1360 Red and Blue Tarp

I read an interesting headline the other day. It said, “Stock Market Up as Wall Street Expects More Government Spending.”
Interesting, because I think it’s fair to assume Wall Street has more Republicans than Democrats. And the current run-up to the election has the Republicans devoting a lot of lip service to the evils of government spending.
How interesting that as business people they actually like the idea.
The enthusiasm was caused by, of all things, a poor job report. Wall Street expects the government to spend more stimulus bucks, and that means more bucks for them. Notably, the job report also showed many private sector jobs being created. The only thing that continued to hold the job report down was all the state and federal government jobs that had been lost due to budget cuts.
So, let me get this straight, the government is shrinking as it spends more money on the private sector to create jobs.
Sounds like a Republican campaign promise to me. And a good time for a celebratory party. Tea, anyone?
Also, the most recent news about the supposedly horrible TARP program is good—it worked. Of the 700 billion dollars spent—I should say lent—to stave off both the total collapse of our economy and the worst depression ever as too-big-to-fail financial institutions failed, almost all of it has been paid back. The government stands to lose a maximum of 50 billion dollars and may not even lose that if AIG comes through as promised.
The TARP program, by the way, was one of the last bipartisan things congress has done. And gee-whiz it worked. Government managed to save business from its own excesses, save the economy, and may actually turn a profit.
Bipartisanship can work.
America, ya gotta love it.