Why is this for the rich? I've seen that remark thrown around several times & I don't understand it.
From what I understand, this sort of a move is basically done by inflating the dollar causing anyone who has savings to lose out (the people without savings only lose if their wages don't catch up).
Because only the rich, the people who own/control these mega-corps, are the only ones receiving gigantic funding "bailouts" from the government, meaning they don't face the fallout of their stupid mistakes. It's basically a free ticket to steal money from the American public, but only if you can afford to set up a mega-corp and let it fail while you "earn" multi-million dollar salaries every year regardless of performance...
Are the people who own mega-corps richer then those that own regular corps? Generally speaking, stock is not owned exclusively by the super rich. The lower end of the spectrum (those that also have no savings) do not own stock. Anyway, haven't they lost most of their money already?
On top of that this isn't for the shareholders. It's to keep a financial system from collapsing. You can argue that it wouldn't have collapsed. That this makes it more likely to collapse etc. Sure.
Look at AIG's dividends over the last few years they where pumping out about a dollar a year in dividends and now their stock is worth ~4$. The reason they where able to generate that type of money is the reduction in banking regulation alongside absurdly low interest rates and a willingness of the federal government to bail out companies that are "to big to fail" all off which is giving money to the people who own and or run AIG and companies like them.
PS: If AIG still had all it's dividends from the last 10 years it would not need any government money.
From what I understand, this sort of a move is basically done by inflating the dollar causing anyone who has savings to lose out (the people without savings only lose if their wages don't catch up).