Great Depression? 7 Questions on the Crash and Burn financial system

You and I are now proud owners of an international insurance company named AIG that I didn't really think about a month ago. We own Freddie and Fannie, and billions of mortgages, which is making me feel a little woozy. (Rumor has it we own the shareholder lawsuits coming, too)

So now that I have to pay attention to more than our house payments, credit card payments, and my business vendors, let me ask a few questions:

1. What is the $60 trillion debt swap that some say has bad money chasing funny money?

2. Is this purchase of a trillion dollars in bad debt going to change any behavior? Are we simply shifting the burden from a corrupt financial system to taxpayers?

3. Who benefits from this scheme?

4. Show me the money. Where is the suddenly Socialist Bush getting this money?

5. Does this shifting the debt to Taxpayers create another bubble in Treasury notes as some indicate?

6. Is it true that rich people actually NEED an economic DEPRESSION so they can take their paper wealth and convert it to real goods on the cheap?

7. I have heard few specifics about progressive reforms that give taxpayers, citizens in the US some say about the ways in which big money can now charge us for using our money. Where is the pay off for small businesses getting low interest credit lines? Where is the money for universal health care, which would take a big load off small business and big in this country? Where is the credit card reform bill that puts a ceiling on the usurious rates Visa and Mastercard charge?

(Visa just announced that business to business credit card charges are going to cost me 4.5% per transaction. That is a far cry from the 2% plus .25 cents transaction Costo Merchant Services said they'd charge when I started with them. Credit card companies make big bucks on consumer debt, and they also make a lot by charging businesses who accept your Visa & MC. You will say that is the cost of doing business. I say that is an unregulated part of our financial system we just bought -- and we now have a say over how much it should cost us.)

What do you think? Any help with answers, just post them here.

Thanks.

Timothy