Fair enough, but you have to be fair in return. If you supported QE2, you must have thought QE1 did something positive, or else why would you support the next one? etc.
Two data points on a chart (above) doesn't exactly constitute recovery. But whatever. My point still remains that the Fed that you support does not feel that the economy is improving, else they would have ended QE. So either their criteria changed, or yours did to stop supporting it.
I would have let the system cleanse itself. I would have used the scenario to institute strong fiscal integrity, and split speculative banks from their depositors (Glass-Steagall or something like it). I would have jailed those responsible for fraud and pursued justice on those in TBTF banks that knowingly took on too much risk and brought the system down. I would have clawed back bonuses. I would have let GM face chapter 11 and re-org itself the way Chapter 11 allowed it to. Those who took risk (bond holders) in companies around the world would have suffered losses, the way they were supposed to. IF government money was to be used, then it would have been used to protect depositors from loss, up to 100,000$ as was FDIC policy.
Would there have been chaos? You betcha. About 6 months of hell - or maybe even a year. Then, slowly, we would have crawled back to a sound financial system that was worthy of trust. I would have never been re-elected, I'm sure, but the country would have been much better off for it. Instead, we are worse off than before the crisis. Banks are more bloated and riskier than ever. Mark to Market is still suspended. Speculators are at it again, enabled and emboldened because they now know the Fed has their back. We have high unemployment, record debt and the Fed's balance sheet is atrocious. And we've got nothing to show for it. Nothing is fixed - at all.
It's a cesspool.
