$30 Billion of "Fed's Money" Well Spent?

It is nice to hear, from Alice Rivlin, in an op-ed article in the New York Times yesterday, that the Fed's money was well spent on the $30 billion guarantee ("loan") to JP Morgan in the unprecedented bailout of Bear Stearns. Rivlin, as a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, is just doing what most others in the mainstream press are doing: she's spouting the conventional words of wisdom Wall Street wants us all to believe.

Naturally we're likely to find more wisdom, truth, and honesty - not to mention humor - on this topic elsewhere, and by elsewhere, I mean somewhere closer to Main Street, and definitely not on Wall Street. Indeed I just found all of those virtues in Peter McKay's funny column: Save Me, Federal Reserve!

And for a more serious discussion, see economist Dean Baker's recent article on this. Or better yet, get the big picture by reading Dean Baker's inciteful tome from a few years ago, available for free online and all too relevant today: The Conservative Nanny State - How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer.