The stimulus plan the U.S. government is currently considering is necessary to help American citizens, but it will likely not reverse the country’s economic decline, George Soros said.
TARP:
TARP for Troubled Assets Relief Program had been carried out in a “haphazard and capricious way” and “without proper planning,” he said.
“Unfortunately it was misused and the way it it was done has poisoned the well. It has created tremendous ill will toward putting up more money.”
Bailout money:
Advocates using bailout money to recapitalize banks, but said the $350 billion would not be enough. He said such a move would take more than the entire $700 billion.
The bursting housing bubble “acted like a detonator that exploded a much larger bubble.”
“The economies of the world are falling off a cliff. This is a situation that is comparable to the 1930s. And once you recognize it, you have to recognize the size of the problem is much bigger.”
Soros said the United States needed “radical and unorthodox policy measures” to prevent a repeat of the Great Depression of the early 20th century that include recapitalizing banks and writing down the country’s accumulated debt.