They're actually spending money on improving the infrastructure in their country, instead of just giving it to the greedy bankers who started the problem. As opposed to, of course, our great governments of the US and European countries.

The times are clearly changing when China's response puts the West's to shame.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/world/asia/10china.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Hmmm...go figure. Imagine what could get done in the U.S. if money like that was well spend on constructive projects.

Exactly... Imagine what could be done for example in terms of energy independence. I mean true solutions, not just the lame "drill baby drill" which won't ever do much to help (according to the US government's own studies).

We just voted for a bullet train in California that will use renewable energy and create a ton of jobs in California, and it barely passed. Many people thought that spending money on infrastructure was a bad thing to do during the economic crisis, as opposed to a way to get us out. This train will be cheaper, safer, faster, and cleaner than the old ones. California and China know what's up.

So basically the communists are communist and the fascists are fascist...

Europe doesn't need a populist bail out because their weakness comes from weakness in US, UK, and Spain's housing markets. China doesn't need to bail out the financial markets because their banks are indirectly being bailed out by EU and US bailing out their banks who sell securities to Chinese banks.

The US, UK, and Spain are the ones who need to do multiple bail outs. The US will have to bail out banks, industry, workers and homeowners, AND rebuild infrastructure. Luckily for the US, they can kill two birds with one stone. By rebuilding infrastructure they will increase employment and raise wages. By bailing out homeowners with moratoriums on foreclosures or whatever the people smarter than me figure out, mortgages will be paid.

The $700B US bail out, was one large step to keep the banks from crashing and cause Great Depression II. The fact that China isn't bailing out the banks, means it worked.

BTW, China building infrastructure is good for the West. Not only is China a huge exporter of goods, it is a huge importer of capital and services from the West.

@steven787: Actually the $700 billion bailout was supposed to get banks to start loaning money again. So far it has failed because banks are more interested in spending the money in buying other banks, executive bonuses and spa trips. After all, if you're bank it's much better to become Too Big To Fail ™, as that seems to be the expression of the day when choosing what to bail out.

The possibility of a Great Depression II hasn't disappeared. The big problem is, of course unemployment. In two single months in the US, half a million jobs were lost and we're nowhere near the end of the recession. I'm guessing it will start getting ugly in the EU soon too.

Welfare for the wealthy (courtesy of taxpayer money), failing free market for the masses. That's not what I'd call capitalism. In the meantime, essential infrastructure which will be needed to get the economies going is nowhere to be seen. The double-whammy of financial and infrastructure crises will be painful. At the end of the Great Depression, oil was cheaply and abundantly flowing out of the ground in Texas, USA. What will there be at the end of this crisis? Reuters is already making a list of aborted/postponed energy infrastructure due to the crisis:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0638358120081106

Prediction: When the recession/depression/whatever is over and the economy is on the way up, the West runs into an energy brick wall due to lack of investment in oil drilling and renewable energy.

There is a huge difference between what is said is intended, what is intended, and what really happens.

Why are people so ignorant of the real threat to the economy. DEFLATION. Deflation, deflation, deflation. It's not f'ing rocket science.

If prices start dropping, then debt cost more to pay off than what was intended when it was borrowed. The governments of the world know that they need to decrease the value of their currencies. Part of it is lending or getting more into circulation that already exists. The other part is printing money and maintaining value of commodities and stock. Banks were about to collapse, that money was to devalue money and revalue banks.

Spending that money on a Spa Treatment or buying another bank may be distasteful, but it doesn't matter. The bail out did its job. Prevent the financial markets from going any further down. They haven't even gone into effect yet and may never go into effect, but they caused a change in confidence levels.

The problem isn't just the banks willingness to lend, they need to get through months of backlogged foreclosures. People don't want to borrow because their property is devalued and their incomes are down.

There are huge problems ahead, the $700B bail out did what it was intended to do. Make people (workers, investors) feel like the government was doing something and prevent deflation.

My point is... no matter how many problems there are with the financial systems, ultimately the real world economy needs infrastructure upgrades to have a chance in the future. With the governmental philosophy we're seeing, I don't see those happening in US/EU during the recession.

Saving banks is fine (although regulation should have prevented this problem), but we have much bigger problems which aren't being addressed. Incidentally, investing in infrastructure would create jobs and help many companies stay in business. For example, those useless SUV factories could be retooled to start making electric trains for future transportation infrastructure. Is this going to happen? Most likely no, the automakers will just get a huge hat of money to burn for a few more months/years.

After some time, fuel prices go up again, and bam, another crash which "noone saw coming". Houses in suburbs get devalued even more since no one can afford to commute from there, and another housing crisis explodes.

Oh, what were we disagreeing on?

The US needs, right now the following infrastructure upgrades:

Wind farms in the Mid-West and off shore.

Solar energy programs doubled or tripled.

Fixing highways.

Significant urban rail or equivalent in every major city

A Natural Gas/ Electric Military - removing oil from the defense equation.

21st century training for the military, including language and information sciences.

Increasing natural gas supplies and NG power supply for the short term.

Increasing bandwith.

Building a medical information system.

Increasing access to education and encouraging college students to get degrees that are in demand instead of Psychology.

Hiring teachers, upgrading technology in schools.

If we're going to be bailing out the auto industry then we better be mandating mpg performance for the present, not for 10 year from now.

Remove religion from science.  I won't tell any one what god to believe in citing science, they shouldn't be impeding science with unsubstantiated beliefs.

I'll stop.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27635885/

A Bush underling subverting Congress and overstepping executive power in a crisis? Never would have expected.