I really don't understand this whole mess. Is the bail out bill a last ditch effort to try and save the investment banking industry? My understanding is that GS and MS were the primary issuers of this bad paper and the bad paper was purchased by banks and others all over the world. Now banks everywhere are refusing to lend or making it difficult to borrow, even though the Central Banks are dumping all this money into the market. This is why there is all this talk of a world wide financial collapse. If we could solve this mess with the $700B bailout, maybe it would be cheaper in the long run. If we could get this bad paper out of the system and then place regulations on the creation of these "exotic" financial instruments, could it buy us some breathing room? I just don't know.
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