The current financial meltdown has been compared in many ways with the Great Depression of the 30s, because both crisis involved a high speculation that resulted to panic sales and made the stock exchanges plummet. In my opinion, there is a central point in which they differ: queuing.
The most common visual representation of the Great Depression is this picture of gentlemen lining up for free soup. How is that related to the credit crunch? Eighty years later, there is no "physical" line, but several people are queuing for one thing: a jackpot of $700 bn (also called TARP... almost trap). I could already picture AIG's, BoA's, Citi's, or Goldman's CEOs lining up in front of a Henry Paulson giving away billion-dollar-bags. I read today on the Wall Street Journal that insurance companies througout the country were trying to buy small banks in order to get a ticket in this line... sounds like a pretty tasty soup.
I think you get the point, my personal opinion is that the way this huge amount of money is used is quite controversial. No free soup for poor people nowadays, but billion dollars for greedy corporations.
It is paradoxal for me to write this because I am studying finance and might be hired by these companies once they are back on track, but it reminds me that I am a business school student and I might be queuing for a job very soon... I am glad not to be at the bottom.. may Obama do something.
