And from The Echo...

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/south-wales-echo-letters/2008/10/02/truth-behind-us-bail-out-91466-21950631/


Truth behind US bail-out

Oct 2 2008 by Our Correspondent, South Wales Echo

AS an American student living in Cardiff, I have a lot to say about recent UK articles criticising the US House of Representatives for not passing the $700bn bail-out.

In its current form the bail-out would slam high taxes on working class, elderly, and deprived Americans – people facing the same problems as you.

The people who lost their jobs because of the crisis and the people who depend on government support to survive will be in for a shock.

One of the bail-out’s absurdities is that the American government expects taxpayers to pay for the government’s economic mistakes.

If the government didn’t encourage banks to engage in high-risk lending and other volatile behaviour to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Bailing out these banks will encourage them to continue gambling on taxpayers’ livelihoods, while the comfortably rich will barely feel its sting.

We’re all scared. We all want a solution – and we want it yesterday.

We all, regardless of location, have to face this time of economic crisis. We are already in the crisis, every one of us. It will get worse, no matter what.

But can a plan scraped together in a week fix a problem brewing for years?

Dianne Selden (American student journalist from Ohio), Corvette Court, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay