The Greater Good

I am told my bank owns some of the subprime mortgages that the government intends to buy.  The bank’s stock (of which I own none) recently dropped 32%.  I have had my mortgage with the bank for years and have never missed or been late with a payment.  Ok, as I understand it, some of my tax dollars will be used to buy those mortgages from my bank.  The bank’s stock I assume will go up.  My mortgage will remain the same.  How exactly do I benefit from this?  Short answer is that I don’t.  I guess the “thinking” is that this is for the “greater good.”  Now I guess after the bailout, my bank can now lend the money paid to it for the “bad” mortgages (prudently I hope) to a customer.  That benefits them.  How does that benefit me?  Not sure that it does.  I guess the borrower could use the loan to open a store.  I might shop at that store sometime in the future.  Maybe the owner of the store will hire me to do some work for the store.  I guess that benefits me …. if it happens.  Is that the “greater good” they are talking about?  Maybe so. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.