money well spent?

I was never a fan of the government bailout plan for banks - I use the word "plan" loosely since they passed it and hardly knew how they would spend the money, or how it would be regulated.

You've probably heard how AIG spent $440,000+ on a weekend retreat including spa treatments after receiving their bailout money. I have a friend who works for them in Kansas City who said it is just embarrasing...but she needs her job.

CNN said that for most of the banks that received the money no one knows where the money has gone. Shouldn't there be some accounting of that, especially since it's taxpayer dollars? When I get a government grant for my work, you better believe I am responsible to account for the dollars spent.

And now this...the $700 billion previously allocated isn't enough. The new estimate according to Fortune Magazine is that it will take $4 Trillion...$4 TRILLION!!!

I've always been an advocate for putting those dollars in the hands of consumers if you want to boost the economy...it would be a lot more efficient and effective in my opinion. It seems illogical to me that you would give banks $4 trillion dollars, hoping they will make loans to consumers to spend...just cut out the middle man, save us all the trouble. I imagine if you had put $700 billion dollars in to the hands of consumers Circuit City wouldn't be going out of business because people would have bought digital televisions, and the car industry wouldn't be suffering because people would upgrade to the latest fuel efficient vehicle, and there would be less forclosures and a boom in the housing market...isn't that the ultimate goal anyway - give the economy a kick start. Well, I believe that will only happen when you help out the consumer.