In 2008 the housing market bubble popped ( there was more to this like $5.00 gallon gas,but we will get to that later) The United States Federal Reserve stepped in and handed out money and restructured large financial institutions and corporations in what became know as "too big to fail"instead of letting the natural coarse of the economy take it coarse. The Feds were a big part of the housing bubble in the first place by continuing to lower interest rates and most lenders were willing to hand out more money then the house was worth because they were increasing in value so fast.

Come to 2020 and the Corona virus pandemic started to create panic in the market. Once again the Feds stepped in and bailed out financial institutions, took on debt from large corporations, and handed out trillions of dollars along with lowering interest rates in an attempt to stabilize the economy. In doing so it has taken the risk of market failure out of the question if they can step in and fix it anytime there is a problem. This means there is only an up side to investing and no risk of loss, clearly the rich are the ones that come out ahead on this one.

What are your thoughts on Wall Street and Main Street? How do they relate, and who is this helping? Should the Feds have this much control, or should they have less involvement. Is the United States "too big to fail"? The world's economy in large part does revolve around the US. But if the US is in trouble would others step in? Think about what happened in Greece and what Europe did. Are we heading to the greatest depression the world has ever seen? Or can we just keep putting a bandaid on things and growing the economy?

My outlook on the current situation is that we're all in a war for the highest currency value. Most western developed nations are doing the exact same things these days and are mostly depending on how each other fair.

Wall Street is blatantly irrelevant. No matter what anyone does, they will always come out on top. The reason being is because they have so many assets, including knowledge, that the average person doesn't have or is unwilling to have, it is pointless to attempt and overthrow their "regime". Even further, corporate taxation can easily be avoided through certain means, and the US congress is essentially bound to them.


The US being in trouble will come from its own people, which has happened time and time again. The Feds have little to do with it. As long as people keep piling on debts they can't afford, funneling all their money into the same corporations, buying stuff they don't need, and voting for the same policies over and over again, we'll be in the same situation. Is this a good thing? That depends on your philosophy.

The cause of the 2008 collapse in the housing market resulted in large part because of the "Community Reinvestment Act of 1977" or "CRA". CRA required the Federal Reserve and other federal banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to help "meet the credit needs" of the communities in which they do business, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods.

Banks were coerced to lower standards to "meet the credit needs" of people who prior to CRA would have NEVER qualified for the mortgages they were getting. Due to the ease in lending people began to leverage money by refinancing their houses as the values increased, people were using their houses as if they were piggy banks. It didn't take long until people were "underwater" and owed more than their house was worth. That led to people walking away from their houses resulting in a spike in foreclosures and lender being stuck with "bad paper".

But it wasn't just the Federal Reserve that helped cause the collapse. There were Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd who tinkered with the CRA forcing lending institutions to make a quota of bad loans that certainly contributed to the mortgage crisis. Frank and Dodd's also push to reduce mortgage buying standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Should banks be "too big to fail"? IMO opinion no, but banks shouldn't be forced by the government to make loans to people who aren't qualified. Too big to succeed is the real problem......both in the private sector and public sector, AKA the government. The big difference between the sectors is companies will either make the adjustment and downsize to survive or dissolve.....when the government just continues to get bigger with every failure.

The structure of the bank its self has changed, it used to be they made a lot of money loaning out money, with interest rates being so low the margins have become very tight, the banks are now making the money off credit cards and debit cards, they get a cut every time they are swiped. Housing is a very big part of the economy, for most people their house is either their biggest asset, or more often their biggest debt. When apartments are $1500 a month plus and you can buy a house for $1200 a month there is a reason why these substandard buyers are in the market. Also most loans that don't meet the 80/20 standard pay mortgage insurance which should absorb some of the losses in foreclosures. However the low interest rates have caused drastically inflated house prices. The rate inflation increases also affects how much debt to value a person has in their home. If someone is willing to buy a house and live in it their whole life they are probably sitting pretty good, however peoples need for change now days has gotten a lot of people in the refinance and flipping game. Sometimes this pays off, other times it does not.

This isn't just about the traditional banks, how can General Motors fail and need the government to bail them out? I know the answer is too much overhead, living in the past, the retirement fund itself was enough to bankrupt them as people live longer, prices of everything goes up, and they don't have the dominance in the market they once had. The 2020 bail out was not as openly talked about mostly because people were more focused on the pandemic, and money was being handed out to all sectors of the population. But is it going to become a trend that every bump in the economy requires a bailout? If interest gets any lower they will be paying people to take out loans, and some of the financial institutions are already living this. Is there a way to get back to "normal"? Will the United States lose its place in the world? So many others depend on the US so if that happens the whole world will suffer. Will China come in and take over?

I mean, as I said, most western nations are doing the exact same thing. The US is important, but it's not as important as it was years ago. The US is beginning to be on equal footing with other nations and needs to start acting like it. The US is mostly a cultural power now and not an economic one - in other words, the economic power is balancing between most developed nations. As far as I'm concerned, the US has already lost their place in the world, it's just that most of the west doesn't have the cultural solidarity to say otherwise.

The thing with bailouts is that bailouts are done because these companies are so large that the active population honestly depends on them. These companies are directly tied to stocks, markets, and supply chains that are bound to fail somehow - most companies only want a bailout to counter their losses when the stock market or supply chain fails.

China will win, but they're winning because they're preying on our weaknesses. We need to encourage competition and a population completely for encouraging more competition. Further, we need to develop more economic connections with our allies, just like China is doing. As for if we're going to return to normal - no, we're not, and the reason is because technology has advanced economics to such a degree that economic growth, for the developed world, is almost guaranteed - the only thing that'd stop it is a world changing event like WW3 or a massive solar blackout. As for these interest rates people are terrified of, I genuinely do not know what to say about them - I don't think they affect the economy nearly as much as people think, especially considering most governments around the world are using central banks to the same capacity which leads back to the point that the economy is so global now that, unless something ridiculously bad happens to the US, all the developed economies have to fail for the US economy to fail.

The issue with low interest rates are it makes money cheap. Why would somebody keep their money in a bank at 1% (which is insured) when they could put it in the stock market and possibly make 15%-20% on that money? (Which comes with risk) Or crypto currency which is very high risk but has some very high returns. At what point do people refinance their homes at 3% interest to try and make money off their equity? Look what happened in the 1929 stock market crash that led to the great depression. There was a lot of money going around in the 1920's and the common folks were finally able to start and invest in the stock market. Wheat crops were not doing good so people were investing in futures. Then in 1929 it all changed and wheat prices fell starting the crash. People were borrowing money to invest because they thought the prices would never stop going up so it was a win, win for everyone til things went wrong. I would say the US government taking some action to correct some issues before they become a bigger problem is a good idea, especially if you look at how much the government had to hand out during the depression and all the programs they started during that time. But where the money goes and what it is used for is very questionable. Biden and the Democrats seem to be taking a Socialism approach to things. Have you ever wondered why so many from Mexico try to come to the United States? Mexico was doing great in the 1950's and 1960's but in 1970 a corrupt government got into power and decided to nationalize some companies, the companies began to fail and the government's solution was to throw more money after bad crashing the value of the Mexican Peso. That was 50 years ago and Mexico still has not fully recovered. Do people think the US dollar could not lose a lot of it's value due to our government's recklessness? People are living longer, health care cost are skyrocketing, energy cost are going to greatly increase as we shift from fossil fuels, and the government's piggy bank is supporting all these things. Europe has been becoming more energy aware for years, many people there live in small houses, some 200 years old, they drive tinny cars, and they live a simpler life style. In the US the bigger the better, people are building bigger and bigger houses, they drive SUV's and Pick-ups, they think nothing of getting on a plane and flying some where a couple times a year. Pretty soon over half the jobs in the US will somehow be connected to the government, at what point is this no longer sustainable?

The sad thing is America is still waiting on a much needed infrastructure bill which was suppose to be the second part of the 09 stimulus...
Corporations run this country, always have. While the Government does have power to set rules and standards, it feeds money to them not to save them but to to ensure the elected officials bank accounts stay fat... Do you really think they got those huge tax breaks a few years ago to " bolster manufacturing" in the US?:)
We do need them strong tho... as Michael alluded too, since Nixon took us off the gold standard our country's credit worthiness is what backs our currency

Firstly, Mexico is a bad example because Mexico was and still is corrupt. Mexico has always been corrupt, just like the rest of South America. Further, Mexico essentially only stopped being a third world country after the Mexican and Green revolution. The truth is, Mexico is a 2nd world nation and shouldn't be compared to the US. It's the same with Venezuela and Iran. Further, we have openly invited Mexicans to the US, so it's not like we weren't asking for it -even more so that we have participated in things that have prevented them from developing and encouraging corruption.

Secondly, we're in a completely different time than the Great Depression. People are far more educated than they ever have been. The Federal Reserve was not connected to banks in the same way it is now. No one respectable is taking out loans to invest in the stock market -if they are taking out loans, it's because they can't afford a home. If people are in the home market, it's almost always after they already have a first house, is a minority of people, and usually are not people in debt. If people are going into debt [beyond buying a home], it's usually because they are people into inner-city crime or someone who has been on minimum wage for the majority of their life. In fact, the majority of people are afraid of the stock market and equity in general - most people want nothing to do with it beyond long-term investment that most of the time are given freely. Most of the money in circulation is direct hand-to-hand pay checks in the US.


Is this unsustainable? I personally don't really think so as long as education remains cheap and free, which seems to be the exact direction it's going in. To help it along further, I believe the patent market behind the scenes is a huge problem as it prevents corporate competition and technological innovation. I also think we need to rework the education system, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen.

As for what you're saying about green energy, I desperately think the government needs to fund technology startups rather than energy companies, but that won't happen either. Most people don't realize that we need new technologies and lifestyle changes due to how dependent we are on our current system of resources.