http://www.spiegel.de/...

The US government is buying bad debt for $700 billion. Now Washington is asking other countries to jump in and help, too, but the Germans are bowing out. Believing that the rescue package sends the wrong signal, experts from the country’s leading economics think tanks argue it’s the right call.

It’s not a call for assistance; it’s a scream for help. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking other countries to help buy up bad US debt. The US government is putting up $700 billion in taxpayer money in the hopes that the measure might restore stability in the financial system. Some countries are planning to help. But the German government has answered this call quickly and clearly: no.

Economics experts think that’s the right response. As they see it, in the long run, those responsible for the crisis — who have been cashed out with high salaries and bonuses for years — will not be penalized for billions “but will be let off the hook like everyone else,” says Carsten Meier of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). According to Meier, by injecting capital into the market, the US government is putting everyone who speculated and lost back on their feet and thereby standing in the way of a market cleanup.

Paulson has stated that the US government will pay a fair price for the bad debt, which Meier sees as sending “precisely the wrong signal,” adding that “people shouldn’t be rewarded for taking such high risks.”

Sad that Europe is calling the US too socialistic.

Not to in anyway justify the proposed bailout… but everyone is up in arms about how the taxpayers are supposed to cover the failures of the wealthy. If you look at the tax stats those who pay the bulk of the income taxes are the upper class. In 2005 the top 1% of income tax payers paid 39.38% of all income tax collected, top 5% paid 59.67%, top 10% paid 70.30%, top 25% paid 85.99%, and the top 50% paid 96.93%. While in a way, due to corporate income taxes and other incomes, this bailout is still socialism for the rich… it’s not entirely accurate.

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