Sun-Trust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars...

In other words, the American taxpayer has been fucked again. And we weren't even kissed. o.O

Well, what do they care, it's not their money, it's the taxpayers money, and the sheep can always be fleeced for more.

It is not the banks, automakers, unions, orange growers, lawyers, or mortgage lenders who have given the American taxpayer a rotten deal.

They merely go to our elected representatives with pleadings and campaign contributions. It is our congressmen and senators who are giving out the money. It is their job to do the right thing. It is they who have defrauded the taxpayer and the worker. First, by arranging to grant housing loans to whoever wanted them, risk be damned. Then, by giving more money to the people who wasted the original money, backed up only by the hope that "doing something" will look good at the next election.

The government is not wiser than the free market. The free market is not a theory; it is the observation of 300 million people making mostly rational decisions not to waste their own resources, and trying to create something of value so they can be paid.

As many people lose their jobs or suffer pay cuts, they should realize that the government is not just giving away the resources of "The rich". The government is giving away the resources that support jobs and income.

When you support government control and intervention into the economy, you support the political class becoming rich and ever more powerful, and you support the people wanting cash from the government. When you support a limited government and the free market, you vote to allow producers to become rich, by arranging jobs and supplying goods to you. The rich are always going to be there. You get to choose whether they are politicians or producers, and whether they get rich by arranging sweetheart deals through the government, or by employing people to make products and services that you want.

Wise up. Don't vote for anyone who supported these bailouts and interventions. Get the government out of the economy. Elect people who have a deep respect for the value of personal freedom, both economic and social.

If you want my take on what caused this crisis, see We Guarantee It. The congress discovered that they didn't have to vote money in a budget, they could guarantee the operation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the money would flow, off the books. Of course, in time the crisis exploded onto the books, to the "surprise" of all concerned.

What guarantees are the government playing with today? Think social security, medicare, and bank deposits. Can you afford these government guarantees?

Yes, yes, I did everything I was supposed to. I wrote to my representatives and told them not to support any bailouts. Only one representative from my district voted against them. The rest either ignored their constituents, or felt that their constituents wanted the bailouts. They all got re-elected anyway.

Half of my savings have vanished this year, and there's nothing I can do about that now. Instead of investing, I am now using every spare cent to pay off my house. The idea is that with no house payment, no children and no debt, I can cut my income back to the point where I will pay little or no taxes when the bill for all these bailouts comes due. Aside from expatriating, it's the only thing I can think of to keep from getting soaked worse than I already have.

Asshats. The banks, and the fucking senators that wrote the check. Wonder when, exactly, we will have had enough and revolt?