I'm No Economist, But....

..this whole $700 billion bail out just seems astonishing.

I hope the more economically literate will forgive me if this seems ridiculous, but why bail out the banks that made the stupendous cock-up in the first place? Have the executives of these banks taken cuts to their multi-million dollar incomes or been sacked because they're made flamboyantly irresponsible decisions with other people's money?

If so much of the debacle centres around people being unable to make mortgage repayments, which has then, in turn, resulted in whole suburbs of vacant houses and thousands of homeless, wouldn't it make more sense to put money into getting those people back into those houses? If these people had some kind of financial relief they would not only have the incredible luxury of a roof over the heads of their families, but could take part in the economic life of the country again. And the money that the government gave them would be put back into the banking system via mortgage repayments. And the tax hike that would be presumably necessary to cover the $700 billion dollar "favour for the boys" hand out could be avoided, giving Joe/Jo Average more disposable income to flush around the system.

Oh hang on, that's communist. Silly me.