It has to work

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: October 7, 2008

Congress was pushed to pass the $700 billion bailout bill last week. The legislation wasn’t any more popular here in the Dan River Region:

 

• “In my opinion, it’s necessary whether we like it or not,” said Torrey Blackwell of Blackwell Automotive.

• “Unfortunately, it’s necessary,” said Ben Rippe, president of Rippe’s on Main Street. “It will put a strain on what a future president or Congress can do by not acting.”

• “It’s not about bailing out rich people, it’s about keeping our economy afloat,” Averett University associate business professor Lyle Cady said.

Now that the bailout has become law, the concern is whether it will work to instill confidence in the financial markets — and keep the economy moving.

The fear was that without the federal government stepping in to buy up bad debt, the credit markets would seize up, affecting everything from big companies trying to borrow millions using short-term loans to consumers trying to buy something with a credit card.

No one should be surprised that the bailout bill has received lukewarm support in our community. The idea, as originally presented by the Bush administration, was portrayed as a necessary evil to avoid a much worse problem. Even after the bill went through the congressional sausage grinder, it was still portrayed as a necessary evil.

It’s no endorsement that Blackwell calls it, “necessary whether we like it or not” and Rippe says “unfortunately, it’s necessary” or that Cady warns that it’s about “keeping our economy afloat.”

Beyond the obvious reasons for hoping the bailout works, this community has a unique worry. This region and its people have already been through tough times while the rest of the country prospered.

Now as the Dan River Region emerges from the loss of tobacco and textile jobs, the question is whether this new problem will drag the local economy back down to where it was. More than anything else, that was a good enough reason to support the administration’s bailout bill — and to hope it succeeds.