> Everyday working people are currently captive to the daily
> functions of financial capitalism through their bank accounts
> whether we like it or not.
True, but:
> If your bank fails tomorrow where will your next direct-deposit
> paycheck go? How will you get money for groceries and pay your rent
> or mortgage? If tomorrow no one honors your debit/credit cards and
> you have to wait for Uncle Sam to make good through the FDIC before
> you can access your funds how are you going to make ends meet?
I think that's a bit dramatic. We've already seen what modern bank failure looks like: it happens over the weekend and the ATMs continue to run. That's the whole point of things like FDIC: to make scares like the above no longer relevant to 'everyday working people' ...
No one 'addressed these issues' because no one thinks it has any chance of happening.
> If the US had allowed banks to simply collapse and refused to
> guarantee the illiquid assets under TARP the world-wide faith in the
> US Treasury as ultimate guarantor of private property would be
> shattered.
I don't think these are the two choices: TARP or everything fails :-)
The ongoing activities of the Fed *outside* of the scope of TARP should be enough to convince you of the seriousness of the effort and the wide set of tools they have to try to help with this situation.
/jordan