I think the government should let all the weak and powerless companies fall flat on there face and let the stong companies prevail,you can’t keep bailing out companies when their doing the wrong things with the money.When the weak compains fall and the strong companies prevail then you start over instead of using all this already taxed money from the federal reserve and having us pay it back double or even triple what we started out with.
i am angry.when my husband,s Hospital is on the brink of bankruptcy the failed bloated CEOs of bailed out AIG are being rewarded.In any other country this would have started a revolution.
I am ashamed at the nation that I was taught to be proud of, not because of our brave soldiers that fight in spite of political agandes, not even the change in moral values of this nation. Instead I am am ashamed of the simplest of you who claim to be American and yet you sell out your brother for the all mighty dollar. We use to fear Communisim as a threat to the FREE WORLD but it has become GREED that has been our downfall. I don’t see a bright future unless hard hearts become soft, and the rich look at the blessings that has been bestowed upon them and pass a little down. You are witnessing a time in history that rivals the great revolution against Britain. These people of our nation have worked and fought hard for their country, now they see the same country turning its back on them. History has proven the out come of this, it will be caous and martial law in the streets. We are a people that wants to abide by the law, but when the law can no longer protect us we become Vagabonds.
my husband owns a my business. we do not qualify for foodstamps or unemployment. we are trying very hard to keep the bills payed. don’t know one week to the next how we’re going to pay the bills. then on top of everything else you have these collections agency (lvnv funding) that they have bought from a department store you had 3 years ago. so now they’ve went to court and added extra charges on to it for something you never got from them the start with and they allow these companies to place leins against any property that you may have manage to hold on to. my husband had to call wells fargo to come pick his truck up thats we’ve been paying on for 2 years becausr they would’nt refinance it to get him at a payment we could try keep it, because this lein that was placed on his credit from lvnv funding is credit score had dropped to low. not because he did’nt make the monthly payments on it because he had made every one of them. then the guy from wells fargo told him if they picked it he was still going to pay if i could have continued to pay for it i would have kept it would’nt think.so after this economy with all the loan defaults this collection agencies will have a field day and will have the courts to help them collect or take what you do have so someone please tell me how this stimulus is going to help the selfemployed ? we have to pay taxes to.
I wrote a song about it:
I Want a Bail Out (’Cause I’m just too big to fail) and it can be found on my website: http://www.kilikmusic.com
<a href=”http://www.kilikmusic.com/bailout.htm” I Want a Bail Out
Let the big three go bankrupt, it is the best way for the company to restructure.My salary has decreased, I can hardly pay my bills now,where is the bail out for the tax payers.This is crazy, whats next?? Who do we bail out next? The airline industry??Let those poorly run industries die
This is not a class issue. The money would be better spent on letting the auto workers own these companies and build cars that are green, energy efficient and safe. Give these new worker owned car companies tax incentives for building competitive autos, for the new real world we live in. Give the people who buy these “new” cars tax breaks for buying them and make them affordable for the Working Class. Build a better mouse trap is still the best capitalist principle and our workers are up to the task…give them a go and you will see wonders.
Why does it seem the GM and its blue collar workers are not worthily of help. We are punishing the blue collar for the crimes of the executives. There are so many blue collar arenas who share the pain by cutting their hours so that no one has to loose their job while our financial system white collar workers are entitled to the entire kit and kaboddle with absolutely no accountability. We are rewarding the breeding of narcissism in the white collar arena. Here comes 1984. The haves, and the have nots.
The Government and Wall Street are in bed with each other. We need to get the Government in bed with the Average Middle Class Tax Payer.
I put a large down payment. Only offered the stupid loan I got. I have been responsible did not take any equity out of the house. Went to 2 interest increases and was going for my third which would put me at 12%. Fought and got an abusive modification. Mortgage modified for 5 years at initial rate of 7.85% for five years. 100% going to interest and in five years if unable to refie then the loan goes back to in horrific self. Calculated by 6% above the index and an interest increase every 6 months. I already know I can’t refinance.
You tell me how irresponsible I been. Holding on to this house and giving Countrywide and my association every cent I have. My question is who is getting my $2,200.00 a month? Because it aint me. In five years I will still owe the same amount I owe today but will have to pay $132,000.00 to someone who is claiming they are broke and have to Washington bail them out. Who is going to bail me out?
I work four times harder then those rich politicians.
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, Copy and Paste everything you write here to the appropriate addresses!
There should not be any bail out to the Wall Street crooks. The CEO and CFO and all the executives of these failing financial institutions should pay back their bonus and compensation and all the benefits.
I just wonder when America will wake up and realize this is just a play to replace the financial industries fake money that doesn’t really exist (they call them securities and they don’t necessarily need to have real money backing them), with the real stuff.
If you want to fix the economy, increase the wages of the 90% of the population that only make 10% of the wages paid in America.
And we have the gall to call the Native Americans stupid because they sold Manhatten for 24 dollars? To all you morons who bought overinflated homes I say STUPID and you deserve to go out of “our” house not yours because you didn’t pay for it and you got stuck with it before you could flip it.
Early Christmas present before Bush finishes his term. They figured if Obama raises taxes on the top 5% of wealthy americans, they need to get compensated before Bush leaves. That’s what it comes down to.
What some folks here fail to understand is that to “stick it to the pigs” and “let these companies go belly-up” is tantamount to letting the entire economic system collapse, and you are a fool if you think you are insulated from the repurcussions of that scenario. When banks, the banking system, and ultimately companies’ (both big and small) ability to access cash goes away, so does our economy–ALL OF IT. Rampant inflation, massive unemployment, spiraling foreclosure…is it starting to sound like the great depression? It should, because thats what we are looking at, right over the edge of the abyss we stand on. A lot of companies lent money when they shouldn’t, a lot of people borrowed when they shouldn’t. All parties have suffered plenty (writedowns and foreclosures), and the $700billion bailout isn’t going to alleviate pain on wall street–its going to keep it, and main street, from evaporating. The likelihood is that the federal government will recoup if not profit from the bailout, while participating banks will suffer massive losses…but hopefully survive. This isn’t robbery, its about keeping our house from burning down, and we better act now. Venting your frustration is about as useless as it is juvenile. So get over it, and then get better informed. Thankfully people who understand the intricacies and interdependency of our economy are doing something about it as opposed to moaning about how life is “unfair”.
If you, like myself, are fed up with this government…then stop the bailout. Next, do everything you can to allow the companies fail. Next, stop paying taxes.
You see…a government can’t function long without money. We bankrupt the government…then we take control of our own lives. Imagine self determination…can you imagine it?
Could you imagine riding ourselves of a war in iraq? Riding ourselves of federal programs geared to fuel corporate interests (fascism)? Rid ourselves of agencies that tell us how we can carry out our lives?
The federal government was orignally only intended for national DEFENSE (not OFFENSE…ie Iraq war) and to safeguard against monopolies and commerce between states. That’s what our founding fathers intended.
George Washington is rolling over in his grave…so too the great Thomas Paine. Why don’t we return the country to the people…let their hard work be rewarded by giving them the freedom this nation was intended to have.
As things stand now…anyone with less than a net worth of a million dollars is really just a slave to their own debt…credit is nothing more than shakles. Who instituted this “credit” life style?
Who told the people that this “mortgage” society IS NOT a “renter” society. The banks own your home…you rent it with the interest you pay. Who owns the banks? The elites! They are land lords…and you are a servent.
Why did this happen? Cause homes prices were allowed to sky rocket so the land lords could put more of you in their pockets.
Welcome to the “slave” class.
We already have a rescue package for homeowners 300 billion dollars for these I wannabe landlords. These people are so irresponsibile they forgot the government gave them 300 billion dollars in July. These hippie homeowners can’t even collect rent and we are giving them billions of dollars.
Well, the way I see it is that we have to get it approved and pushed through. Not doing anything will result in everyone from CEOs making millions to minimum wage earners suffering serverely. The entire economy would tank. The KEY is to get it right and to get it right now. Failure is just not an option. So, I don’t mind it being held up and not just pushed through. We can’t screw this up. Yep. we are all going to pay for this and so will your children. If we don’t do it, there will be a nightmare…..if we do it right, we can rebound. If we do it wrong, it will again be a nightmare. we don’t have a choice at this point people. Is it fair…? No…but was it the alternative. If the economy tanks, we will all be in a mess that you just won’t believe. I am a principle person but I can’t be one now. Get it done, take your time, and get it done right….but it better be soon..
700 billion dollars,,,?? isn’t that about what we’ve spent in iraq so far? seems to me if we got rid of our foreign policy, we could have already offset that much!! we ‘give’ Israel 2 billion a year! what do we get in return for that money? oh, i guess they had people from israel and iraq here filling sandbags when the last two storms hit the U.S. demand that U.S. taxpayer dollars never leave the states… thats a beginning! we can’t finance the U.N and the world’s problems! they have to evolve on their own!
GET RID OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE, THEY HAVE NO CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS TO MANAGE OUR MONEY! CROOKS !! OBEY THE LAW CONGRESS!
From now on ant bill you recieve, please write “Toxic Paper” on it and return to sender free of postage. What is this country coming to? Ben Franklin must be doing summer saults in his grave.
Those failed banks gambled and they lost. Back in 2000, many banks gambled in the tech bubble and they lost.
The similarity is : in 2000 as well as now, they all whined, lobbied, pulled strings, and used scared tactics to get tax dollars to bail them out.
In 2000, Congress did the right thing : letting risk takers take home the risks they subscribed to. After that:
1. the economy did NOT collapse
even though, 911 happened the year after.
2. It’s clear to all that in America, when you gamble, you win or lose. It’s never that you win or taxpayers lose. Thanks to that, rest assured that NO tech bubble will ever happen.
—-
Congress: please do not use our tax to bail out the banks.
We voters will watch closely your and your party vote records on this issue, more than any other issues.
Presidential candidates: we’ll see how you vote, too.
Your voting record on this issue will tell us a lot more than your rhetorics about who you stand for.
–
Lau Tac
What about the next big financial fiasco-the credit card crisis that is coming soon to a bank near you! Easy credit and all sort of gotcha clauses to push rates up! When people cannot pay the minimums and still buy gas and food {which is where most of their out-of-control balances came from in the first place} WHAT THEN? TIME FOR ANOTHER BAILOUT FOR OUR GOOD FRIENDS -THE BANKERS. THIS WILL AFFECT MORE FAMILIES THAN THE FORECLOSURE DEBACLE, AND THE NEW BANKRUPTCY LAWS WILL HAVE THE ENTIRE SYSTEM CONSTIPATED!IF YOU CAN’T RUN AND YOU CAN’T PAY ,WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU SAY TO HECK WITH IT AND QUIT!
I just did some math.. 700B.. If we, the tax payers, were to spend it, we could buy…
100% of JPMorgan, plus
100% of Bank of America, plus
100% of Wells Fargo, plus,
100% of Morgan S, plus,
100% of MER, plus,
100% of Goldman S, AND
We will still have 117B left.
Why not do that? At leave then the tax payers have a few bank on our side.
Where was the bailout for the thousands of American homeowners kicked out onto the sidewalk?
Where is the bailout for the millions of Americans with little or no access to a decent healthcare system?
Where is the bailout for the American Taxpayers who face jail at the slightest hint of a default ?
Where is the bailout for all of us around the world whose small but very important lives are going to be impacted by the heinous actions of criminal bankers who should be facing some serious jail time – not being bailed out like a teenage kid who has racked up a monster debt on Mom and Dads’ credit card…..
I think we need to get over it and do this bailout now before it brings the whole world financial system to a screaming halt. Yes, we should look at regs and what went wrong but everyone cheering on the failure of these financial firms will soon be bummed to find out how severe the impact on their lives will be- like no more loans for cars, stereos, college….
it will become a cash only economy; you will lose your job because your employer can’t meet the payroll, your bank account could be frozen and you won’t be able to use your credit card for anything.
This does not sound like a good way to punish wall street- we are just punishing ourselves.
So get over, folks. Make some substantive suggestions that can solve the underlying weakness in the financial system and stop whining about how unfair it all is.
What about the rating agencies? They were giving these securities AAA ratings. This should really bring their judgement into question.
This is kind of like the closed door meeting that Dick Cheney had in 2001 with his energy commission (the CEOs of all the big Oil Companies?) you never hear it mentioned when there is discussion about why oil and Gasoline prices went through the ceiling either.
Here’s a novel idea.
Why don’t we just offer the banking industry the same terms that they so willingly give anyone that will accept a credit card.
The Government has no other option but to provide help in the form of a comprehensive bailout plan. It took a lot of people to get us into this mess – from Alan Greenspan who helped make money so cheap after 9/11 to the little guy who desperately wanted a piece of the American dream (you signed your name to a loan document – do you take no responbsibility?) to the mortgage broker who sold a loan to the bank who pushed these loans (and let me tell you with big closing bonuses to boot) to the folks on wall street who leveraged the underlying value of these loans 30-40 times. All of it is just embarrassing but we need help or your 401K will disappear as well as your TIAA-CREFF accounts etc… If wall street is allowed to fail this will have a ripple effect not seen since the Great Depression. The Gov’t will end up making money on this bailout and this will get passed on to the tax payer. What do you think happened in the S&L crises? Do you think if you’re on a beach and a tidal wave is coming at you that hiding behind a tree will save you from drowning? That’s being incredibly naive. And if you think a wall street crash won’t affect you than try standing behind a tree.
Why must we pay more taxes while most of us are already struggling to pay for everything else that is wrong with this economy? Instead of rewarding those with the $700 billion bailout for their bad behavior, why not split the money and create an early retirement reward fund (45 of age and up), for the unemployed who were forced to put up with this crises, and loosen the unemployment bottleneck that is going. Then create a rewarding mortgage foreclosure bailout fund to pay down 1/3 of the mortgage, give them a new 40-50 year mortgages for the owners get on their feet, then they could refinance when the market is better again. In the meantime, hunt those who slept at the wheel, and provided the creative financing that got us all in this mess, and seize their assets and funnel the money back into these funds.
I WANT TO KNOW WHAT I CAN DO AS A CITIZEN TO STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING! i KNOW THAT TECHNICALLY THE GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK FOR THE PEOPLE SO HOW DO I GET THESE EMPLOYEES TO STOP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE? STOP PAYING MY TAXES, LIE ABOUT MY DEPENDENTS? IS THAT WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO KEEP FROM PAYING FOR THEIR BOATS, HOUSES, VACATIONS, ETC! DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS BECAUSE I WILL NOT PAY FOR THIS CRAP!
I told you what to expect from this leglislation when all of the special interests and lobbyists that are spending all the millions get a hold of these guys. Now we are going to add credit card debt and college loans to the basket. Great for Mastercard and Visa (they can dump their bad credit card debt onto us also). Next we want to give judges the authority to rewrite mortgages for people. Brilliant. Good luck in getting any credit in the future if that happens. If I am a bank and write a loan and enter into a contract only to find out it can be altered in the future to a lower interest rate and different terms at any time by a judge, I would just quit giving loans. No problem there. This is what you get when you ask a bueracrats to make quick decisions. Idiots.
Set up a clearing organization and rate all the securites (just morgage related)at different levels based on what we will pay. A=60%, B=50%,C=40% D=30%, E=20%. Have someone oversee it and drop all of the other B.S. attached and get it done. This will establish a floor for the securities and also a future market. We did this before with the S&L bailout with the Resolution Trust Corporation and took care of the problem.
A given fact: If the Fed/Gov buy mortgages…it will lead to corruption. Ask yourself…do we need more corruption?
Reason so many people are against this is another simple fact: More americans are unemployed and financialy ruined than anyone has the brass to report. Basically we the people have nothing to loose from a banking failure.
Another fact: Unemployment figures posted by the Fed/Gov is grossly under reported…purposely. Also the “true” inflation rate. Fed/Gov report a rosey picture to make themselves look “good”…no other reason. When a government feeds you lies to stay in power…that’s when the end is near…not when the banks are failing my friends.
When the media/reporters stand behind these lies, rank and file, then hope is hard to find.
Totally irresponsible on everybody’s part, democrats and republicans alike. Talk about taxation without representation, these guys are going to bankrupt the country. No bail out, no way, suck it up and pay for your mistakes. Do it once and they will return for more.
Even the people who overextended themselves deserve the blame. The banks may have led them to the water but, they drank it themselves. I had my opportunity to buy more than I could afford and did the smart thing. Bought something a lot less than what they told me I could spend and now my tax dollars are going to bail out those idiot?
Say, NO. NO NO NO. Tell your Congressman and Senator to vote this one down. Send the message clearly. The dumbing down of America.
This whole debacle is so frustrating. These crooks, from Greenspan to Wall Street, have stole so much without rammifications. Where’s the justice in all this? If I rob a few hundred dollars from a bank, I go to jail. If I screw the financial security of the entire country, I get a golden parachute. Let’s find out who’ll support this bail-out bill and vote their butts off Congress. I don’t care which party they belong to.
McCain is crazy!!!
$10,000 per household. He has lost his mind.
A number of households are on the government “tit”. They won’t pay anything. He said he has no problem with his super rich friends like Carlo Fiorina keeping her money.
Therefore, make that $50,000 to $100,000. How many of us can pay that?
This is unattainable. They are transferring the debt to future generations.
These idiots have destroyed our society. They know it is coming. They just want to bank money for their select few.
It is over. Prepare yourself.
NO WAY!!! NO WAY!!! Do not write this check!! There are starving people in this country, people with out homes, people who are sick and are in need of Healthcare, write them a check for $700 Billion FIRST. Reach out to the poor and needy, show, compassion and love, apparently we must have the money and enough of it but we don’t look at this option why? we turn the other way. I do not support this. I will not pay for this in my taxes. “We need to pray”
As far as I see it, the 700 billion bailout is the biggest transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the rich and could potentially be the biggest tax hike in history perpetrated by the Republicans.
We the ordinary people have to pay for this either through higher taxes, reduced services or currency devaluation (or a combination). All of these are bad. The winner of course will be Wall Street. I do not believe this has anything to do with protecting the economy but is simply a ploy to bail out the rich.
I think it’s ridiculous!! As everyone else has said, these institutions made the bad decisions and now they’re going to bail them out?! Are you kidding me? I pay taxes and I’ve made some bad decisions with my credit as well, so why don’t they just bail everybody out! This is outrageous.
I THINK GEORGE W SHOULD BE IMPEACHED AND THE WHOLE ADMINISTRATION FIRED, INCLUDING LARGE NUMBERS OF CONGRESS. ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO VOTES FOR THIS IS NOT REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BUT BUSINESS. THE FREE MARKET IS A-OK WHEN THESE PEOPLE ARE WALKING AROUND WITH MONEY COMING OUT OF THEIR EARS, BUT AS SOON AS THEY MIGHT STAND TO LOSE A LITTLE BIT THEY START WHINING TO THE GOVERNMENT! IT’S A BUNCH OF CRAP AND I’M SICK OF IT! LET THE CEO’S WHO MAKE MILLIONS BAIL OUT THEIR OWN COMPANIES, AND STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY POCKET!!!
Paulson, bush and the rest of them are thieves.
The democrats are madd because they’ve been outdone.
It is a race. The republicans want to spend on the “BASE”, the super rich, con-artist, and thieves.
The democrats want to spend on their “BASE”, the super poor, risky behavior, and thieves.
NEITHER PARTY CARE ABOUT THE MIDDLE CLASS OR THOSE USING PROPER SENSE!!!
Listen to their rhetoric.
Bush, Paulson, and McCain cares about the market.
Obama and his side care about homeowners losing their homes because they use sub-prime to purchase homes they could not afford.
These endless bail outs must stop. These has been going on for 20 years and the pigs just get more audacious. The reverse mortgages on the seniors is the next scam we will have to pay for unless this nonsense stops now. Let the pigs go belly up.
sounds just like the panic used to get congress and the american people to go along with the iraq war. ” I’m afraid the smoking gun (proof) will be in the shape of a mushroom cloud.”
Let em fail. No bail outs. No more taxpayer debt to bail out Wall St. This will only add more debt to a already over burdened taxpayer. This will mean NO social programs for the middle or working class, no affordable health care, no jobs program, no, no, no
Bail out yes, but get the bank assets with it. No pain for the stock holders, no gain for the citizens of teh US.
Who the hell is going to help me? They talk about if this does not happen people will lose jobs, companies will close – that’s what’s happening now you idiots! If I have a company and it fails, who helps me? Where’s my bailout? Vote these idiots out. By the way, Paulson did NOT start his job a week ago, it was 2 years ago, he screwed us over for the last year, what makes anyone think this will actually get better?
THE BAILOUT IS NEEDED BUT MAKE THOSE WHO CAUSED THE PROBLEM WITH THEIR GREED PAY THE BILL. FULD SANK LEHMAN AND WALKED AWAY WITH AT LEAST HALF A BILLION, THE GUY WHO KILLED COUNTRYWIDE GOT ABOUT 400 MILLION AND GREENBERG PROBALY TOOK BILLIONS OUT OF AIG. THEY ARE JUST EXAMPLES OF THE THOUSANDS WHO TOOK MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS WITH THEIR GREED.
PETITION WASHINGTON TO HAVE THE IRS GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SUB-PRIME MESS AND RECOVER ANY BONUS MONEY PAID TO ANYONE IN AN INSTITUION DEALING WITH SUB-PRIME. ANYONE HIDING THEIR MONEY OFF SHORE SHOULD BE JAILED. THEY SHOULD ALSO BE PREVENTED FROM LEAVING THE COUNTRY.
I don’t believe that a bailout for these large companies and fat CEO’s will help the little people at all, we’ll just have to pay for it, and how can the govnerment help people who can’t pay thier mortage, why can’t they pay thier mortage? because they borrowed more money than they could aford, thier credit cards are maxed out, thier BMW lease is up and I should have to pay for these people who can’t balence thier own check book. I’ve been paying my mortage faithfully for 20 years and am on top of my own finances, so whats in it for me but to pay more taxs. I’m very angry about this and say absolutey no way should we bailout anyone, if fact the people responsible for this mess (CEO’S and Govnerment officals) should go to prison.
The politician are holding us hostage by reminding us of the Great Depression.
Well remind them of the BOSTON TEA PARTY.
American Taxpayers Revolt.
Take a tax deduction and call it BAILOUT !!!
SPREAD THE WORD
The politicians who failed to regulate this mess should go to jail.
Bailout the innocent depositors, painful for the taxpayer, but it wasn’t their fault.
The shareholders should lose everything. They should have known better.
Recover the management bonuses for the past 5 years.
Put the bank boardmembers in jail as well.
NO BAILOUT!
Let Big Oil step up to their “patriotic” duty and bail their Wall Street buddies and their country! After all, they have been enjoying windfall profits for years! Let Haliburton refund the government for overpriced services! Tax the mega rich for unpaid taxes! Confiscate the exaggerated and immoral golden parachutes!
Bailout the citizens of this country, not these crooks! Vote out any Senator or Congressman who even supports this bailout. There doesnt seem to be a dividing line between Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
Shame on you Mr. Bush, and your Sycophants!
my load application has one new line.
The remaining balance of this load will transfer to Fed national debt balance.
The ultimate reason that people are foreclosing is that they put little to no money down on their home loans and have very little incentive to “struggle” to keep up their payments. An alternative to the Paulsson plan could have the government buy 20% of all home loans taken out in the past 7 years. The homeowners would only be required to pay back 80% of their original loan if they keep up their payments. If they go into foreclosure or refinance however, then they would be required to pay back 100%. This would give a huge financial incentive for people to not foreclose. The foreclosure rate goes down, the value of mortgage backed securities goes up and banks can now clear their balance sheets.
If Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson calls this financial crisis embarrassing, who is he embarrassed for? Maybe it’s the current administration’s blind eye toward the literal looting of taxpayers by the crooked, greedy CEO’s and companies who got away with this unregulated behavior? Is it for the government personnel who have been cavorting with big oil’s hookers and bribes? Is it for himself, who should’ve seen this coming towards us about 2004/5? The Bush administration has to be comrised of the most lying and unethical political machines that has been in office during my lifetime. At least Nixon had a shred of political savvy left in him after Watergate.
This whole bailout mess makes me literaly sick. Personally, I’m a recent law school grad who did very well in school, but yet can’t find a job. My wife and I have a mortgage, school loans coming due, and we’re paying double in home heating/natural gas prices. What good does this do for us? We’re going to pay for this mess, a mess caused by the “elite” of our society who already sat at the top of the food chain, and who will now remain there thanks to our incompetent government. Let them suffer. What’s amazing is that I was in New York recently as a “tourist” and went over to the financial district, specifically Lehman Brothers. I was amazed to watch executives pull up in their limos, ridiculous suits, etc. and it mad me sick to watch. I realize that we live in America in a capitalistic free market society, but to me that means earning enough money to be comfortable and having the ability to give your heirs a little bit of something to get started with. I can’t wait until Obama gets into office and puts the tax structure back to where it ought to be. If I’m ever lucky enough to make more than the 250,000 that Obama is proposing, I will pay my taxes with pride, because I realize that by doing so, I’m helping rather than causing the problem in America. I had a Constitutional Law Professor in law school who would routinely say that he would gladly pay more taxes because he realized how lucky he was to live in America. I agree, because despite the current mess, I’m lucky that I won the genetic lottery and was born in the U.S. I really hope that CEO’s and executives that put us in our mess today are prosecuted and sent to “real prison” not the country club type places where they customarily go. They’ve affected and screwed up literally millions of lives, and will now retain their ridiculous salaries/pensions at the behest of people like me. When I think about situations like these, I like to compare it to the drug dealer who sits at urban street corners. While this individual is admittedly screwing lives as well, the dealer will never affect the quantity or breadth of individuals that the CEO’s, etc. have or will. Yet, their sentences and treatment in our judicial system are a joke in comparison. They get 20 years for having enough drugs to sell to 5, yes 5 people, whereas, I’ve personally witnessed executives in the Enron type scandals of the early 90’s getting 30 – 90 days in protected custody for affecting millions. It’s sad, but our government is quickly, well expansively, creating a class divide in our country, and once again this bailout is proof of it. I apologize for the bumbling and stumbling rant, but as anyone who reads this can probably tell, I’m upset, frustrated, and embarrassed.
Are we all nuts?!?!?! Did we forget what this country was founded on? THIS IS OUR GOVERNMENT!!! How dare they even consider bailing out anyone BUT “the people”. We must demand that the homeowners be the ones that are bailed out. Not the idiot making 2.5 million per year!! The economy WILL NOT GET BETTER by taking care of the companies, it will only improve by making sure people can live indoors. No one purchases a house with the intent of losing it. They should consider providing longer terms to the loans – 60 yrs, lowering the payments, forgiving the past debt, allowing for tax free automatic roll over to spouses/children/next of kin, and allow the consumer to keep the home. By doing this, the companies will be bailed out, as the homeowner will be able to make the payments, as well as give the homeowner hope of providing a roof for themselves and thier children. It’s a win-win.
Congress tapped into this site today.
Financial Crisis Fundamental Foundation Flaws and Solution
The flaws are articulated in detail as well as the solution which involves a New Global Value Exchange Accounting System they have a list of power questions that media and journalists can ask.
We have a fiat currency bubble burst.
One interesting ironic insight is a small fortune can be made off pennies as a result of the amazing paradox resulting from current market conditions. 1 lb of pennies is worth $6.00 tangible and only $3.00 intangible.
They make an interesting point why shouldn’t the bail out (citizens going into debt) go to pay off the mortgages and then trickle down to those firms needing to be bailed out?
Read the power questions. http://coinage.me/power_questions.htm
Are you proposing for all 300 million people we get $1 million each? That equals $300 million — fall less than the $700 BILLION that are bilking us for.
They would save an enormous amount of money. Why is this not a mortgage solution that benefits everyone? Where is the $700 going. That is enough to pay off every mortgage in this country how many times over for anyone making less than $250,000 a year?
This Bailout PLAN is as creative as those loan programs that led us to such a position! What ifthis plan would not work? We all finished!
Are those nuts out of their minds!
Here, here ex-banker. Thank you for your courageous honesty.
When I worked at the IRS I saw the same kind of calculated corruption. Accounts take enormous risks knowing if they get caught they have money tucked away that makes a stay in jail worthwhile. It is unbelievable the schemes they come up with. AND, yes they would push their own beloved child under a bus to make a buck.
CALLING FOR CHARGES OF TREASON…This unbelievable $700 BILLION burden of national debt they want to quickly pass by us while we are in shock significantly benefits a small part of the population. The bailout falls squarely on the middle class worker who is already stretched beyond their limits. AND, the corporate execs are screaming for their golden parachutes. These people shouldn’t be given any parachute and should be charged with TREASON.
Why aren’t legislators crying for TREASON charges to be filed against the execs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and George W. Bush and Alan Greenspan?
Wikipedia: “In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one’s sovereign or nation.”
If you don’t agree that they committed TREASON, then what do you call it? A lapse in judgment or fraud? I think it was a giant confidence scheme to rip-off homeowners while giving them temporarily what they thought they needed. In the meantime, Bush and Greenspan would slip out of office, the execs would get paid millions of dollars, and the next administration would bleed the taxpayers saying it was our duty to bail them out. LIES, LIES and more LIES. Treason, treason and more treason.
I pay more than 50% of my net pay for my mortgage and work 3-4 jobs to keep going. I am 59 years old and have $500 dollars (not a typo) in the bank.
I could spend lavishly on my credit cards, buy new clothes, vacations, ski trips, basketball hoops, new SUVs and file bankruptcy asking the government to bail me out. After all, I’m following the same example set by U.S. corporations. My wages haven’t increased in 5 years but everything else has.
Since treason is in style these days, maybe I should just follow the herd and do the same.
I am demanding that TREASON charges be filed for those who betrayed their shareholders, employees, citizens, Wall Street, and homeowners with unbridled greed, negligence, and mismanagement. You can’t tell me these highly educated people didn’t know that they were doing was negligent and malfeasance. They knew they were committing treason, weighed the odds, and the payoff was worth it for them–that is why they are crying for more. Now let them pay the penalty. If they don’t file charges of TREASON this country will continue to ride the taboggan slide to financial hell.
Taxpayers stop hiding and demand your representatives represent your interests and appropriate legal recourse against those could caused this debacle. The damage done to this country and our reputation makes 9/11 look like an amateur game of domestic terrorism. AND, we are still pouring our money in that little war that push George W. Bush on the map and made him “look” presidential. He is the puppet of these power mongers who have ruined our country but he needs to be brought to task on his responsibility.
It looks like the American public are finally waking up to the fact the criminals running the country are trying to pull another fast one. the Patriot Act…need I say more?
Remember that this is a 700 billion line of credit! Read the small print! This isn’t a 700 billion dollar package. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson effectively has a 700 billion dollar credit card that he can use to bail out his lunch buddies on Wall Street. The question is…how many times will he use the credit card? The true cost can be in the trillions!
A few of you asked for the links to the website for the bills on Economic Stimulus pkg, HR5140. Here it is:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5140
Please note the list of sponsors for the bill.
and also for the testimony by Ms. Cook before Congress concerning the stimulus package and potential impact by Senate Committee legislation:
http://www.freddiemac.com/corporate/company_profile/pdf/CookHFSCTestimony_052208.pdf
The last time Bush cried “Wolf!!!!”, we wound up with the patriot act, fighting a war in Iraq over oil rights. No he does not want us to take a close look at this. We might laugh and say say, “NO!!!”
It did not get this way overnight. Suddenly it is an “EMERGENCY!!!”. FIRE!!! FIRE!!! DON’T THINK!!! DON’T QUESTION!!!! Just GIVE my buddies the money they ask for.
I still remember his speech when he said to his rich buddies: “You are my base: the haves and have mores”
If the paper that congress is considering buying from these banks has such a future of profitability, then how come nobody else is looking at buying it. There are many American banks that are still solid who won’t touch it.
TO CONGRESS INSTEAD OF BAILING OUT BANKS WHY DON’T YOU HELP HOMEOWNERS. BY MAKING ALL MORTGAGES FIXED AT 4%. THAT WOULD GIVE US ALL A FAIR SHAKE AND IN TURN FIX THE ECONOMY.HOW YOU MIGHT ASK. THAT WOULD GIVE MOST OF US MORE MONEY TO SPEND AND GET PEOPLE INTO HOMES INSTEAD OF THROWING THEM OUT…….
Someone asked why the rush?
The reason for the haste is, once the plan is autorised, it will enable all the people that caused this mess enough time to get their money out of YOUR country.
These people are so rich that they will be able to move to anywhere in the world and continue the great robbery. Make no mistake they are on the hook and are using every means available to try and get off paying their debts.
American’s need to ask themselves what would the founding fathers of your once great country do? They certainly wouldn’t allow fraudsters, mobsters and gangsters to perpetuate this blatant lie.
The banker’s are parasitic creatures that have bled YOUR country dry – don’t let them get away with it.
I have a suggestion – create an independant Gov. Sponsored Enterprise with the $700bn. Only allow tax payers access to this money to help stabilise YOUR economy. Allow every US citizen to open accounts at less interest than the commercial retail banks. Allow a gradual move from existing commercial retail banks to this new ‘Peoples Bank of America’. Allow all the other banks to go Chapter 11. If they are good at what they do then they will survive.
Remember the world is watching and your country will become a banana republic if this plan passes and the dollar will be completely worthless.
I am against bailing out these fat cats. I do not trust Bush at all, something feels very, very wrong here. He can get his billions if he stops the war in Iraq and uses the billions he spends on the war only he seems to want.
If Congress gives him the money he wants, no CEO should get any bonus of any kind with the taxpayers money.
Here’s a novel thought. Let those who were the chief beneficiaries of the credit industry’s excess profits that led to this debt crisis, repay the debt required to support the finance companies being bailed out. This would take a significant rework of your tax system – put an end to corporate welfare and tax breaks for the wealthy and elite and institute a progressive tax system.
The bill should be borne by those who were the cause and beneficiaries of the problem taxpayers bailing out the financial institutions bail out
Why are we not considering the obvious? We use “our” money for the new “good” credit and let the “free market” fail just as they have profited from no regulation? Free market means free to fail. The system didn’t work IT NEEDS TO FAIL or it will happen again…and again…and again… Meanwhile we pay, they profit. Merry Christmas!
This plan is absolutely unbelievable! A bank bail out should only come at the expense of the shareholders otherwise it is money down the drain (see how they did it in Sweden in 1992). Not only will it sink the U.S., the ramifications for the rest of the western world are quite scary.
Financial Crisis Bail out for 700Bilion that is crazy. Let them fold stupid decision that was made by the CEO’s of Financial banks. Why spend tax-payers money. Funny thing is that if the goverment bail’s out these companies the CEO’s gets paid and I am sure they kept billions dollars in there name’s. I strongly believe that they assetes should be put online as relief money. The CEO’s of the mortegagee company do not another house 10 million dollar house. let them sink with the ship.
This plan to me represents the end of the American Dream to me. I have been a life-long Republican. I will leave the party over this one and become an Independant. I think all Democrats and Republicans are pretty much the same now and expect to be sold out by all of them. I know how painful it would be to watch many American financial businesses fail. But where does the moral hazard end? I think there are businesses outside of the financial sector that we will end up nationalizing as well…..car companies, airlines…who knows. We have already nationalized Fannie, Freddie and AIG….stop the madness now…please! If this plan does work you are hanging this deal on my unborn grandchildren! If it doesn’t…well the USD had a good 232 year run didn’t it….
“the risk of doing nothing far outweighs the risk of the package”…whatever bush, are we afraid? what are you scared of, huh?..hahahaha..i hope you don’t do it and if you do i hope it don’t work…here is an idea..burn it all, every last dollar for all i care…
I keep hearing the same mantra from those pushing for the bailout, which generally comes in the form of, “It’ll be much worse for tax payers if we don’t step in.”
Why? I want more detail about what might happen. How is it going to be worse for tax payers? I’m simply not convinced of that yet.
Democrats, beware! The bailout is a trap. It’s the October surprise. The Republicans are setting up the Democrats by forcing through this proposal, which Obama supports for the good of the country. At the last minute, McCain is going to go to Washington, vote AGAINST the bill and do some grandstanding about how he’s not going to support the largest bailout in history. Then, McCain is going to go on the campaign trail and say (1) he is the true Maverick who went against the Bush Administration and (2) he’s the true fiscal conservative. Democrats: you need to make sure that any proposal has the backing of both McCain and Obama so that this can’t be used as a political tool! Beware! McCain is going to vote AGAINST any proposal and use it as a campaign tool!
I like Scotts comment ,give US Citizens 1 million and let us pay off our mortages,etc .If we screw up and get into a mortgage we can’t afford don’t treat us like children and BAIL US OUT
Well, since it appears I may be one of those taxpayers bailing out & buying these companies all I want to know is this…
When does my first dividend check come? YAY, I’m a stockholder!
We have no student loan debt, no auto loan debt, no credit card debt, and no mortgage debt. All the talking heads are saying there is plenty of blame to go around in this situation, but I ask you: “WHERE IS OUR ‘BLAME’ IN THIS MESS?”
And we’re going to get stuck paying for other people’s greed and poor choices? Give me a freaking break! No way, no how!
I laugh at all of you who have lost your homes or are about to because you are living beyond your means. And “Shame on you!” for what you have done to your families and the American public. You are no better than the greedy CEOs of the Wall Street firms that got us in this mess by offering you the proverbial rope by which you hung yourself.
Too bad you are taking us all down with you.
Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson are screaming for urgent action precisely because they don’t want congress to take a good hard look at this. Spend 7/10 of a trillion in taxpayer dollars and not think carefully about it? NO WAY!!!
While I feel the government probably should help in some way, this is just not fair, and how much longer are the American people going to be pawns in this game of lobbyists and special interest groups? I am a married father, an attorney, and I cant afford a home in Los Angeles. It is very depressing to say the least. Where is the help for those of us that can barely now maybe afford a home but need an incentive, a tax break, something? What about those who have graduate school loans? Should we help them out, it only seems fair. The fact is people were given loans that they should not have received causing there to be a huge amount of buyers…its all about supply and demand, and this drove up home prices like crazy. Who let these mortgage companies do this? And now, the tax payers have to pay the price, again. Like I said, I can barely afford a house now, but with the bail out, that chance is now probably gone, while CEO’s, lobbyists, financial firms and un-deserving home owners stand to win.
This bailout is an absolute joke. Every time I think the U.S. government couldn’t be more corrupt, they go and prove me wrong.
Until 8 months ago, I worked for one of those evil investment banks that now no longer exists. I was a Collateralized Debt Obligation structurer and dealt with Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities regularly. I played the market for quite awhile and have a good sense of what these securities are actually worth: NEXT TO NOTHING. I have no doubt in my mind that the “discounted” price the government is buying these at is still WAY TOO HIGH. Otherwise, banks would be buying these securities. These banks have very sophisticated models in place and generally have an accurate estimate of what these securities are worth. I guarantee you that the government not only fails to make a profit on these securities, but does not recover even half of the $700 billion.
I am disgusted that we are going to give the greedy, immoral bankers who got us into this mess a free handout. Working in the banking industry, I met some terrible, terrible people – people that would throw you in front of a bus if they knew they wouldn’t get caught and it would bring a little bit of cash their way. Banking attracts these people because the industry is all about money, and money is all they care about. They will sell their souls for it. These people have crafted scams to defraud others out of money for decades, and just when it’s about to backfire, the government saves them. Believe me, banks are still handing out million dollar bonuses to the con artists who work there and $100 million “golden parachutes” to the CEOs who chose to take ridiculous gambles with other people’s money.
Meanwhile, while the poor bankers are crying about making $1 million this year rather than $10 million, millions of innocent Americans are having their lives torn apart by skyrocketing mortgage rates. Will the government bail them out? Of course not, because no matter what these politicians say, THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE MIDDLE CLASS. They are only concerned about the greedy super-rich that have for a long time been the puppeteers who pull the strings of the US government. The bank executive who is worried about having to buy a smaller yacht or sell their 5th house will be saved. The working family just trying to keep living in a modest 2 bedroom house in the suburbs will be screwed.
Quitting banking to become an engineer was a great move. Heck, quitting to become a garbage man would have been a step up.
Hopefully there’s SOMEONE in Washington with a shred of common sense and decency that will stop this ridiculous plan before it goes through.
We are 300 million people in this country and not all of these 300 million people hold a mortgage or have a house in other words. Most average mortgages for middle class people are $500 to $700×10^5 dollars. If the government would give us a tax break to all tax payers of the amount of $5×10^5 for once lifetime, we all homeowners will be able to payoff or almost payoff our mortgages and the economic crisis will resolve, because we’ll have more money to spend without wondering if can make the monthly mortgage payment or if we will have enough money to buy groceries for our kids. The banks will have their money back and we won’t have to pay with our tax money to save the wealthy people fortune.
To quote a current CNN.Money article — It’s housing, stupid.
Another recent CNN.Money article said that, from 1996 through 2006, the average home’s price went up 86% faster than inflation [which was 28.5% over that decade according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics].
Even if wages went up 10% more than inflation over the decade [ask your neighbor if he's better off than he was in 1996], I calculate that “average” housing prices needed to come DOWN 41% from their 2006 highs just to get housing back to being as affordable as it was in 1996.
Meanwhile, Case/Shiller are reporting elsewhere that houses in movein condition are down maybe 10% from their 2007 peaks. [down 20% if you include the distressed sales of foreclosed houses in questionable or worse condition].
The $700 billion bailout won’t do anything to the fundamentals of the housing market. Wages won’t go up, interest rates won’t fall to 3%, and ordinary working people still won’t be able to come up with a 20% down payment [and thus won't be able to get a loan].
***
That said, only any given day about half the banks and firms in the US economy are lending money to the other half via the markets.
What has happened is that, with housing having so much further to fall [another 30% for move in condition homes in my calculation], no one is able to even guess what the real value of any mortgage loan issued after about 2001 is. And thus, no one knows whether that bank or company you’re doing business with will soon file for bankruptcy and take your money down with it.
Thus, the credit markets are seizing up — no one wants to lend to ANY firm that might have any sort of problem in the future — which could be as far out as 2014.
The SEC has suspended short selling in the shares of about 875 financial firms and other companies with significant exposure to the problems. That’s a fine estimate of how many banks and borrowers might go under if the government sits by and does nothing.
So we must do the program and get the questionable assets off the books of the banks and financial companies — or the economy grinds to a halt and maybe as many as 25% of Americans lose their jobs.
***
That said — there need to be consequences. CEOs should be out if they use the government money at all. And their severance packages should be out, too.
We also need to have the government become first in line to be repaid after the ordinary depositors and creditors. This looks like senior secured debt with voting rights that is convertible into common stock to me. [all prior capital sources including common stock, preferred stock, and capital debt of all varieties will be junior to the government's claims.]
***
We can’t, however, have the bankruptcy courts changing the terms of mortgages — that would make the uncertainty surrounding the value of mortgage assets higher and thus make the run on the banks worse, not better. [Not to mention that Congress would have to compensate the financial firms for the value taken away by doing so -- which might prove to be another $500 billion or more rather easily.]
***
Further, the government can’t realistically be giving more debt relief to people who are living in too much house for their income. Unless and until those houses are sold, the housing markets can’t fall enough to make housing affordable for the worker who didn’t play in the house roulette game. He would cry out that the whole process is completely unfair to him and [justifiably so] “where do I get my fair share of this free money?”.
***
And, the regulators need to rebuild their definitions of a safe mortgage loan. By definition, I think that any loan whose down payment is not at least 10% larger than the level of price depreciation expected in the future, or the level required to allow a landlord to make a profit after buying the house, is a risky mortgage loan and simply should not be made with depositors’ money. Let unregulated hedge funds make such loans if they wish — but don’t save them if they fail.
Further, proof of ability to pay the maximum amount of the likely future payments should be required. If this rules out ARM loans because no one can really estimate the maximum future payments, so be it.
[An alternative approach would be to rule out fixed interest rate loans and require that all mortgages have floating rates that reset once every five years based on then current rates in the market. This would put a wonderful check on the tendency of Congress to spend too much since high spending tends to lead to inflation and that causes high interest rates -- if rates are too high and/or going higher, the party in power would tend to be voted out of office since everyone's mortgage payments would rise sometime in the next 5 years.]
***
The other two ways to put strength into the housing markets would be to inflate the currency some 20 to 35% [which effectively steals that much of the assets of anyone holding cash], and to create a lot of new jobs in America, preferably with high wage rates [if the government arbitrarily sets the wage rates to be high, this is the equivalent of a wage inflation policy, so it has to be jobs with naturally high wages.]
It is going to be a rough and rocky next few years — the S&L bailout took about 5 years to do its job and this one looks to be bigger and nastier, so we should expect it to complete in about 2016 or so.
Hank Paulson who was the CEO of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2006 he presided over, HELPED CREATE, and profited wildly from the most horrific housing bubble the world has ever seen.
Now that it is over he wants us, the US taxpayers to help his criminal neglegent greedy brethen to slip off into the night without paying the price for their evil.
Damn you to hell Paulson.
I think the idea of giving ourselves,(the people) the bailout money. $1 million for each tax payer . Let us pay our homes and credit cards off . This would free up our paychecks to buy goods and services and stimulate the economy. We would be in an unprecedented position…
Why is this not a great solution??
Coming soon to a country near us?
September 23, 2008
CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4810644.ece
( Parth Sanyal/Reuters)
Thousands of protesters recently forced Tata to halt work on the plant being used to produce the world’s cheapest car
Rhys Blakely, Bombay
Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.
Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, an Italian-headquartered manufacturer of car parts, died of severe head wounds on Monday afternoon after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said.
The incident, in Greater Noida, just outside the Indian capital, followed a long-running dispute between the factory’s management and workers who had demanded better pay and permanent contracts.
The proposed $700 B Federal bailout is just wrong thinking. The problem arose from a misguided idea that all Americans should own houses. Clearly, all Americans who can afford houses should own them, and those who can’t afford them shouldn’t.
This bailout will penalize those of us who have borrowed responsibly, saved responsibly, and not spent money we couldn’t afford on things we didn’t need. Our fuzzy thinking Government who started this mess with a misguided premise, and fostered it with irresponsible regulation, will now penalize the taxpayer by taxing us about $6,000 per employed person. That additional tax is going to hurt my family more than any tightness in the credit market could.
What a remarkable plan, buying up all the bad debt. That goes beyond the stupidity of the bankers who made those loans in the first place. They have to loan money to people who are willing and able to repay it, or they deserve to go out of business.
If the Government really must get involved, then make good loans to qualified borrowers who are unable to get loans from their usual sources. Let the bad loans work themselves out – they always do. That way the pain should come to rest in the right place- with the people who borrowed money to buy things they couldn’t afford, and the people who foolishly loaned them the money – not with the responsible savers who live within their means.
Talking about “supporting the system” is just more fuzzy thinking. It’s getting tougher to borrow because companies made risky loans to people who can’t or won’t repay them. So those companies have run out of cash – big surprise. Any bailout will just funnel money into the pockets of the idiots who got us into this mess in the first place.
Henry Paulson and Ben Bernake should resign over such incompetence. Also, 700 Billion dollars is going to cause massive price inflation. This coupled with higher taxes will crush the American Citizen.
CALL YOUR CONGRESS PERSON AND SENATOR AND TELL THEM NO TO THE BAILOUT!
Kyle
Everybody here is outraged about the proposed illiquid assets bailout. CALL YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN! They are elected to serve our interests. They need to hear from thousands of people that we do NOT support this bailout!
I noticed that some of the homeowners that can’t afford their mortgages are asking for the baiilout money to be sent directly to them. Here is my 2 cents on that.
If you could not make a good decision the first time, I am not going to hand over my money for you to make another foolish decision.
As it pertains to the bailout in general. Why am I having to pay/be punished by having my tax dollars go towards poor decision making. These companies knew what they were doing, and are aware of what they are doing. They are STEALING money from me, our government, and our future.
This is beyond ridiculous, we should literally be in arms about this.
Our version of capitalism is to punish those that make sound decisions.
When is my mortgage bailout? Maybe I should stop paying my mortgage so the government can place further in debt with our owners (The Chinese).
I think we should focus on erasing our debt, or is it that obvious that nobody cares about the value of the dollar in the global marketplace.
Sam, Atlanta, GA
Where are our “Checks and Balances”? I agree with Dodd that we need more oversight. As a taxpayer I ultimately feel that we can’t give the treasury (which is not a branch of the federal government) ultimate say on where our tax dollars fund. I’m not even surprised at this point that the Republican party’s Bush administration asked for Congress to not add amendments to stop extra money to go to these executives who have failed their own companies. If us citizen’s can’t vote – CONGRESS PLEASE STOP THIS and ADD MORE OVERSIGHT!!!
Who are we kidding? There has been a housing crisis for decades for people making below $40,000. I am a grad student, Boston, MA, Women in Politics and Public Policy. I have been volunteering with Lawrence Community Works. I went to the statehouse with various communities to openly listen to homeowners. They were tricked by real estate agents, brokers, lenders, etc. Homeowners were told, “Don’t worry about the loan, (ballon) you can re-write the loan in a year or 2. But when the homeowners tried tr-writing the loans, their phone calls and any contacts were ignored, causing them to go into foreclossure.
The housing courts are siding for the lenders and landlords these days and are not protecting tenants’ rights. Homeowners want to try to work it out with the lenders. Why should they? The governemnt will bail them out, then they can get rid of the homeowner and make money from the government bailout. See these articles: Washington Post, April 14, about HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson; AP article about cronyismn with Jackson; Washington Post article April n13, 2008, Page A01, written by Carol Leonnig how economists warned of a housing market collapse in 2006 because of HUD’s irresonsible behavior; see also http://www.regulations.gov; look up: SEC-2008-1288 and SEC-2008-1289; look up nfederal laws by putting an issue in the address bar with a comma, (for example): securities and exchange commission, federal register
What the governemnt is doing is called:
Corporate Welfare!
Deutsche Bank in Lawrence, MA refuses to negotiate wit the homeowners. Their loans make up 20% of all the foreclosures in Lawrence, MA. Lawrence is already in an entitlement city where there is a high percentage of minorities whom the real estate agents, banks, lenders, etc. exploited.
These professionals know the law and should know what is ethical and what isn’t.
This group of people are simply being protected. What about the Ricoh Act, since they all conspired with the intent to deceive to gain money.
My prayer for 10 years has been that God expose the hidden things, including fraud and corruption.
Americans need to pay attention to details.
Excuse me, Why in the world are we still dealing with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke? I should say, why in the world are we still letting them deal with this crisis? The have proven over and over again they have no clue what going on or what to do about it. They never saw any of this coming, YEAH RIGHT! These are the same guys who just a few weeks ago said everything is fine, WELL, they mismanaged that and now they just want $700 Billion to “FIX THINGS” without any oversight?
AH…..NO………………………..
If this were anywhere else but the Federal Government, you would have been fired or in jail.
I SAY FIRE PAULSON AND BERNANKE AND BRING IN SOMEONE WITH A REAL PLAN.
I have already contacted my represnative.
I know many people who bought 4 houses in Brooklyn, kicked all the seniors and children out so he could jack the rents to 2500.00 dollars a month put 6 people to an apartment. and now I have to hear that scum like this is going to get money from the government! I say Hell no. I want greedy landlords and Wall Street moguls like them to rot in hell for all the pain and suffering the caused
What’s the rush? Give our lawmakers (?) time to digest the facts (with the fat) and then write some safeguards to prevent this from happening again; e,g, make bailouts illegal in the future.
From CNN:”Numerous senators pushed witnesses about whether the federal government should get equity in the firms it helps, or whether the bill should put limits on the compensation of executives at those firms.
Bernanke and Paulson both argued such provisions would limit the firms that would participate and undermine the effort. They said it could even cost the taxpayers money by leaving the government with only the worst mortgages from the most troubled firms.”
Seriously? Why should my hard earned money be used to give these High level executives lucrative payouts? Do Bernanke & Paulson really think that not putting a cap on these guys is the best use of this money? I mean come on. Do they truly that believe that it would limit the number of companies that would sign up for this plan? We’re in a big mess and that’s a concern?. Payouts for what? For screwing up the economy? Great job, guys. Way to go.
It’s already costing the taxpayers money. It annoys me that greedy high level financial executives got us into this mess. It annoys me that ignorant wannabe homeowners didn’t do their due diligence and truly looked at their finances/read the fine print before they signed on the dotted line. It annoys me that I, you and everyone else we know is now stuck with this mess even though we’re not the ones that screwed up. It annoys me that everyone believed that the economy was only going to get better and that there was no correction in sight- every economy corrects itself. It annoys me that a very small group of cranky old white men have and continue to put all of our financial futures in jeopardy. It annoys me that this same group of cranky old white men are supposedly the smart ones.
Seriously? My 5 year old nephew could come up with a better plan.
The CEOs of Lehman Brothers and AIG are criminals, much like the CEOs of Enron.
If Martha Stewart can be imprisoned on mere suspicion of insider trading….these men deserve LIFE SENTENCES for what they knew (and hid) from the American people.
Derivatives are a form of speculation (gambling) on how a stock will perform; much like betting on a horse race. They knew the risks involved when they placed their bets.
Every penny we’re being asked to pay to right their erroneous judgements (plural), should be repaid to the American people by liquidating both their personal and business assets in the U.S. and abroad.
These companies have been privatizing PROFIT for years….and socializing their losses. They see money going in one direction only: theirs. They’ve set up the game so they always win and they have continued to engage in risky behavior despite the possibility that it would destroy our economy.
These are the very same people who thought it amusing to watch people getting kicked out of their homes after a predatory lending scandal THEY devised. They’ve come up with the BRILLIANT idea that they’ll hold on to foreclosed homes until the market improves, and then sell them at a terrific PROFIT, while setting up areas for people to live out of their CARS!
So, I say…let them take their lumps! They’ve been caught red-handed BILKING the American people out of a minimum of 7 trillion dollars. That sounds like jail time to me.
I REFUSE to accept that we HAVE TO bail them out of their “horse bets.” And, I for one, will be speaking loud and clear with my vote in this next election, carefully watching how my representatives are handling themselves.
I don’t see any news stations talking about this being the second time this has happened with these institutions. It’s worse than identity theft. We know who’s raking us over the coals and have no legal recourse against them! LET US VOTE to decide. This is supposed to be a democracy!
This is a defining moment in America’s history. Will America and its taxpayers stand by their free market capitalist principles? Or will they allow the political elite to rip them off, racking up even more profits for the few at the expense of the future jobs, health and well-being of the average hard working American!?
My dear Americans, this is what we get for choosing George W. Bush as President. Not only he has become one of the wealthiest man with the war bussines, but know his government plans to say goodbye with a
700 000 000 000 (yes this is the rela NUMBER)DEBT endorsed to US the AMERICNA PEOPLE
Both my wife and I make low 6 digits a year without debt except mortgage and still we are living in a 50- years-old-700K house which we bought at 550K 8 years ago. I know what I can afford comfortably. I want a bigger and newer house but I also know something is not right with the crazy housing price in the Silicon Valley.
Why do I have to pay tax to help those who are too greedy to know what they are dealing with? And I am getting punished because I am not greedy and don’t take stupid risks?
I want my tax money back!
I just want to know exactly where all this money is going. We keep hearing we’re buy up bad securities, but which ones? Who’s going to get “bailed out” as it were? Until they can show us a detailed list of exactly who will “win” and who will “lose” in this situation I say NO!! How did these bad securities get “bad”? Will there be any follow up on how these companies that we’re bailing out are spending the money that we’re going to send them? They say these securities are going to be sold “later” for a profit, but what happens when there isn’t a profit to be made in 5, 10, or even 20 years? Who’s going to continue to fit the bill for these bail outs? US!! There are so many better places America could spend $700b right now. How about creating jobs? Years ago the WPA was responsible for rebuilding or building all across the country. They helping the folks who are hurting the most right now… our soon to be nonexistant middle class!! These people who have payed into the government via Fed. Income tax, Social Security (which we may not even get!), and all the sales taxes that we pay, are the ones who are suffering and I believe will continue to suffer through this hole ordeal. Start putting money back in our pockets instead of asking for more, more MORE all the time!! I too will be watching and voting NO to all of those who approve this bogus bail out for companies that were as irresponsible as this to begin with! Helping the industries who have gotten themselves into this won’t do anything for us!
First we have our president scared us into supporting the war in Irag. Now we have the Federal Reserve and Treasury scaring us about a pending recession without a $700B bailout. Why don’t we just open up our wallets and purses and invite our government to take however much they want…
This too is how the great civilizations of the past died.
Complete gov’t leadership failure, absolute disdain for moral, ethical, and social hazard, hedonistic malfeasance on Wall Street,egregious greed and corruption in the Halls of Power and the utter decay of the memories of those who toiled, labored, fought, and died for a BETTER America. Are we at the tipping point where Americans have traded their liberties for convenience and entitlement? Those who do right now become the socialized victims of the morally bankrupt.
This country has lost its northern star and the compass spins out of control……
I OWN A FINANCE COMPANY AND IF I WERE TO GIVE OUT BAD LOANS I WOULD GO OUT OF BUSINESS THE GOVERNMENT NOT GOING TO BAIL ME OUT.WHY SHOULD THEY BAIL WALL STREET OUT WITH OUR MONEY.NOW WE WILL HAVE BIG BROTHER RUNNING EVERYTHING FROMM HEALTH CARE TO OUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS,WHEN THEY CANT EVEN RUN A POST OFFICE.THINK ABOUT IT
Why don’t we just bail out the American people. Slice everyone’s credit card debt in half. It’ll boost consumer spending and some of these companies will tank. 
It seems to me that the rate of interest on home mortgages that were made earlier, and perhaps have a balloon payment coming due, is the biggest problem. Why not force the lenders to reduce the interest rate for two years and recalculate the loan without a balloon payment. The interest rates the banks are paying are lower now, so they could afford to. If someone bought a house at a higher price, that’s there problem, they still need to continue to pay it off, but give them a break on the interest rate. The banks might not get as much money as they wanted, but they wouldn’t be lending at less than the money cost them. Both the owner and the banks would be hurt a little, but be able to make it. I also think that the CEOs and other executives of the banks involved should take a cut in pay or be assessed a fine for their negligence. Let all parties take some of the blame. If that didn’t take care of things, reassess the situation in the future.
And Surfta from Brooklyn, N.Y., says the government action is really not a bailout at all.
“It’s NOT a bailout. The government is not handing out cash, they actually stand to make a great deal of money out of this, which will trickle down to YOU. First priority should be to try to control and fix the problem, then regulate sufficiently to make sure this NEVER happens again.”
What planet are you on ? Do you know believe that the money will trickle down to the lonely middle class tax payers like the funds that trickle down to the middle class when the outsource the our jobs to other countries. Wake up people. This bailout will not help those who were deceived by predatory lending which was created by banks. Now you decide to bail them out and give their CEOs millions. NO WAY!!!
I think we should offer the individuals that were part of this mortgage mess, the oppurtunity to reclaim there homes, offer them the oppurtunity to purchase the assets before we have to, at a fair interest rate. After that, then discuss what needs to be done. I feel this buyout plays into the governments “Ivy” league advisors, who were not ready to act to help the everyday consumers/taxpayers, but now want to jump in because corporations are on the line. We (the tax payers) will not be reimbursed for the full amount of the buyout, not only at a purchase level, but also adding on the interest that will be associated with this loan. How will that be recovered? I’m not ignorant to the effect of what this might have on our economy, but I was also not ignorant to the loss of jobs, the rising gas prices, the increasing number of foreclosures, but our government was, they did nothing. When I heard on the news, “we might be in a recession”, the majority of Americans, which are middle class, were thinking, “what do you mean might be, this has already been going on for months”. If I saw this coming, how could these well educated, highly paid advisors and CEO’s not? I applaud those who are not jumping on this buy out and taking a better look at what to do. I (all of us) pay government salaries to provide me with a service, to oversee MY interests and make sure I am not being taken advantage of or mislead when it comes to policy and regulations. Government is a customer service business, I’d like to give them some real suggetsions on how to treat customers.
The continued looting of the American taxpayer is in full force. Bush and his cronies couldn’t give enough away to the war profiteers and bloated off-budget defense department expenditures, so they let their other buddies on Wall Street run wild with speculative investments and now want to give $700 billion of our tax dollars to reimburse these speculators. Of course, the bailout doesn’t include your average person, as these blogs clearly show.
I see no reason for us, the taxpayers, to be forced to buy worthless debt from the companies who created it. If someone came to you and offered to sell you an investment that is not backed by any asset and cannot really be valued, would you buy it? Heck no. These clowns don’t can’t even tell us how much the debt we’re supposed to buy is worth. So why is our government buying this junk with our money and money from our children and grandchildren??? I still haven’t heard an explanation of the “benefits” or “profits” that we, the hard-working American people, could reap from this.
Isn’t it amazing how fast the “let the market forces work” “capitalist” crowd changes to socialist promoters when their fat wallets are at risk! Where are the “get the government off our backs” conservatives now? Feeding at the trough of taxpayer money! Just say “No” to more corporate greed.
This mess started with Carter and was exacerbated by Clinton with their insistence that everyone, even or especially, those without “a pot to pea in” have access to mortgages and home “ownership”. I am nasty enough to believe that the reason for this debacle, was democrat greed for money and for the votes of those on the receiving end of these freebie loans.
Let the free market work. The bailout will not fix the real estate market and may even delay the correction from normal market forces.
NO BAILOUT
This is socialism of the most horrid kind. There is no accountability to those making decisions. This cannot go on.
Expect civil unrest if this bailout goes ahead.
We in the UK think this is criminal and your government should go to jail…
All this irresponsible borrowing and lending ran up real estate prices and now they are too expensive. The reason houses are not selling is they are too expensive – It is that simple.
The government needs to stay out of determining ” Bottom” of the real estate prices. I have good credit and want to buy a home, but still can’t afford it.
Pump this 700 Billion into other parts of the economy, it will do more good than throwing good money at a bunch of crooks
The only thing these people (Feds) understand is money. Everyone, sell your stock now and make a statement. You can always buy it back tomorrow or next week for half the price.
I just sent and email to House Speaker Pelosi and Senator Dodd, who is the Chairman to the Senate banking committee..and in the middle of this storm ….letting them know I as a taxpaying American want my country back and not to bail out the greed and irresponsiblity of Wall Street. I also said there are many other ways Americans can think of using $700 billion dollars to help us and our country.
I suggest if each of you can take 5 minutes…please do the same….let your voice be heard…the alternative is being railroaded into something we as a country will regret and our children will have to pay for.
the websites are:
I AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED AFTER TODAY’S HEARING THAT THIS BAIL OUT IS NOT NECESSARY! AT LEAST IT’S NOT NECESSARY TO THE TUNE OF $700 BILLION. OK, NEED TO DO SOMETHING, GIVE THEM $150 BILLION AND THEN COME BACK IN 6 MONTHS. NO TO $700 BILLION!!! NO! NO! HELL NO!
Did you hear Paulson just try to evade the question from the Ohio Senator? He wouldn’t commit to an independent appraisal of what a mortage is worth. For example, if a mortgage is worth TODAY only $300,000, but the BANK wants to sell it to the US for $500,000 — then Paulson wants to give the BANK $500,000. And now Paulson is going into his canned speach: gotta get this done now, gotta get this done now! THIS IS A BAILOUT OF THE FAT CATS ON WALL STREET AND WILL NOT SOLVE THIS CRISIS! ROBBERY!!!!
this is the fiscal version of the patriot act- we can do whatever we want- whenever we want- with whomever we want- with YOUR money!
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
PLEASE, Copy and Paste everything you write here to the appropriate addresses!
Anybody actually interested in what happened and why the demise? It started with H.R. Bill 5140 sponsored by Nancy Pelosi. Also, there was a warning as to jeopardy linked to other legislattion senate banking committe which could place the stimulus bill in jeopardy causing failure -see Ms. Cook report to Congress on Freddie Mac website. Freddie Mac’s purpose after bill to offer cheaper loans ARM’s etc to overpriced areas so they would be affordable.
Hey, if I go to Vegas, gamble and loose my money. Do you think there’s a Federal grant somewhere that will give me my money back!!!! Not.
Shipped our jobs overseas, let wal-mart low prices cushion blow, mom and pop stores gone, manufacturing gone, infrastructure gone, inflated home prices so we could spend, this is a planned event Americans. To enslave us. NO FLIPPIN’ WAY!!!
Ben Bernanke said they would buy up the mortgage securities at a “Fair price”, but didn’t really know how to establish a fair price. He said this would help prevent the “Fire Sale” of securities that is going on right now. I’ve got a better idea… Buy the securities at the “Fire Sale” price, and then sell them at a “Fair Price” (Make Money). Those companies unloading the securities deserve to lose money, not make money. This would also drive the “Fire Sale” price up and stabilize the price, because the people owning the securities would know that the government is buying up the low priced securities. I think the government could actually make money on this transaction instead of bailing out those people who tried to scam America. I’m obviously not an expert at dealing in securities. I’m sure it’s more complicated than this, but a little common sense should prevail. Don’t bail out the people who bought these cheap securities hoping to make a big buck! They should lose money, or break even. The American people (who are actually forking up the money to back the securities) should make money off of this deal!
What I would like to know is if we take over the bad debts of these companies, how are they (the companies) going to reflect the monies removed from their business and what is the effect on their bottom line? Are they going to show the loss of these bad loans and depress their value or are they going to get a pot full of money and show an artificial windfall profit as we assume their debt?
No bailout for Wall Street! This companies are greedy. Why should we as tax payer give them big bonus with our tax money.
The “Big Bailout” should be for young doctors, lawyers, phds and the like who are drowning in ridiculous debt. The middle class cannot buy your cars or invest in your banks if they do not have any disposable income. And trust me, they do not.
The exhorbitant costs of education combined with exhorbitant private loans have created a dis-incentive for bright young minds to stay in this country and achieve graduate degrees.
This will lead to the dumbing down of America. Take a look around the internet now, you will find entire communities based on convincing smart young college graduates not to go to law school because of the debt and poor job prospects for most. I know numerous young doctors and lawyers who now regret their decision to go for graduate education because they cannot earn a comfortable living under the crunch of all that debt.
The future of this country is the doctors, lawyers and phds in grad school right now who are paying over half of their paycheck to student loan lenders. Thats unconscionable.
If anyone should be bailed out for the good of the country, it is these people. A bank isn’t going to operate on your knee, or won’t represent you when you get fired for blowing the whistle on public corruption, or teach future generations how a 747 works.
This all smacks of corporate greed and corruption at its most complicit. Fearful of losing the comfortable lifestyle the old white males have conjured up for themselves on the back of themiddle class they adhere to archaic economic principles that died, R.I.P. long ago in the Reagan Adminisration.
These old white males in the banking industry are the past. Let them die. America has long survived without massive banking comglomerates.
No – I will vote out all the folks in DC that vote yes on this…. I have never in my life added to a blog before this. I can not accept this – let them fail like the rest of the small mom and pop shops have. Where is there hand out, where is the hand out when hard working America lost jobs when they went over seas, where is the hand out when unemployment ran out. Enough is enough – I would rather face what happenbs if we say NO then face what happens if we say yes – cause I am sure it wont matter – big banks will win and folks like me wont get credit cause now banks are going to be harder on lending so it will not help me or you.
Where is our news media in all of this. Everyone just seems to have an agenda. Why don’t we know how this really happened. CNN says it all the Republican’s fault, FOX says it’s all the Dems fault. Carville talks about $5 trillion budget surpluses that never existed, and Limbaugh says it’s the Liberals at Fannie and Freddie. We can’t count on the people in charge of the country not to screw us, and we can’t count on the media to tell us the truth about how we’re getting screwed. The Directors and Executives of these companies should have all of their assets taken to pay for this, and they should be forced to work at McDonald’s. I would say imprison them, but then we still would be paying for them. I want to go to the gallery of the Senate and just SCREAM. But, I can’t feed my family from jail. The ravings of a man who was sane just a week ago. Vote out the incumbents, whoever they are. Vote independent whenever you can. Inexperience can’t be any worse than stupid.
Congress said United health care was too expensive but soon as their(and their lobbyists) pocket is affected they can find and approve anything,like their wages and how much do they pay for health ins.I am disabled and my wife has to pay $8,000 annually for our Health ins.
I wanted to clarify my last comments. I do feel terribly bad for the average worker here in the USA. The man or woman who goes to work everyday, doing what they can to support themselves and their families or the folks on fixed incomes that are just getting by.
A lot of people are going to get hurt by this one way or the other and it is really not fair to them.
I have worked in the manufacturing sector for over (40) years now and it is really sad to see so many jobs that have gone away in the past.
If we can right the ship, there is light at the end of the tunnel. This Country was built on hard work and nothing comes without a price, but we do need to make people accountable for their actions.
They should not be bailing these corporations out of their decisions. Most Foreclosures have resulted from a doubling of interest rates after the first two years (predatory lending). Basically, all that has to happen is to have the interest rate for the homeowner go back to what they were approved for and capped by the government. They can then make their payments and everyone is happy. Can it really just be that simple?
In 2002 my career went overseas. I went a year unable to find a job, finally taking one below the poverty line to pay the rent. The GOVERMNENT holding my student loans came after me anyway, after paying them faithfully for YEARS when I had a real job. Hardship Deferment? A LIE! Now for the third time since then the company I’m working for has been bought and I will be let go. I make now 1/3 what I was making in 2002. I did nothing wrong, and now my credit is ruined, my career has become WHAT career, I can’t go back to grad school and finish because I now must pay cash.
I did eveything they say to do, pay on time (when I could) talk to lenders when I couldn’t. I didn’t ask for my career to be sent to India. I was not fired. My companies were bought, people are let go. Where’s my bailout, eh? Oh wait, our government doesn’t give a rats rear end about us. Typical, and disgusting.
We, the taxpayer, will contiue to be more and more screwed because of the mistakes of those who should know better – we’re the ones too dumb to understand the financial system, right? Thanks guys. Thanks alot.
Why on EARTH should I pay for something I had nothing to do with? I live within my means (even having no cable tv, can’t afford it!) nor do I own a home. They can KISS MY ASS, I hope those who purchased homes beyond their means burn.
The bailout unfortunately has to happen, if you think we are all having dificulty now makeing ends meet. Well this would seem like the good old days of plenty if we don’t bail out the financial system and do it now. Yes, its maddening, yes it should never have come to this. Yes we should hold the CEO’s and the politicians who benefitted from all those bad loans responsible. They should pay back everything that they can, and I do mean all that they have taken or whatever is left, and the search for funds should extend to trusts and family members names. There should also be jail terms passed out to ALL those who have acted less than legally. There should be no golden parachutes period. It makes no difference if they are losing their job because of being irresponsible or because they are incaple. But to get back to the bailout… This bailout will only be a very short term fix, unless it is coupled together with a jobs stimulas. During the depression the government put a large chunk of Citizens to work in the CCC’s and other work programs, building infrastructer and whatever else was needed. We need to do this again. Put the people to work who don’t have jobs and most of our financial problems will melt away. Start with Young people who have never been able to get a good job and have no hope of college and go on to young families who find them selves out of work. Then include the elderly who have lost everything in their 401k and can’t get anyone to hire them because of their age. Socialist you say? Well, maybe a form of it, if only temporary, but it sure beats seeing the homeless and beggers on almost every street corner these days in the southern states. We need the bailout, but we need a really good bailout that will really help fix things. And while we are all crying for our children and the hard work they will have to do to pay for our debt, please let me remind you all that I have never seen such a terrible bunch of spoiled brats as the children of today. They want it all, they want it all now, and they are perfectly willing to make the lives of their parents and neighbors misserable until they get everything and then it still does not make them happy. I would say that some character building difficulties that Mom and Dad can’t fix for them are past due. I think they would all surprise us with their new found strength and be happier people for it.
ON COST
If they had to RAISE TAXES to pay for this instead of mortgaging my 2 year old son’s future to pay for this, would they still do it? No.
Let these companies fail, pure and simple. Then BUY THEM for pennies on the dollar and all their assets for 70B TOTAL. Easy, no?
Let the market work!
The scare tactics being used to scare the American people are deplorable. It’s the last hand out to a dying administration’s friends in high places. Enough is enough! NO!
RECLAIM FRAUDULENT EXECUTIVE AWARDS
Here’s another idea: go back in history to find every VP-level executive and above at all of the companies that are involved in this meltdown that made all these bad decisions and institutionalized their greed for the past 8 years, and TAKE BACK every bonus, seize every asset, refold and pack up every golden parachute, and if the money is spent or the assets have been transferred to family members, go after those as well, and seize, seize, seize, and make those responsible forfeit the bonuses and stock option proceeds paid in good faith, which assumed they were doing their jobs. It’s a disgrace that they can walk away and enjoy the sunset while letting taxpayers pay for their mess as they kick back in early retirement in their mansions by the sea.
You might find that future banking execs would think twice before gambling their company away for short term payoffs and cashing out before things get bad.
Or more likely, after announcing such a plan, you might suddenly find that these companies have “miraculously” found the wherewithal to survive on their own, without any bailout.
END SHORT SELLING, PERIOD.
Also, short selling and hedge funds should be outlawed, for all stocks, plan and simple.
It is an abomination and contrary to the argument of those practicing it, serves no legitimate purpose other than to feed on companies and encourage the destruction of otherwise viable companies that have a rough patch. The equivalent would be for all credit companies and your mortgage company immediately calling all your personal loans immediately payable based on a rumor that your 16 year old son failed to pay his $30 Visa bill. It’s insane, and has been a major loophole in the American securities trading system that is long overdue to close.
Let’s fix this gaping hole in our system while we’re mopping up Wall Street with taxpayer money.
Damon
IN SIMPLE TERMS….
THIS BAILOUT IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!
SO COMPANIES HAVE THE RIGHT TO TALK THE TALK BUT NOW WHEN THEY NEED TO WALK THE WALK THEY NEED US AMERICANS TO HOLD THEIR HAND? THIS IS CLEARLY RIDICULOUS THERE IS NO SAY FROM US AMERICANS AT ALL. SO THESE COMPANIES ARE CHARGING US FOR WHAT THEY NEED TO AS WELL AS TAKING OUR MONEY TO HELP THEM? IN OTHER WORDS WE ARE PAYING THEM TO LATER HELP THEM. I THINK THE WHOLE IDEA IS OBSCENE AND RIDICULOUS. AND I AM FURIOUS AT THE GOVERNMENT FOR EVEN ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN. THIS ELECTION IS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE A RIDE.
Make these people obey the law!
ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8 OF THE CONSTITUTION STATES THAT CONGRESS SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO COIN (CREATE) MONEY AND REGULATE THE VALUE THEREOF.
IN 1935 THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT CONGRESS CANNOT CONSTITUTIONALLY DELEGATE ITS POWER TO ANOTHER GROUP. (Reference 22, P. 168)
Our lawmakers need to take a lesson from the Japanese. When Japan faced the same type of financial crisis in 1990 they “rejected” the bailout route and their economy recovered.
Check out “Implementing Japanese Recovery” by Adam S. Posen, Peterson Institute:
http://www.iie.com/publications/pb/pb.cfm?ResearchID=88
In the spirit of “look before you leap” I hope our political leaders consider these lessons from Japan, courtesy of Adam Posen:
1: “no one should expect to clean up a country’s banking problems overnight, or even over a couple of years, you limit the cleanup’s ongoing drag if you put a transparent process in place for deciding which banks to close and how to dispose of bad loans.”
2: “cleaning up a financial mess in the right way is not entirely contractionary for an economy. There are compensating effects that expand credit as well. Although forcing banks to meet capital standards, and closing some banks, will contract credit, the removal of uncertainty about the system as a whole will allow surviving banks to borrow more easily on interbank markets, will encourage good borrowers with low risks to come back into the credit market, and will improve the ability of banks to sort out bad from good lending opportunities. It also encourages individual savers to put more of their money back into the private banks, thereby reducing the cost of funds and the uncertainty of cash flows for those banks, further improving the flow of credit.”
In conclusion “Improper or partial financial cleanup ignores both lessons—it simply spends public money that will eventually add to the bill due”
“the financial cleanup must be carried through in line with the market pressures”
No bailout! End of story. Let the chips fall where they are going to fall. We’ll get through it, and at least people who caused this mess won’t be rewarded.
In my opinion, this “bailout” is quite difficult to agree on. First of all, these companies took the risk, gambled, and now want our tax payers’ money to give them more! This is so typical, yet not reassuring to our next generations. I have grown up with a gambler, who always seeks other people to help him by promising to pay back more than he owes-naturally a deal. This type of behavior should not be “fixed” or tolerated. What they reap is what they sow. They had it good for all those years, and now they are crashing (due to their greed) they need to crash and wake up. If they would have followed proper, ethical, and moral procedures then this sort of thing would not have happened. I understand that these corporations hold value to those who own stock and retirement, but if we bail these same corporations out of their jam, then what else? It’s classic, you gamble -win or lose- and you take it as it goes. If you dare try to “borrow” money, that is your stupidity, not the tax payers. Our money should go to those who truly were feasted upon from bad mortgages and such. I can tell you right now, I wasn’t going to buy a home 2 years ago at the asking price, nor was I going to go into so much debt just because someone “valued” these mortgages at a much higher price than they should have been. For example, my wife and I were searching for a home in a decent price range we knew we could afford. Well, when asking prices were too much, and I knew how much actually went into a home (due to my construction experience of more than 10 years) it took me a long time to find something. It’s funny a bank can offer you a mortgage of $300,000.00 (which I was told I qualified for at the time from several different banks) but can’t let you borrow a more affordable amount-let’s say $50,000.00. I actually had to lower my standards of living in order to find something with cash because no one would let me borrow something I could afford. This was the main problem, and whoever set these standards (according to my homework, I would say the government)should be the ones to “bailout” the people who were manipulated—THE TAXPAYERS. It’s our money, so help us! It has been repeatedly shown in our history that this type of thing is no good, and if you don’t put the people first, well, all I can say is people will find a way to make government work.
For every foreclosure the banks sell the property to the Government. The Home Owners dont lose there house. The government takes the balance owed on the house amortizes it with 3% interest spread over 30 years. Then garnishes the paycheck with a 25% deduction from their paycheck. If the home owner sells the property the bank must collect any unpaid principal plus any unpaid interest at the 3% rate in order for the house to sell.
How is it that our fed. officials can find money with Trillions of dollars in debt canfind money bail out companies that help put us here. Heres some food for and possibly on someones table, if its there for them then most assuredly should be there for the American also. We need bailing out also. Not only will this help with crisis but also with other aspects of our economy, we have nothing to spend to help.
Do we have a choice?
Since we are looking to blame someone, let’s include the compensation consultants to all the Boards of Directors, that design plans that reward failure and promotes reckless results. Did any hear of ‘Good Business Practices’?
A bailout is OBSCENE !
These poorly operated companies should fail.
The Federal Reserve’s authority to use taxpayer
money to bail out Wall Street must be revoked and
the “Fed” must be held accountable.
It is time to end the Federal Reserve’s stranglehold
on our economic future!
For the love of God and Country, please reject the
Paulson and Bernanke plan
to prop up reckless banks at the expense of American Citizens !
SOMEBODY….please, listen to Ron Paul before we regulate and sell out this wonderful country. No wonder other countries hate the US, it’s run by thieves !!!!!!!!
We have 435 people to blame for ignoring a 80 yr. old law and allowing central banks to take control of the country! If that’s not treason, what is ? FOR THE TRUTH, GO TO THIS SITE:
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/fed_reserve.htm
ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8 OF THE CONSTITUTION STATES THAT CONGRESS SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO COIN (CREATE) MONEY AND REGULATE THE VALUE THEREOF.
IN 1935 THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT CONGRESS CANNOT CONSTITUTIONALLY DELEGATE ITS POWER TO ANOTHER GROUP. (Reference 22, P. 168)
To Timothy Hill and the rest of greedy, pretentious & ignorant Americans:
Why symphatize with these people facing foreclosures? These are about GREED & ignorance, mostly GREED. Ignorance is never an excuse. People got GREEDY buying homes they couldnt afford, refinanced to buy expensive cars, build pools & plush backyards, had luxurious trips, etc, spending beyond their means to keep up with Joneses. All of a sudden, people who cant afford to buy $200K homes were able to buy $400K homes. Since when did a family of 4 earning $75K or even $90K able to afford $400K home? Showoff time is over, it’s payback time. Min Pymt, Int Only, ARM,100% Loan = Foreclosure. Now theyre in trouble, want help & play the blamegame for their own GREED. They think their addiction to easy money is free & can just get away with it? Pay up or give it up! They never own their homes anyway – banks owned them. Why bother taxpayers who did their homework, stayed in modest homes & live within their means. We’re all suffering from inflation bec of these greedy people. Let the rest of us who arent greedy watch how GREED bring people down. GREED & IGNORANCE never lead to American Dream.
True, those greedy companies prey on these greedy & ignorant “homeowners”, but no one forced them to sign the dotted lines.
So why bailout? So these people can continue to show off their fake wealth? The faster we get these people out from “their” homes, the sooner our economy can start recovery.
Not only is nobody going to bail me out of my personal financial mess, now I have to also pay for those idiots who helped me get into it in the first place.
Who is this Henry Paulson that would like a $700 Billion dollar check NOW!
We would all like things NOW! The Taxpayers of the United States did not create this situation, but creative financing did without anyone watching!
Where were the checks and balances? Who was minding the store while the owner was away? Obviously GREED was in control.
You can only go to the well so many times and I think that the American people are just fed up with all of the junk going on and the well is pretty dry.
Most of the Politicians know that they have a pretty slim chance of being reelected if they think that the American people are going to sign off on a blank check for $700 Billion!
I believe that the current thinking is that they will do what they can now and leave the mess for the next guy to figure out.
What a mess!
Oh believe me my congressman is getting an ear full. This bailout is going to assist the investors in these banks, it’s going to pay off the high loans they lent the bank to make these bad mortgages, but yet the home owner isn’t going to get the same assistance, it’s all about the white collar industry getting thier money before Bush vacates his presidency, it is going to make the industry collapse even more because the investor is going to get his money and run with it, and let the US have to fend for itself, the majority of these investors are from other countries!!! Wake up America!! CEO,CFO, and foreign investors are getting fatter while the hard working americans are being tossed asside and loosing thier jobs!
700 Billion =
1000 000 000 * 700
USA population = 302 000 000
This means this bail out is funding 2317 USD per person in the USA.
Don’t want to sound socialist but if each person would get 2317 USD in their mail next week it will reduce the credit crunch on the American people considerably and maybe kick start the economy again.
Handing the funds to Wall Street will just fund the large wages received by the CEO of these companies … which run their businesses without assuming any risk.
And if the business is bust … there is always the golden parachute … and now the government to support.
Where is this country going too?
No Bail-out of any kind. It is unfortunate that Wall Street’s greed, stupidity, and incompetence led to this meltdown, but I as a US taxpayer do not personally feel obliged to pay for it. Let these firms fail – otherwise we are just teaching Wall Street to keep doing the same reckless wagering in the futre, safe in the knowledge that the US taxpayers will keep them from failing.
Could anyone help with some info on how to get a job with these wonder banks ?? i’ll work cheap as long as i get a exit bonus plan. another bush bums rush deal to scam us like the iraq war hurry or we’ll all go broke !!
Let’s wait an see who fails and use the money then to buy them all up at 10 cents on the dollar and use the profit money for health care. I guess were all stupid and didn’t know barclays already owned lehmans.
Do a little reserch look at who the major stock holders are in all these wall street banks, yes their are all the same people and companys , their gonna end up with ownership of these banks as they fail the rescue plan will only help them buy them cheaper.
Bailing out the companies that lived beyond their means would set a dangerous precedent and promote bad behavior. Why should I, as a tax payer, bail out a company because of bad practice. Someone else made bad decisions and now I have to pay for it? I don’t think so. Those CEOs should put themselves in the common American’s shoes and see how they would like it. Changes are, they won’t like it all that much and would be just as furious.
This is Insane!
The Elitists of this country get a free pass to make high risk, assine investments, if they profit the american taxpayer gets Jack S**T from them and the government, and if they lose, WE MUST Cover their Losses?
230 years ago it was unjust taxation, today its still basically unjust taxation… ITS 1776 AGAIN! See you guys on “The Green”.
The only urgent aspect of this bill is the legal protection for Paulson, given he nationalized a private company without having the authority to do so. The solution being proposed is to add oversight, allow an outside arbitrator to have say over operational activities and compensation for executives and board members, and to force the companies to reduce their risk exposure while giving greater transparency to their activities.
My question is this: why do we need an act of Congress to do the exact same things that would happen in bankruptcy? If these companies declared bankruptcy, they would be protected from having to stop operations because their short-term borrowing was called in. All of the things that Congress would want would happen in bankruptcy court. The only things that would be different is the government would not be able to nationalize private assets without due process and Paulson would not get his “get out of jail free” card.
jim’s got it right. we need to vote out the republicans & democrats. we need to change this country around by voting for libertarians in this next election! i’m sold! get them out of office before we have no country left!
I have a better bailout proposal.
The government should bail out those like me: All of us who are between 45 and 55 years old, who always lived modestly within our means, paid our bills on time, worked hard, educated ourselves and our children, invested in retirement plans, voted in every election, and in other words, did everything we were supposed to do and thought we might actually attain the American Dream.
Then we were downsized or restructured or whatever euphemism you want to use. We have bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees, but now we’re earning less than we did twenty years ago. We searched and searched for meaningful jobs only to be met with frustration, age discrimination, and hiring managers with the communication skills of sixth graders. Severance packages ran out, then unemployment ran out, so we swallowed our pride and took jobs that don’t pay the bills and likely never will. Now we’re supervised by people we wouldn’t have hired when we were managers and directors, back when managers and directors actually hired and managed people and organizations weren’t bloated with HR departments and their idiotic policies and procedures and before the management of people was turned over to computer software programs (to make us more efficient…ha!).
We’re wondering who the talking heads and the polticians are talking about because they’re not talking about us. We don’t live in McMansions. We don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in any nest egg to fall back on; we never really had the money to make large investments in the stock market. We thought we’d have Social Security. We were buying homes and educationg our children. Our homes are now worth less than when we bought them, which wasn’t much then, but it was what we could afford. Our futures are bleak, and we can’t see how bailing out Wall Street’s greed and mismanagement will ever help us.
So hey, Uncle Sam, how about a bailout for us? You don’t even have to buy all our debt. Just buy half of it, or maybe even a quarter. I bet it would be a whole lot cheaper and a much better investment.
All,
It’s time we get off the sideline and become active participants in how our country and elected officials govern this country. The stakes are too high to just standby and watch our way of life destroyed by greedy and corrupt Wall Street execs. and politicians. Below is my message to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and an article showing that Lehman Bros. execs. in NY gave themselves a $2.5bn bonus right before they announced that they were filing bankruptcy. All while their employees were losing their jobs and the American people’s 401K’s and IRA’s were going down the drain, they saw it fit to give themselves billions of dollars in bonuses. We should all take the time to write to our elected officials in Washington to bring these criminals to justice.
***************************************
Speaker Pelosi,
“I just recently learned that all five of the, former, Wall St. Investment Banks lost a combined $74B over the past 12 months and paid themselves $39B in bonuses…where is the OUTRAGE from our elected officials? Where is the OUTRAGE from the American people? These bankers failed their fiduciary duty as stewards of the nations wealth and well being for their own personal gain! This is beyond greed…it is criminal and we must demand that the Attorney General Michael Mukasey go after these crooks and bring them to justice!”
Fury at $2.5bn bonus for Lehman’s New York staff:
Also, short selling and hedge funds should be outlawed, for all stocks, plan and simple.
It is an abomination and contrary to the argument of those practicing it, serves no legitimate purpose other than to feed on companies and encourage the destruction of otherwise viable companies that have a rough patch. The equivalent would be for all credit companies and your mortgage company immediately calling all your personal loans immediately payable based on a rumor that your 16 year old son failed to pay his $30 Visa bill. It’s insane, and has been a major loophole in the American securities trading system that is long overdue to close.
Let’s fix this gaping hole in our system while we’re mopping up Wall Street with taxpayer money.
Let’s see; The government wants the right to buy subprime loans and CHANGE the interest rate and balance due on a CONTRACT!!
No! You bought the house, you pay for the house. Set a reasonable interest rate on the total amount owed. These loans must be repaid. If you fail to repay the full amount owed, attach the individuals tax refunds and social security checks until the entire aomunt has been repaid.
My husband owned a small business in the mid-west connected to new housing starts. Due to the economy, the business was closed in 2007. We had to file Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and are under a strict budget for 5 years. All disposable income is paid to the creditors. We do not have a savings, even for emergencies, can’t help our kids with college, no vacations, can’t even save in our 401-K for our retirment.
Now I have to bail-out investment banks to stabalize the stock market and restore confidence? Forget about it. Why should I be held accountable to the “n-th” degree and these banks and executives are not? My husband worked for 18 years for a tech company and when that company tanked his 401-K was wiped out, and his job, and his stock options. No one made us whole or bailed us out, I do not want to do it for others in much better financial positions than I am.
I’m sure their kids can still go to good schools, they will get to keep their houses, I lost all the equity in mine.
I am very upset and mad about this!! Paulson wants to help his buddies, he doesn’t care about the average American.
I say see if the executives broke any laws and throw them in jail, seize their assets, that’s how we can pay for this mess. And let the ones that made the worst decisions go down in flames, survival of the fitest.
I want Paulson FIRED.
HE WAS IN CHARGE OF GOLDMAN SACHS!
It is *HIS* greed that we are talking about. It is *HIS* mega-ceo salary that sowed these seeds.
How dare him propose the bailout. WHAT A HYPOCRITE.
THIS BAILOUT BENEFITS *HIM* personally *MUCH* more than almost anyone else.
*HE* is looking out for *HIMSELF* and asking us to bail *HIM* out.
No way, not today, not ever.
Vote for it and we will vote you out.
Here’s another idea: go back in history to find every VP-level executive and above at all of the companoies that are involved in this meltdown that made all these bad decisions and institutionalized their greed for the past 8 years, and TAKE BACK every bonus, seize every asset, refold and pack up every golden parachute, and if the money is spent or the assets have been transferred to family members, go after those as well, and seize, seize, seize, and make those responsible forfeit the bonuses and stock option proceeds paid in good faith, which assumed they were doing their jobs. It’s a dsgrace that they can walk away and enjoy the sunset while letting taxpayers pay for their mess as they kick back in early retirement in their mansions by the sea.
You might find that future banking execs would think twice before gambling their company away for short term payoffs and cashing out before things get bad.
Or more likley, after announcing such a plan, you might suddenly find that these companies have “miraculously” found the wherewithal to survive on their own, without any bailout.
I’ve just heard Paulson before the Senate, and my response is: NO! HELL NO! He has not demonstrated any real crisis — except that his friends will lose money! POOR BROKERS! NO! NO! NO!
Why would we now trust the same administration that we know lied to us about the last “emergency”? The WMD in Iraq lie led to the Patriot Act, the largest reduction in human rights in US history. Now we’re supposed to believe that imminent financial crisis means we should immediately grant the government unbridled access to $700B? I hardly think so. Financial markets have a measure of adaptability that will eventually kick in. Yes, there will be devaluations. But I, for one, do not trust Bush, Inc. to dole out $700, let alone $700 billion to friends and cronies. Didn’t Americans learn anything? The lies continue, and Bush is currently funding HIS retirement plan, at OUR expense. We need increased oversight, regulation that protects Americans, not just businessmen, and let the markets work it out.
I’m really concerned about this. I’m not sure were the reasoning is coming from. The Gov’t wants to bail out the companies that used poor judgement therefore in turn bailing out the general public for using their poor judgement. The American people are to blame not just bankers & the Gov’t! Those people knew they were living beyond their means, they knew that being Asst Mangers of Walgreens didn’t give them the right to a $350,000 house! And now the Gov’t wants to bail out the people who did this to themselves, they want to free banks of their debt so that what? They can go lend more money out? The only people that are in dire straits are the very same people who used credit poorly and knew they couldn’t pay it back. And now we want to lend them more money. Please, this is so rediculous.
(forgive my typos, I’m just ticked about this entire situation that I can’t see straight).
RIP Capitalism! The goverment’s been wanting to turn this country into a socialistic/communistic society & this could be the major turning point. Especially since the democrats think the government should be part owners of these companies. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO VOTE FOR OBAMA OR MCCAIN THIS FALL!! A VOTE FOR BOB BARR (LIBERTARIAN) IS A VOTE TO CONTINUE A FREE COUNTRY & REVERSE COURSE OF THIS NATION!!! It’s YOUR choice!!
To those who think this crisis is primarily the fault of Republicans/Conservatives, read this.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html
Congress, mostly Democrats in Congress, have hand prints all over this problem.
Since when has the US Government been allowed to make decision that affect me and my family without my right to vote on it? What happened to our government of “for the people and by the people” ? This bailout plan directly affects us and our children and our grandchildren….why can we not be partipating in the decision? They say the crimes of the parents are bestowed on the child…this will be the crimes of the government will be bestowed on our children. Shouldn’t we have rights? It seems like since Bush has been president our rights have been diminishing like the polar ice cap. We are no different than Cuba or Russia ….we no longer have a democracy but a totalitarian government rule…they decide it all and we like lambs follow and pay the way. I think the bail out is wrong period and I think we should protest in any way we can to show the government “we are the people” that count.
I’ve worked hard all my life to get where I am. I pay my bills (on time) barely some months. I bought a reasonable house for my family. My kids bought reasonable homes when they began having families of their own.
Stop blaming President Bush. He alone did not create this mess. Our congress people are just as much to blame as he is.
Greedy mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and yes, our own people! Shame on YOU!
Live the American dream does not mean that you should have everything by age 25. Our parents, and now me, worked all our lives for what we have. We didn’t expect to have it all as soon as we moved our of our parent’s home.
Bailout or no Bailout. The average American will pay one way or another. If we do this bailout the average American will have to pay for it — we can barely keep a roof over our head and food on the table now. If we don’t do the bailout the average American will still have to pay just in different ways.
I say no bailout. We poor people are used to being poor and barely making it. Let the predatory lenders and greedy Americans take the fall. Let congress who approve of this bailout go out and try to find a job and pay for a home on their new salary when they don’t get re-elected because the average Joe is FED UP with them protecting their own butts not listening to their people and doing what is best for them.
A Total Money Makeover is what is needed and the first lesson is to STOP spending.
But hey, if government is bound and determined to give away $700 billion then give it to the average American that pays our bills, that don’t overspend. Free up some of their salary to generate spending money if you say that spending money is the only way to keep the economy going.
we need help…. i have a morgage that is 11% and i can not afford it any more we have got into a big whole and theres is no way out…. and can’t get no help…… timothy hill
I just read this morning that the poll CNN took said most were in favor of the GIVE AWAY ” BAILOUT ” I guess they need to go back to preschool to learn how to count… I am reading and I don’t see where the majority agree with this…again who is not telling the truth…give the people a break CNN…report the truth…most of us are not in favot of the Bailout !!!! take the money back from those hoods and give it back to the PEOPLE !!!!
I am for the bailout.
Just think of your poor congressmen/senator/president. Who is going to spend $5,000/plate at their re-election dinner? Who is going to pay thousands for them to give speeches? Who is going to buy 35,000 copies of their books that they write? You Mr. & Mrs. Public? I think not. It will be their buddies they just bailed out. Former CEOs of Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Countrywide, etc who earned millions of dollars a year.
Let’s be honest, is someone who is earning under $100,000 going to give me $90,000 to stuff in my freezer or renovate my house for nothing? Be serious and bend over and take it as usual.
I suggest CNN conduct a nonbinding poll among Americans to vote for or against the bailout – and let’s see what the American people feel alongside that of the politicians who are supposed to represent us.
If they had to RAISE TAXES to pay for this instead of mortgaging my 2 year old son’s future to pay for this, would they still do it? No.
Let these companies fail, pure and simple. Then BUY THEM for pennies on the dollar and all their assets for 70B TOTAL. Easy, no?
Let the market work!
The scare tactics being used to scare the American people are deplorable. It’s the last hand out to a dying administration’s friends in high places. Enough is enough! NO!
Instead of bailing out Wall Street, send a $2M golden parachute to every household in America. Save half, spend half and give an immediate boost to the economy. No more housing crisis, no worries about paying the mortgage, medical insurance or college fees. If this sounds idiotic, it’s no more so than handing it over to bail out irresponsible CEOs and greedy investment institutions.
this is fraud…outright….and there should be no bailout and all the liars in Washington and Wall Street should be charged with fraud. everyone on this blog should contact your Senators and Congress and let them know we are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore !
I can’t believe what I hear on television. These Wall Street brains want our money to bail them out but they don’t want any rules or regulation attached to it. Nice they continue flying cooroporate jets and driving limos all around with government money and they expect us to keep our mouths shut too! I want to see these Wall Street bums begging for quarters and holding signs below their necks that say” will work for food”.
This bailout is not solving the problem of decreasing housing prices, of increased credit debt, of rising health care and fuel costs – it just prolongs the current financial crisis and puts the costs on the taxpayers rather than the financial institutions who have created much of the problem. I do not want my tax money going to bail out banks. Find a real solution, rather than an answer that just takes the pain away from the rich and transfers it to the top of the middle class burden.
One thing everone seems to be overlooking on this subject. If Paulson and Bush succeed in pulling this wool over our eyes, we all get a new neighbor. One that will pretty much take it’s own sweet time and do as it damn well pleases to the house next door. You want the lawn mowed? Do it yourself, You want the rat infestation taken care of? Good luck. You just want it torn down? Get in line. There was a time when the rest of the nation could look at the metropolitan Detroit area and just shake their heads, Now it is coming to your own neighborhood.
I think that the majority of people have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!!!!! PEOPLE! Get with the program here. This is NOT just about Wall Street, this is about the cornerstone of our ECONOMY!!!!
The ignorance of the American people is overwhelming and it is the reason why the rest of the world laughs at us.
Bottom line…we don’t trust politicians or wall street. This whole mess is not a Democratic or Rebublican issue. It is a criminal action that the tax payers are having to pay for. Wall street was greedy, found loop-holes in the system and no one from the government paid attention to it (because they were probably gaining from it also)…So here we are! We do not need a fast expensive bailout plan that has more to do with getting votes than it does with long term economic repair. In 6 weeks we have the ability to elect “new blood” to congress and I hope most Americans see this as more important with greater impact than the presidential election. Keep the incumbents who are not representing us correctly out of Washington!! These folks are out of touch and not watching out for the common citizen’s well-being.
Don’t know? Search by zip code at
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Alt. look it up at wikipedia.org under your state
Hey Rex from NJ, Stop the fear mongering (remember WMD in Iraq – perpetrated by fear mongrers like you), there will be no riots and looting and the sky will not fall. Let these crooked investment firms fail, bring the CEO’s and their cronies into jail and take their asset’s away, people will came back to their senses, fools (dumb people who invested in the stock market) will be parted from their money and will remember the lesson for the rest of their lives and hopefully teach it to their kids and grand kids. The world will be a better place without GREED.
It’s simple,levy a tax on the shareholders who have been benefiting and participating in the activities which have cause this crisis…
This bailout package is absurd! Now they are trying to include Credit Cards and Car Loans! Who is going to bail me out of my loans and credit cards? Instead the government wants to bail out the companies who are charging me 15-30% interest rates? Are you serious??
Certainly creating more debt is not the solution. Maybe we Americans could learn something by reducing our DEPENDENCE ON DEBT, and having a little bit of hard times so that we learn our lesson. God forbid we wouldnt be able to get more loans, what would we do – how about pay for things outright, that’s a new concept!
CAPITALISM IS DEAD …. THIS IS SOCIALISM PURE AND SIMPLE. The Congress better not pass this bailout, as if the whole world is not already laughing at us all the way to their bank (Ours are bankrupt – if you had not noticed yet, along with the Federal Govt., State Govt., over extended consumers etc. etc.) this will only make us a bigger laughing stock and help the people who were reckless and stupid and punish those of us who have lived within our means and not been GREEDY or DUMB to invest in the stock market. Where did all the money go, into the pockets of the rich and richer (Bush buddies- good old boys) get it back from them – morons.
The solution to the current debate on how to handle the 700 billion loan for both parties would be to either have the banks or government create a holding company for the bad debt to take it off the bank’s books
but also to agree to pay back any funding they received over the next 15 years plus interest.
The government would fund the holding company and charge a reasonable interest rate and ensure that this obligation could not be obliterated through any corporate maneuvers. It should also stipulate that there would be a cap on the top 20 executive bonuses, stock options or parachutes until the debt is paid.
This would reduce the short term “bad debt” to 1/15th of the current load, inject immediate money, create an oversight mechanism and have a greater chance of recovering the funds. As a side bar it could even create a mechanism for the government to sell off shares in this company (should there ever be a market for them) to reduce the risk on their side and the long term debt load for the banks.
The CEOs of Lehman Brothers and AIG are criminals, much like the CEOs of Enron. If Martha Stewart can be imprisoned on mere suspicion of insider trading….these men deserve LIFE SENTENCES for what they knew (and hid) from the American people.
Derivatives are a form of speculation (gambling) on how a stock will perform; much like betting on a horse race. They knew the risks involved when they placed their bets.
Every penny we’re being asked to pay (to right their wrong) should be repaid to the American people by liquidating both their personal and business assets in the U.S. and abroad PLUS interest.
These companies have been privatizing PROFIT for years….and socializing their losses. They see money going in one direction only: theirs. They’ve set up the game so they always win.
These are the same people who thought it amusing to watch people getting kicked out of their homes after the a predatory lending scandal THEY devised.
These are the same people who have come up with the BRILLIANT idea that they’ll hold on to foreclosed homes until the market improves, and then sell them at a terrific PROFIT, while setting up areas for people to live out of their CARS!
This was a money making venture for the transnationals. It’s all about re-apportioning wealth among the KING PINS; destroying our monetary system is necessary for them to achieve global control. Our laws, constitution, and the laws of other countries are getting in their way, you see.
Considering Republicans want to control us from birth (noting our very moment of conception) to death (the Terry Schiavo government intervention fiasco) it amazes me that allow the economy run without shackles. Isn’t it amazing that the one area they SHOULD be concerned about is deregulated, and your personal freedoms are under attack?
So, I say…let them take their lumps! They’ve been caught red-handed BILKING the American people out of a minimum of 7 trillion dollars. That sounds like jail time to me.
I REFUSE to accept that we HAVE TO bail them out of their “horse bets.”
As a republican, since when do we support the government getting involved in private business? Isn’t this what we have been throwing stones at democrats for years for?
It is the basis of the capitalist system that this nation was built on that some businesses prosper and some fail.
The nation will go through economic difficulties, but as long as the system is not corrupted by an underlying problem in the financial system there should be no problem to the overall economy. Since when does the state our economy rest on the effects of one sector?
So the banks lost the bet on bad mortgages and now they need the people who they were trying to burn to come to their rescue, I say chapter 11
There are risks on each side of the issue. But since when does the government get into the business of investing in the stock market? Bailout for partial ownership? Are we an investment firm now?
Will the financial markets take a hit if this plan is NOT passed? Yes
Will the financial markets take a hit if this plan IS passed? Yes
And this is coming from an investor. I chose to invest; I don’t choose to save these big businesses
It is the basis of the capitalist system that this nation was built on that some businesses prosper and some fail.
The nation will go through economic difficulties, but as long as the system is not corrupted by an underlying problem in the financial system there should be no problem to the overall economy. Since when does the state our economy rest on the effects of one sector?
So the banks lost the best on bad mortgages and now they need the people who they were trying to burn to come to their rescue, I say chapter 11
There are risks on each side of the issue. But since when does the government get into the business of investing in the stock market? Bailout for partial ownership? Are we an investment firm now?
From Tennessee:
Bailout a necessity, at this point, unfortunately, yes. BUT FROM THE LAND OF NO GAS AND DISAPPEARING PATIENCE….NOT ONE RED CENT OF BONUS TO THE CEO’S…and I stress the term RED!
Quick Quick Quick! Lets do it quick before anyone knows what hit them. Thats all you are hearing now. This didn’t happen overnight this has been happening for a while. Quit making rash decisions and think about what you are going to do. No No No to the bailout. There is always a way if you just stop and think!!!!!!!!!!!
The Republican’s have long touted their belief that the government needs to be made small enough that they can “drown it in a bath tub.” Would that bath tub be filled with Wall Street debt?
Having deregulated banking and other industries and then bilked the american homeowner out of all their equity, we are left with NOTHING.
Our candidates are talking about creating jobs….but when manufacturing started to founder in the ’80’s, and asked the government to bail them out, they were allowed to go under. Now, bankers have gotten all that they can, by hook AND crook and they come to us with their hands out. Know what? Go to hell. You weren’t FOR a bailout of manufacturing…the folks that many American’s get to work FOR….we didn’t get much from your greed and corruption so, there’s the door…go thru before we start organizing a lynching party for you AND the deregulators who gave you the keys to the lock box of our economy.
If American’s don’t show up at the voting booth in November and stand up for themselves (since Congress won’t) then we all deserve what we get.
Speak up, America…or forever hold your peace.
As a republican, since when do we support the goverment getting involved in private business? Isn’t this what we have been throwing stones at democrats for years for?
will the finanical markets take a hit if this plan is NOT passed? yes
will the financial markets take a hit if this plan IS passed? yes
of course this plan will lessen the blow, but for how long? It is not worth throwing taxpayers under the bus to save the banks who made outlandish risks to make money.
Of course main street will feel effects if wall street is not saved, but if we’re paying off their debt it looks like were hurting anyways. And this is coming from an investor. I chose to invest, I don’t choose to save these big businesses
I am sick and tired of these Bafoons running Washington doing what they want with my tax dollars and not giving the American people any say on what to do with our money. What we need in this country and I will be one of the first to join is a TAX REVOLT.
Hope the gov bail out, got approved quickly and not pushing around by otherside of politic. Great effort
On the tax payers’ emotion… well if all went bankrupt because the mess made by financial companies .. who pay taxes ?
for those ceos of those financial companies. Shame on you
The math is puzzling. $700 billion for all of the 1.5 million foreclosed homes in the US means each is costs taxpayers $467,000. Those are not sub-prime. Our government is lying again.
Worried that the employees of these major banking/investment institutions won’t receive paychecks unless the government intervenes? Ask the CEO’s to cover wages with their golden parachutes and bonus packages. I am sure they would be happy to oblige.
Once again, the American people will be left holding the bag while the new administration/congress will be neutered: no new programs to help those who truly need a leg up and a hand out!
Perhaps we should treat the ceos and other officers of these financial institutions the way we do drug dealers – take everything they own. All the houses, cars, yachts, planes, bonuses, bank accounts and use that to pay off this mess. Greed and poor management caused this. Let the culprits clean it up, not the American taxpayers!
This bailout plan should not pass. The only ones who will be helped are the central banks, big financial companies who made bad decisions, and all foreign countries owning a part of our debt (china, japan, dubai, etc). It will NOT help the US taxpayer in anyway but we will be the ones paying for it! too much power in the hands of one person is unconstitutional. all this will do is raise the inflation rate (which does NOT include the cost of energy or food), lowering of the value of the dollar, etc.
Let those who have made bad decisions fall. Congress and the Administration have no intention of helping Main Street USA! Keep in mind that the Fed Rserve is NOT an agency of any kind!
Inittogether says we should point the finger at ourselves for this crisis….I agree and disagree….yes American’s went overboard and bought items they could not afford but and this is a big but…..the banks knew they were a shaky loans but gave them anyway to make a quick buck….where is the oversight? If the banks had been more prudent they would have not allowed so much “creative financing” which led to people getting into trouble…it goes back to the basic philosophy of the two parties….you hear it all the time from the candidates….Democrats want more government (i.e oversight) and Republicans “supposedly” want less government ( less oversight)….well it was under this Republican idealolgy that we got into trouble….the banks should have said “no” and we would not be here today…..and the ironic thing is the “less Government” Republicans
( i.e our illustrious President) now wants the Government to take over Wall Steet and the banks…that looks like alot more Government to me!
I think the Federal Reserve which is a PRIVATELY owned bank should have to clean up its own mess which was created by it’s board members at NO Cost to the people of this country. I also feel it is time to control of our currency and put it back on the silver standard and get rid of the fake money called a Federal reserve Note which is worthless and has no backing but our sweat and blood.
The American public should be outraged by this debacle. I don’t want congress to make a quick decision on how they will spend $700 billion dollars. I want them to think long and hard. I want them to thoroughly weigh the options. In fact, we don’t even know if $700 billion is enough. Throwing $700 billion dollars into the air in the hopes it will cover up the problem is foolish.
I’m sad that capitalism collapsed from inside, and as an irony during a republican administration. This administration makes history on multiple fronts. However, let’s not blame only the greed financial institutions and realize that there were people falling for this Bush’s administration “ownership society”. Of course, I think that president Bush forgot to mention China’s word in the “ownership society”. I am tempted to say that this will probably be what we deserve for electing such an administration and being irresponsible all the way.
My solution would be to let Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley fail and the treasury buys them on the cheap unless there are investors wanting to bail them out and convert them into some kind of commercial banks. It wouldn’t be such a big problem since they are not doing anything, anyhow.
Then the treasury will use 700 billion dollars to create securities and distribute those to citizens who will have to invest them in companies in alternative energy(including green cars out of Detroit), healthcare research, nanotechnology, information technology and infrastructure. With the condition that short selling will be forbid forever on our markets.
Requiring institutions that take part in the bailout to give shares to the U.S. in return would be a disaster. They need to feel some pain, but it should be short-lived! Using this crisis to part-nationalize all the participants would cause all sorts of long term headaches.
I’m sick of cnn telling us to shut up and take it like a man. We don’t have to accept this. Call your congressmen, call your senators, call your president. Tell them not to back this foolishness. Why even have government if it doesn’t represent the people. Why do we have to pay to fix the global economy. STOP THE MADNESS!!
I get rich with a little help from my friends; I stay rich with a little help from my friends. Privatize profits and socialize losses. How much in the way of bonuses and commissions are the Wall Street honchos going to pull down by selling this worthless paper to the taxpayer? Go you Wall Street swindlers.
The word is the USA is in a financial crisis. Apparently, lots of financial institutions have way too much bad debt on their books. So, it is being proposed that the burden of these bad debts be shifted from the financial institutions to the taxpayers. Is this a good idea? Maybe, maybe not. Will it solve the problem? Only time will tell.
Since I am one of the people being asked to assume this terrific burden, I will do so on the following conditions.
Each employee of each financial institution must appear before a public commission and confess the fraud, misrepresentation, and just plain bad decision making he or she committed which contributed to the mess we are in. Furthermore, each employee must also offer a plan to make personal restitution for what he or she has done. If they do this, I will assume the bad debt and grant them immunity from criminal prosecution.
If you assume that there are roughly 25 million home mortgages, and that the average mortgage is $200,000, that’s $10 trillion worth of home equity based credit. If home prices fall 30%, that could be a $3 trillion shortfall.
The SubPrime loans were the first to fall, but all variable rate mortgages are at risk, as are all Home Equity Lines of Credit. If people can’t afford to sell their house, they can’t afford to make career required relocations, they can’t afford to move at all.
The irony is that the proposed bail-out doesn’t even protect home-owners from foreclosures and interest rate increases. This means that the $3 trillion mentioned above would still be at risk, as well as most of the of the principle on ALL mortgages.
This could also wipe out 401k, IRA, Annuity, and Pension plans, as well as bankrupting social security. This would pretty much leave the baby boomers with NO retirement funding.
It could trigger, not only a “Great Depression”, but rioting, crime, and violence that could trigger a collapse of most of the infrastructure. Imagine a return to the “dark ages” similar to the one that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.
Giving Paulson dictatorial power to make sweetheart deals with Bush “friends” and gouge those who haven’t contributed to Republican “charities” similar to those created by Jack Abramhov and others, with no oversight, no court review, no appeal, and no guarantee of foreclosure protection, is just signing a “blank check” for a huge boondoggle.
How many times did Paulson say the financial system is FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND, this year alone?
LIAR ! ! !
You deserve impeachment not $700 Billion Dollars !
You are all FOOLS to trust a proven LIAR.
How many times this year alone did Paulson describe the system as Fundamentally Sound.
LIAR ! ! !
The congress needs to explain why they are giving $700 billion dollars to a Liar.
The whole stinking group is corrupt. I am talking of all involved- republican and democrat politicians, financial institutions, and risk taking homeowners.
How dare you bailout companies that pay executives millions and other employees hundreds of thousands.
I DEMAND MY TAX DOLLARS NOT PAY FOR EXCESS AND GREED.
The solution to this mess is not a bail out, it is the restoration of smaller business. If a smaller company is mis-managed to the point of failure, it does not have the impact of the failure of a mega-corp. Mergers and acquisitions that create the mega-corps should not be allowed — no mergers or acquisitions without a very solid reason (and that reason does not include executive bonuses). Congress needs to break up the companies that are “too big to fail” into smaller companies.
What happens when one company buys another? First there are lay-offs to take advantage of “synergy” and “efficiencies”. Then there are benefit and pay cuts for those remaining employees. They have to take the cuts, of course, because the big boys have just eliminated another prospective employer. There is reduced competition in the marketplace. With only a few mega-corps you can buy from A, B, or C but the opportunity to buy from D through Z is gone.
Let’s not forget that mega-corps have the money to purchase a nice friendly government as well. Trade associations are one thing in terms of campaign contributions, but they have to get their members to go along with the program and getting a group to agree on anything is difficult. Quite different when a small handful of multi-million dollar executives cut the marching orders.
It’s time to say NO. No bail out. No investment of our money (and it is OUR money even if we have not earned it yet) in junk assets that no one else will touch. As for the overly bright executives that got their companies into this pickle, let the stock holders sue the pants off of them and recapture as much of the loot as possible.
Assuming us tax payers are going to pay out $700B to essentially re-finance the unreasonable mortgages in the credit market who should we be helping?
Wouldn’t it be better to do the refinance at the consumer level? This way, instead just of helping a few hundred greedy finance exec’s, we could be helping millions of home owners and families keep their homes.
The money most likely is the same either way its done. If homes are kept by the current owners, there will be fewer discounted homes on the market, allowing faster recovery there.
Why is it that welfare for the poor is a handout, but for corporations it’s a bailout? We need to get out the financial guillotine and CUT IT OFF!
What we are witnessing is just half of the swindle because the government at the Federal, State and Local level keeps 2 sets of books. One is the Budget which is the record of spending and debt, the other is the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) which is the record of revenue generation. The massive bailouts taking place only focus on the debt and not the profits. Learn all about it from Walter Burien at http://www.cafr1.com and you will find the true extent of the skullduggery.
He’s a clue the last time this government asked for blank check with no checks and balances we went to Iraq. Need i say more. The only thing other then fear to fear is the BUSH admin.
Under the heading of “It is what it is” we will probably have to take the “bitter pill”. But even when forced to take the pill, we usually monitor things to see that the pill is efficient, effective, not adding to our maladies (i.e. detect contraindications ASAP), and that it maintains its stated ‘course’ of treatment (i.e. stated period of usage).
Keeping that in mind, the risk of this plan can be mitigated in the same way as any prudent business mitigates its risks; that is, through-
1-visibility
Set up an official, publicly accessible Web site with databases that cover assets acquired, agency/institution acquired from, cost, eventual disposition (write off, refinance/sale), resulting loss/profit, disposition of lost or gained funds), benefit or detriment to taxpayers/institutions/gov’t, and any other relevant measurements which ensure that there is a path of review and accountability.
2-Public review to ensure that the plan is working or will be modified based on to date results experience to attain the level of required positive performance to meet stated goals and expectations
3-Accountability
Dismissal of any sponsors, initiators or implementers (including publicly elected or appointed officials) if the situation becomes more financially catastrophic, ineffective leading to new capital infusion requirements, or results in the publication in Forbes next year of monumental compensation packages for the M-Cubes (Masters of Managerial Malfeasance) both in the public and private domains that got us into this mess; i.e. don’t continue to reward the non-performers with contributors’ hard fought for earnings (i.e. throw good money after bad) thus setting up a new system of Taxation through Bad Representation.
In short, let’s use the upcoming election to establish a governing paradigm of Visibility-Measurement-Accountability with the main goal of “Never Again”!
If you feel as I do and want to let Wall Street hang themselves with their own rope, then let your senators and congress know. I think the Us in particular and the world markets in general need a good shake-up. If it brings on a depression then so be it…we as a nation will not starve…after all we will still have 700 billion dollars to buy food with! And as far as the slugs that got us into this mess…treat them just like drug dealers…grab ALL their assets and make them prove that they weren’t ill gotten gains. Besides we could always reactivate the WPA and teach these slimballs how to dig a ditch! Afterall our roads and bridges do need the work.
Contact your representatives and demand that they hold accountable those who created this mess by deregulating the banking industry. Expose and eliminate those responsible. Don’t allow them to get away with treason. Call and write today, before it is too late . http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
When our students have no money to pay their tuition, our elderly has no money to purchase health insurance, our city has no money to hire enough police officers… our government decides to spend our hard-earned money for somebody’s mistakes and greed.
The plan Paulson submitted is complete insanity. It’s an absurd power grab riddled with conflicts of interest and is not effectively focussed. The Dodd plan is far superior if it is indeed the case that massive immediate action is needed. I trust Paul Krugman’s analysis on the crisis. Congress should follow closely his advice and input.
When can you retire? When you vote for change. The current policies have helped noone in this country. Dont swallow the sinker with the hook and line.
I am not for the bailout of wall street as it is used to help the rich. The people who only cared about themselves and not of the ordinary taxpayer. Taxpayer will pay for this so wall street may continue there same way. I believe all CEO’s of these mortgage companies that have foreclosures be fired. As they only care about there own and there escape clause. It is not right that taxpayers pay for the people who where not responsible. Did Dick Cheney go to prison for shooting someone? No , sound like not being responsible. Did Bush introduce alternative transportation – NO. Did Bush put us in debt with Iraq war – YES and cost innocent americans there lifes. All in the name of irresponsibility. Now Bush wants a legacy of his presidency by saddling next president economically because he was not responsible for the country while he was in office. Because of some greedy . irresponsible , self centered people , taxpayers will get from this package – high inflation which will cause dollar to decline. It could cause interest rates to go up at which businesses will not be able to borrow. Anyways house values would drop , not allowing people to borrow equity on there home. Employment will be luck if you have a job.
NO BAILOUTS ARE NECESSARY. NOT A SINGLE ONE.
The INSTANT a corporation files for bankruptcy, other companies will step in and start to buy them out piece by piece. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT NEED TO PLAY ANY ROLL in this situation.
This is a Bush-made crisis. By pushing Congress to give the Treasury Department unheard-of powers, Bush is once more trying to diminish the Constitution. This is his last chance to alter the Constitution and he is doing his best to convince people that there is such a looming crisis that they shouldn’t even take the time to think about it. Just do as he says and be part of his flock of sheep.
Congress should stand up to him this time. Bush has only a few more months left in office. Congress should JUST SAY NO to Bush and Paulson. NO BAILOUTS.
ORDER all the corporations that Bush and Wall Street deem “too big to fail” to start selling off corporate assets on their own. When Wall Streeters see an opportunity, they ALWAYS find money somewhere. And this is no different, except for the huge propaganda campaign Bush is waging to make us all believe in this last bit of crisis-making that he has conjured.
Call your Congressman and Senators and tell them to vote against the Bush Bailouts.
Instead of bailing out the financial institutions which created this economic mess, the 700 billion dollars should instead be divided evenly among 7 million households across the country, in $100,000 increments. It is, after all, the taxpayers’ money. As far as the corrupt and greedy presidents of corporations, CEOs, CFOs, and managers are concerned, the Darwinian law of evolution should prevail: the weak should be taken over by the strong.
I THINK THE GOVRNMENT SHOULD GO DIRECT TO THE SOURCE (THE AMERICAN PEOPLE), IT IS THE PEOPLE THAT ARE SUFFERING. WHAT THE GOVERMENT SHOULD DO IS RE-APRAISE ALL HOME LOANS IN TROUBLE AND MAKE A NEW LOAN. EXAMPLE. LETS TAKE A HOME WITH A MORTGAGE OF $500,000 AND THE NEW APRAISED VALUE IS $400,000 THE BANKS SHOULD WRITE OFF THE $100,000 AND THE GOV. TAKES THE $400,000 NEW APRAISEL AND BREAKS IT INTO HALF, THE FIRST HALF WILL GO INTO A 5,10,OR 15 YEAR TREASURY BILL COLLECTING 5%, 5.5%, OR 6% INTREST AND THE SECOND HALF OF THE LOAN ($200,000) WILL BE THE NEW 30 YEAR FIXED LOAN. THE GOV. WIILL REQUIRE THE MORTGAGEE NOT TO SELL THE PROPERTY FOR THE LENGTH OF THE TREASURY NOTE THEY AGREED ON. IF THE HOME IS SOLD EARLY THAN A PENELTY WOULD BE PAID. THIS WOULD TAKE ALL THE HOMES IN TROUBLE OFF THE MARKET AND CREATE A STABLE SITUATION FROM THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.
Pat & Swilliam: I agree this becoming a social issue. Why would a government cause such division? Many times over the years…
Maybe because that’s the easiest way to push through oppressive laws and grab power.
We should take a Ghandi approach. And refuse to allow fear and anxiety to be used to manipulate us.
As much as possible unplug from their system. Don’t expect to catch the slop from the handout bowl as they yank the markets up and down.
And watch them very closely now; Frankly, I don’t trust them with ~18 trillion in pension plans.
What a sorry excuse for a government supposedly for “the people”. NO BAILOUT!!!! Everyone call their congressman/senators in Washington–I already have—call them as many times as possible. Bailout=worse economy+lower value of the few dollars you have or earn+higher prices of food & gas+lower value of your home due to lower value of dollar. I would rather go thru a big Depression than bail out rich people from both foreign as well as domestic companies under the control of one person, Treasurer–sounds like a dictatorship. If this passes, all Americans are crazy not to vote against incumbents and even possibly for outside “3rd” parties to send a HUGE LOUD message. Even writing in someone like Ron Paul (who is against this) or someone else for President rather than people who will allow this bailout. Reading thru this blog, over 80 percent are against this bailout—why isn’t the media presenting this data??? NO BAILOUT
D.
Little Rock AR
Unfortunately, neither Barak Obama, nor John McCain have the makings of a true leader. If either one did, they come to the American people, and say, “I will work with my party to block this bail out, if it is what you the people want”. We will then abolish the Federal Reserve (who got us into this mess in the first place, just like they did during the Great Depression). We will follow our constitutional mandate to have the Congress print our money. That way, there is no bank to pay back. What people don’t understand, and what the media is failing to tell you, is that the 700bl bailout, will be “printed” by the Fed (Private Banks), once Congress “approves” (in other words, promises to pay them back with our tax money and inflation). This “bailout” is a 700bl debt between we the people and the BANKERS. Aren’t they the ones who got us into this mess in the first place? Why are we lending them money, and WE have to pay THEM back?!?!?!? If the constitution were followed, congress would print the needed money itself, and there would be no interest laden bank to pay back. But neither man is of the caliber of a Lincoln, a Kennedy, or a Jefferson, therefore they won’t touch the special interests.
I’m a business owner and I’m loosing money because of the mess these big players created around and now they request another $700billion dollars and says if not this will trigger serious job losses. AN unbelievable excuse to get taxpayers money. This is a free market, If I may make a bad bet I should pay for it not the Tax Payers. Nobody talks what will happen when $700 billion dollars be spent: Let me say, the inflation will double, US debits will increase over 11 trillion dollar and US Government will be more in difficult to find money around because it will infect and reduce down the US credit ratings, the interest rates will increase and this will add an extra burden on the Tax Payers, next the government will try to increase the taxes to save itself. Next the goods will be burned in order to save the lousy risk takers. Every business should take its own risks and if fails should leave around even these businesses might be Financial Institutions.
To Jeff in Charlotte: Read the history — the Great Depression was caused and prolonged by intervention particularly starting with Hoover. FDR extended Hoover policies.
What is down has become up; This is 1984
Put Lou Dobbs in charge of the $700 billion. He made my week when he said what we’ve all been thinking and called Paulson a “buffoon”.
Lou’s the man!
Wake up America and look at whats really happening. This crisis was orchestrated by your elected officials,the executives of these failed corporations and elitest pigs with loyalties to no one. They want power over you and me. The powers that be finally have an oppurtunity to hold us all in bondage and make us foot the bill for it. Lets send a clear message to Washington this November please put your party aside and fire the incumbant every last one of them if your a democrat and need to vote republican and vise versa do it. Do it for your country we need major reform and WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are the only ones who can do it. If you agree tell everyone you know to vote out the incumbant.
Dear Congress:
Instead of Bailing Out Wall Street, Pay off the (Home Mortgage Debt) of the HONEST HARD WORKING (TAX PAYING) (”VOTING”) Citizens. The BANK gets their money, the people are not left HOMELESS, and YOU GET TO KEEP YOUR JOBS!!!! A WIN WIN FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Robert
This sh-t is ridiculous! These rich white boys get to play around with people’s lives, and the government, or should I say the (Good Ole Grand Ole
Party) bails them out! There is a judgment on this country because of corruption. Thus, no matter what the government does, it will not work. In addition to this mess. Look at all of the natural disasters taking homes and lives. This is the sickest, most racist, most violent, and dishonest country there is. We should never place judgement on anyone. The US is hell bound!
Mr WALL ST. HERE…all you lemmings have no clue about how this bailout really works…we are going to baffle you with bullsh%& about derivatives, arbitrage,swaps, mark to market,hedging, collars,shorting, naked shorting, no uptick and a whole slew of terms and conditions that will only confuse you. You really are not smart enough to understand why we need and will get this bailout since you the general public have and always will be an endless source of capital for US the super-rich and politically connected…YEAH we made another bad bet with your money however please do not fret about it, we are so good at what we do that we will make your kids and grandkids pay for it all!! Mr Paulson is just our puppet that knows the game inside and out, remember he was the top dog at Goldman Sachs for years, so he knows how to make and protect our billions of dollars of profits. We made billions the last 6 years during the bull run after 911…WE EVEN PROFITED FROM THE 911 ATTACKS, THAT WAS PURE GENIUS ON OUR PART Someone has to pay for my new castle in the Carribean, why should I use my own money when I can use yours, AGAIN!!LEMMINGS WILL ALWAYS BE LEMMINGS LOL
WTF? I say cut the loans facing foreclosure in half- I’m sure that most troubled homeowners can afford THAT. As for the mortgage companies? Well, they don’t get squat from the government ’cause they’ll be getting half the loans back and a lesson well learned about greed. They were the experts and not the homeowners so they should have known better. They shouldn’t get one penny of taxpayers’ money and if they go under who the hell cares? I say don’t let the door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha.
PLEASE someone explain to me why Goldman Sachs CEO received $67.9 million (yes, MILLION) BONUS in December 2007-one of the largest exec bonuses EVER!!! I read this today in an article dated 12.21.2007… Why is this not HEADLINES today ALONG with the news that Goldman Sacs got STATUS change to bank holding companies on SUNDAY EVENING???..Strange he was doing such a terrific job a few months ago and then now has to be bailed out by the Feds! Should he NOT have to give the bonus back? This whole mess makes me sick!
To begin my comment this quote: “The principle to spend money to be paid by posterity, in the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale”. By Thomas Jefferson, Yes, these same words are crying out today from the very grave as this circus unfolds in reality created by the very Federal Government because for decades it has imposed so many Socialistic/Communistic programs upon the American people, without ever submitting a single one for a vote to the taxpayers! Since when is Socialism/Communism as a system Capitalism? In reality this in istself was a true swindle to begin with and now using more swindling and even worse to in reality bailout the criminals who are continuing swidling futurity. Yes, would Thomas Jefferson not support what I just finished writing, were he to rise? You decide whether I am off the rocker?
Believe me I am not a fan of the current administration, but lets face it, the people that signed up for mortgage loans they could not afford hold the ultimate responsibility. What ever happened to living within your means and saving for things you feel are important. Eventually the bill for the party must be paid. Step up, accept responsibility for your actions and stop looking for society to bail you out!
This is a horrible idea. Our economy has been based on debt for almost the past decade. now that we are realizing that there is no way possible for the American public to pay it back, the CEO’s are calling in their favors. Housing is overpriced relative to incomes. Either housing prices must fall or incomes must rise.
People cannot pay these inflated housing prices, that is why foreclosures are rising. With the house in foreclosure, there is no income stream for Wall Street to feed their derivatives and mortgage backed paper.
We are being lied to. “illiquid assets” my posterior. The market would offer 10 or 20 cents on the dollar. The government will pay upwards of that, and stick taxpayers with the difference. This is solely to bail out the rich and foreign investors who carry this paper on their books.
With this amount of money being given, our taxes WILL have to go up to pay for this. It is either that, or just print the money which will send inflation through the roof. Bread will be $7.00 a loaf, and gas $10 per gallon. Incidentally, Paulson’s plan is a literal blank check. $700 billion is only the amount that can be in the fund at any one instance. They can buy another $700 billion worth in subsequent instances.
The truth is that a correction is already coming. If nothing is done, our pensions and 401k’s will crash, savings will be lost, and many people will be in financial difficulties. If this plan is approved, the economy will crash anyway, but the rich investors’ capital will be preserved at the expense of the taxpayers. Not to mention that even more of our liberties will be taken away, just like the Patriot Act that was also slammed through.
The pain is already coming, this is just a way to postpone the pain to allow the rich lobbyists to preserve their cash. It’s just a pump and dump scheme…..
I cannot believe what I am reading. The Mortgage Bankers Association said it would oppose a provision to empower bankruptcy judges to ease terms of mortgages owed by bankrupt homeowners! I looked at their web site:
“The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)…invests in communities across the nation by ensuring the continued strength of the nation’s residential and commercial real estate markets; expanding homeownership and extending access to affordable housing to all Americans and supporting financial literacy efforts. Make no mistake about it; we are an organization dedicated to helping our members do their business…We promote fair and ethical lending practices…”
Were they not FIRST in line in this whole entire mess? They should have NO SAY in what it takes to clean up this mess.
The Government will never get any value out of these securities; there’s a rason the pros aren’t touchin these and there is no market value. These are derivatibves that have lost all of their value. Even with foreclosures, there will be no value. These securities are NOT mortgagaes or Liens, they are derivatiives much like options. The value fell and there is no recovery; only the actual mortgage holders will get some value back.
I make more annually than what the “poverty line” is considered to be, so according to the government, I should have nothing to complain about.
I live sparingly, I am paying down my school debt slowly but surely, and I pay my taxes faithfully and honestly. Sounds great, right?
I don’t have a cell phone or cable TV. No car, either, and for sure no house. I rent month-to-month. I also live without consistent medical insurance, and have not been able to invest in any kind of retirement plan nor to accumulate savings of any kind since graduating from school. These are the choices I have to make in order to live within my means.
Now, despite being a good person who works hard and tries to make all the right choices in order to live responsibly on my income, my government is going to load thousands of dollars bad assets and debt onto me without my consent.
No, thank you.
Hey america wake up rember the below. Now we are supposed to bail these people out >
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In a year when Wall Street bonuses were expected to suffer, payouts to finance pros in 2007 remained pretty impressive.
Wall Street bonuses declined just 4.7 percent last year to an average of $180,420 per worker, according to the latest figures published this week by the New York State Comptroller’s office. Financial firms were expected to cut bonuses up to 10 percent from a year ago, according to previous industry projections.
Just a year ago, individuals working in finance in New York City enjoyed record payouts of $33.9 billion. This year, the total bonus pool shrank to $33.2 billion.
The numbers, while still lucrative, come as a bit of a surprise since this year was expected to be particularly difficult for Wall Street workers, given the recent market turmoil, ongoing woes in the credit crisis and an uptick in hiring during the year.
“The securities industry rewarded employees who performed well in 2007 even though the credit crunch battered profits,” New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement.
Are you tired of how the Republicans and Democrats are running our country? Will these so called representatives start working for us when we the middle class start giving them millions of dollars for their campaigns? It’s time we start cleaning house in both parties. We bailed them out twenty years ago and unless “we the people” change out government, we will be bailing them out a third time in twenty more years.
I see that the bailout also helps foreign groups with signficant financial US dealings (say, holding the surplus of our deficit). Can’t have them lose money or they might just call in the debt. Why are we bailing them out?
Most of this is just a lousy shell game of either passing on or delaying dealing with this boo boo. We are just prolonging the agony of paying up. The $700 B should go to real productivity – create jobs (as per 1930’s Depression Era) with the highest priorty jobs being the truly productive ones, say, growing food rather than ornamental plants.
For those who think that this is not a bailout but a loan which might mature….tell them to bailout Wall St. Float a bond and ask them AND ONLY THEM to put their money where their mouths are. If they lack the immediate cash to reach teh $700 B goal – tell them promisary notes over 10 years would be just fine. I have enough trouble paying my mortgage and education expenses without Paulson asking me to take on this bailout risk. I don’t play stocks and did not mess with a 401 K.
Finally, this governmental flip flop on policy is rightfully ruining their credibility. So with the latter at an all time low – what is Paulson’s proof that not bailing would result in more disaster than bailing. And disaster for whom? I don’tmind taking a relatively small hit if it means that the predators on Wall Street take a bigger one – perhpas to the point of extinctiion.
Some questions and observations.
1) Who elected Paulson as President of the United States?
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Come on now- Even Bush hasn’t had the balls to grab this much power. –Yet–
2) Oil prices up $16/barrel today. I can see the next bailout – for E$$ON, Mobil et al. – hidden in plain sight in the increase in gas prices that is certain to come. Oh and of course they will want subsidies for all the new drilling.
3) Wall Street down 372 points today. Enough said. This transfer of $700 billion of our wealth to the financial sector will not work. Oh wait. It is a transfer of our children’s wealth so if we don’t tell the next generation about the consequences of all of this maybe the Bush Administration can get away with it. Still will not work.
4) Can’t wait until the October surprise! September has been far too much fun. Let me guess- We capture or kill Osama. Just in time for the elections. King George is a hero, and McCain rides his filthy coat tails into the White House. Come on Americans. Are we really that stupid to be played by these guys yet again?
Watch the movie classic “The Sting”. Fill in the different actors with various members of the current administration. Oh yes. Remember you are a movie star too. You get to play the most important role. You get to play the guy who gets stung. And remember, at the end of all of this they are all going top walk away much richer and laughing all the way to the bank.
EVERYTHING IS PEFORMED IN A CRISIS MANAGEMENT FASHIONS; THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION INCEPTION BY HIS LOYALIST INTO OFFICE, AND HOW BUSH PERFORM THE JOB AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE IS CRISIS MANAGEMENT. IRAC WAR, KATRINA, BAILOUTS, ETC. ETC. STOP THE NONSENSE.
Lessons from the mother-of-all-bailouts:
1. We’re told it’s necessary because “the credit markets are frozen”: how can we know that? The credit markets are totally opaque! No bailout without transparency about all the dimensions of credit markets.
2. Moral hazard: no institution must profit from any bailout! Any institution that takes part must make commitments, presumably in the future since it’s in a parlous state at the present, to redeem its standing.
3. Oversight: The Secretary of the Treasury is being given unprecedented authority to spend unprecendented sums of the taxpayers’ money. He should lay a letter of resignation on Speaker Pelosi’s desk, to be effective the day that a legislative committee finds that he misused this huge trust.
I find it somewhat amusing reading about this trillion dollar bailout. Canadians have always been described by the right wing press of America as leftist or liberals. Whose acting like socialists now? Let me tell you NO Canadian dollars are bailing out any corporations in our country because of the insane greed of wall street. PS in Canada all investment banks have always been connected to a real bank, so if any of our investment banks/banks ( put money into these faulty derivative/mortgages they had to bail themselves out – not the taxpayer.
Let’s sum up the facts:
1. Brokers sold mortgages to people who have a history of not paying their bills; many times making $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 by charging fees and/or inflated interest rates encourage by the investors.
2. The mortgage amounts were as much as 125% of the value of the house.
3. The mortgage payment after 1 year as much as doubled, putting the mortgage holder in a very difficult position to make payments.
4. The mortgage holder has to give up his property to foreclosure because he can’t make payments.
5. Now the investors want relief from these bad and greedy decisions they made using the tax dollar that the mortgage holder still pays from his job eventhough he lost his house and whatever equity he had in it.
6. And the government is encouraging this bailout on behalf of the poor guy who lost his house.
Sounds okay to me!
What a MESS! These gurus were paid millions to mess up the economy and now the Fed wants to bail them out for their gamble. What a joke. This mess is affecting far flung corners of the globe with world wide loss. Fix the system so people can’t sell what they haven’t got. (This is pure theft from mums and dads and pensioners accounts)Limit lending for share market speculation. Make share buyers hold those shares for a specific time before reselling – say 7 days. What? They won’t like that? tough luck!!!! We are always being told that shares are a long term thing. So why are the “EXPERTS” constantly buying and selling if the Mums and Dads are told to hang in there? Hang those gurus that have caused these problems, or at least throw them into jail. Sorry. This mess has to be fixed properly, once and for all.
There should not be any bail-out funded by tax payers. This is capitalism not a socialized system for the rich and greedy. No bail out, asset seizure on all company CEO’s and indictments all the way to the Securities Exchange. What has gone on here is criminal.
We have to convince congressional leaders to stand strong and oppose any blank check for the Bush administration’s bail out of Wall Street.
Progressive Future has a great online action that allows you to send an email directly to Pelosi telling her that, if we are going to hand over $700 billion, we need to demand:
* Better oversight and regulation of financial markets.
* Help for the people who are struggling to stay in their homes.
* No “golden parachutes” for the CEOs of failed corporations that benefit from the bailout.
You can find the email action here – it’s quick and simple.
Please sign it today. Don’t let them push this massive, historic bailout through without the consideration it deserves and the changes that must be made to safeguard the interests of the American people.
I don’t think I’ll be getting over this one anytime soon. For that matter, with it projected to add another $1 trillion to the deficit, neither will anyone else.
http://www.bailoutville.com/forums/f6/trillion-dollar-deficit-7.html
No bailout! Vote those out that vote yes. I’m mad…mad as hell!!!!!!
If this goes through, better not, then common sense is we own the companies that we help and CEO/VP wages are capped at no more than a senior Congressman’s wages
When it comes time for these mortgage backed assets to be valued I do not want anyone influenced by lobbyists or partisan politics to be involved. If the government can assemble a group of unbiased experts in asset valuation then I can support this bailout.
WMD of Finance
(From BailoutGate.com)
If you listened to Hank Paulson on the Sunday political sitcoms, you undoubtedly heard him not explaining why “we” need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed junk securities.
He may as well have said “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud”, because it’s the same fear-based scam they ran on Congress to buy a war back in 2003.
Granted, there’s a serious mess in the financial markets, but what moron would give billions to the criminals that caused the mess in the first place. And what – or who – are they trying to save anyway?
While you heard Paulson talking about “mainstream companies”, American workers pensions, and even farmers, what he was decidedly quiet about was sovereign wealth funds and foreign banks in China, Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
To get an idea of just who’s getting bailed out one need only take a glance at the list of foreign billionaire stockholders at Bear Stearns, which received a $29 billion guarantee from the Treasury Department.
Or consider the fact that a majority of the stock in AIG, ($85B bailout) is held by foreign investors. Worse yet, look at the $200B nationalization bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their top bond holder is none other than the Chinese government.
These are not minor omissions.
Even more troublesome, is the fact that on July 15, 3008 Mr Paulson testified as follows:
“Let me stress that there are no immediate plans to access either the proposed liquidity or the proposed capital backstop.”
Yet here we are, less than six weeks later and he has already issued more than $300B in guarantees and nationalized the two largest mortgage companies in the nation.
In light of the massive discrepancy between his words and his actions, it certainly seems appropriate for taxpayers to ask about Mr. Paulson grasp of the situation.
Whether he was being dishonest or simply was unaware of the scale of the problem, it raises grave concerns about his ability to unilaterally handle the situation.
And one only becomes more suspicious when just two years ago Mr. Paulson himself received $18.7M in bonuses from the same Wall Street he is now bailing out.
The sentiment is also represented in his currently proposed legislation, which intentionally puts the stability of financial markets above the protection of citizens, stating “the Secretary shall take into consideration means for–
(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and
(2) protecting the taxpayer.”
So if the stability of financial institutions comes before the protection of citizens, and the stability of financial institutions requires the protection of sovereign wealth funds and foreign banks, it seems clear that citizens of the United States of America have lost control of their government.
If any control of government is going to be regained, Congress must immediately reject this course of action and attack the underlying problem by assisting citizens in securing stable home loans.
Absorbing reckless financial institutions and funding their foreclosure activities will only create more devastated neighborhoods that cause greater declines in housing values, which in turn will create more trapped citizens that see foreclosure as their only alternative.
Everytime this money changed hands and was re-brokered someone, somewhere made their commissions and were rewarded with excessive bonuses.
No one seems to be taking responsibility. I demand accountability be included in the bail-out legislation with the teeth to go after those responsible.
These company CEOs put us in this situation maybe they should be JAILED and assets confiscated before the people bail out the companies.And no bail out of foreign banks!!!
I think we can all agree that if banks are not going to be held accountable for funding bad loans that the general borrower should not either, but this bail out plan does nothing good for any of us tax payers. The government could profit, but no guarantees, and even if they do profit they probably won’t pass along the extra money to the tax payers who are going to, against their own will, have to fund this negligent proposition.
Here’s what needs to be done in order to turn not only the short run economy around, but the selfish, unregulated, greedy mentality that seems to reside so heavily in all of the leaders in our country:
VOTE OBAMA INTO OFFICE IN NOVEMBER, McCain will not give us what we need at this point and Palin, please, don’t even get me started……
1. We have had the technology to be energy independent via alternative fuels for much too long and it needs to be offered to the mass markets now! It’s time.
2. Use our emergency supply of crude oil to help us transition to clean burning fuels, this will enable us to be oil independent and then we will be the world masters of implementing this new global friendly technology and can help (i.e. sell) it to the rest of the world.
3. We need to let the banks pay for what they’ve done. They are supposed to be held to the highest of standards in lending practices. Much higher then the general public borrowers should be.
4. We need to get out of this messy war that seems to have no end in sight and no real goal in mind.
5. We should sue the Bush’s
When will the conservatives learn. Mega mergers, Mega ceos, Mega wars, Mega failures!!! The people are getting dumber, sicker and poorer. We are loosing the middle class, unions have lost their power, employers are gaining power. $700 billion could pay for our children’s education, our children could get preventive dental care and health care as well as our parents and ourselves. But I will be willing to sacrifice all I have to get rid of these mega corporations with net profits equal to many countries and power second only to none. Let the bastards fall!!!
Why is our tax dollars bailing out companies that were greedy and unethical when they thought they were ahead. If you and I were to bail on all of our bills and responsibility we would have seized assets, a bad reputation, bad credit and it can even affect your job.
I think if we have $700 billion to give it away, give it to the people or write some sort of clause the banks must apply such amount to mortgages and credit cards of average Americans. I am sure most in debt and in foreclosure are hard working honest Americans who truly cannot afford their payments. We were allowed to live a dream life based on credit and here is the end result. This fairy tale will not end with prince charming rescuing the love of his life
Why is it we should bail out these overpaid know it all’s from their GREED. No One offered to help me with my home loan when I was laid off after 9/11. How do you justify selling equities that are so complicated that you can not even value them. Shame on our government for allowing this to happen.
Yes, without doing anything, we are looking at may be a total collapse. But that anything doesn’t HAVE to be the TRILLION dollar taxpayer funded bailout for these bad bets by the wall st. This solution is bad/wrong/immoral at so many levels and well stated by most critics by now. There ARE alternatives and I don’t know why people are not willing to consider them… As always Bush administration puts us into a crisis mode and then presents its “the one” solution and puts a gun of patriotism and says “are you with me or against me?”. Same happening here. Alternate solution: One of them is well articulated by Mike Swanson at: http://www.wallstreetwindow.com/content/node/7969
Basically its a problem of confidence and confidence is lost due to lack of transparency on the books of these financials. With jumbo-mumbo like “Level 3 assets”, CDS, off-balance-sheet, these financial entities, just like Enron did, created opaque books. No one knows whats in these books and hence the rumors and lack of confidence and assumption of the worst case. We need a declared “bank holiday” like Roosevelt did, for a week. Shutdown the banks for a week, have a transparent audit of everyone’s books and don’t let the insolvent ones open again. After the holiday, people should have increased confidence in the ones that do open and that should get the credit flowing again… it also punishes the ones who are the most to blame… the ones who leveraged too much on bad stuff while siphoning millions in fees and stock options. For once, let us at least consider the alternate solutions and find the one that makes more sense!
Sure what the heck more debt means less social security. They tried to get their hands on it before now they will just take it from us. I guess it wont be question now how we keep it solvent. Think about it all you people who will be thinking about retiring in about 10 years. Don’t count on that check every month.
USA – the world icon of prosperity and capitalism was ruined by
1. lack of finanacial decipline
2. over-leveraging due to greed
3. lack of accountability
What a joke that a superior capitalist empire the world used to admire tolerates privatizing filthy profits and socializing losses.
Some poorly run companies fall and many other better operated enterprises will rise.
The country is already deep in debt and experiencing major budget deficit. We cannot afford to borrow more money.
The country will prosper as long as we have the guts to say “NO” and keep ourselves leaner and meaner.
SIMPLE SOLUTION-In November, DO NOT vote for a DEM or REP. It is the only way to begin eliminating the problems at the source. Repeat this over and over as you “try” to sleep tonight.
Vote out every member of the Congress & Senate, BOTH SIDES! And put the crooks in jail. That includes Chris Dodd & Barney Frank, Especially! This garbage has got to stop!
I have a suggestion – it won’t go far, but it’s worth a shot – as a taxpayer, I would agree to take on this debt (looks like it’s happening anyway) But I would DEMAND that every C-level manager at those organizations tender a resignation and never be allowed to hold such a title again. These people are the leaders of the ships they are running aground and it’s time to ostracize them from ever doing this again.
I realize that there is more to do to prevent this from happening again (perhaps constitutional amendments this time?) but it would help to hold the irresponsible accountable for their actions.
I have been watching your videos all day. The only people fond of this bail out, that you interviewed on video, are the Kuwaitis. I wonder why, Oil only shot up $16.37 today. So much that you took the tracking of it off of your main page. What are you avoiding?
I wonder if the goverment would give me some money too? If they are in the mood to bail out a bunch of corrupt people… Maybe I need to turn into a bad investor, stop paying my debt and and get forclosed on…Maybe then our goverment will help me??? This country needs to hit rock bottom before it could begin the recovery phase. I just hope when the dust settles, it will not be run by all overseas companies. By the way can we go save another country, it’s been a while…
I thank it is wonderful that our Gov will bail us out of this mess. Why,well uncle Bush and all the rest knew what was going on. Home owners were lead to believe that all was well. And it was all a sit-up.
You cannot just pull out of a country you are trying to stabilize. We as a people panicked fallowing 9/11 and let the Bush administration do whatever they felt was needed to keep Americans “Safe.” The problem is deeper than just the war, although it doesn’t help. As for the bailouts I don’t think that any responsible legislator should socialize something so unstable. Pumping tax payer money in to a broken system will not work it didn’t work in the thirties and its not gonna work now. As a nation we are going to have to buckle down and hold tight because we are heading for hard times but in comparison to the economic booms that have been a part of our recent past I think that the end result will be a stronger more unified America. “Yes We Can” is the mantra of change that is needed in this nation and making American goods more competitive on the global marked is the only way to pull ourselves up from our own bootstraps as Americans always have.
The bail out for these monstrous financial institutions is a bunch of BS. We are talking about working people taxed money, it will not help the people but to help someone’s already deep pockets, who got us in economic crisis in the first place. The government, the congress, the senate, the democrats, the republicans, etc. are all playing w/the people’s taxed money. There’s nothing protecting the working people, and the working people taxed money. NOTHING! I have lost confidence in our government. The watch dogs are in it for their own deep pockets, also.
It doesn’t seem like too many people are bothering to learn what this $700 billion would go towards before lashing out at the government. It’s a purchase of assets that everyone else is afraid to buy right now… like questionable mortgages. Because nobody else will buy them right now, the banks may choose to sell them to the government at a huge loss. CEOs of these companies won’t be pocketing this money like everyone seems to envision and their paychecks this year will be a fraction of what they might have been if they still have jobs.
The government meanwhile, might just pick up a portfolio of undervalued assets that it can later sell back to the private market in a settled market at a huge gain. I don’t trust the politicians of either party to do the right thing with that money, but it sure beats the alternative.
The alternative? Well, we decide that after bailing out people who’ve made bad decisions for too many years (about 20) when it would have been painful, but tolerable, we’ve finally had enough. We let this banks go out of business, they lay off millions of people like tellers, almost nobody can get a mortgage, home values drop by something staggering like 50%, consumers across the country go bankrupt, retail collapses, and on it goes into depression.
Maybe that’s what we need to wake up to the importance of letting the free market dole out losses as well as profits, but if there’s any other way, I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.
Outsourcing American jobs while firing Americans, then expecting these same Americans to bail corporations out.
Illegal Immigrants provided special loans, grants, and eductaion packages not available to Americans. Period.
100 names can be put on a H1 foreign work visa. Current limits are 65,000 Visas annually. (6.5 Million people?) Visa renewals do not count towards the annual limits. The average number of Visa issued from 2001-2005 was 150,000.
Once “TEMPORARY” Immigrants arrive, no one tracks, or sends them back unless they commit a felony.
Record American unemployment
Record housing foreclosures
Bush lied starting a war that we are still paying-(8.4 Billion per month), and dying for.
We attacked Iraq even though most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
Repeated Corporate bailouts at taxpayers expense with no expectation of return or improvement. (See Keating Five)
CEO’s of failed financial organizations walk away with millions. Then ask taxpayers to cover their bad debts.
Labor Unions destroyed so no one protects the common worker from the Power-Elite
McCain, a member of the “KEATING FIVE” wants to be president.
Current “TOTAL” Federal deficit, not yearly, but TOTAL – $53 trillion – the equivalent of $175,000 per person living in the United States.
Americans complacent while this happens.
Goverment spying on citizens under the patriot act while reducing our freedoms.
Record Gas prices under a president whose family made their money in the Oil business.
Osama Bin Ladin stil has not been found even though the Bush family are personal friends of the Bin Ladin Oil family.
Top-secret military projects have been outsourced with the hope that they will stay secret.
American auto dealers will laugh at you if you try to trade a Cadillac with over 150K miles because of the practice of building American cars with “Planned obselecence” in mind. Cadillac is America’s flagship car. Mercedes-Benz has cars with over 1 Million miles.
Faulty Diebolt computerized voting machines with no audit trail – (Friends of the Bush family)
FEMA in New Orleans (Run by a man who’s qualifications for the job were that he trained horses)
If a soccer mom can be Vice-President in January, then I can be a nuclear weapons technician in November. “Same thing, because McCain is sick with cancer, and not expected to live very long.
Fed is planning on placing traffic cameras nationwide tied to computers to track us whereever/whenever we go .
Fed already monitors our e-mail and phone calls without warrants.
Did I forget anything?
HEY!!! My debt is interconnected with my children/Child Support, AND I have paid taxes all my life. Can “I” get a Federal bailout?!?!?!?!!?????
I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!
the taxpayers $’s should be buying equity or stock in the banks or private companies it is investing in….
I’m tired of watching this government run this country into the ground. Get us out of Iraq and get going on clean energy. End the dependence on oil. Make it worth multi-nationals efforts to profit while benefiting others instead of just themselves.
Bob from Bend Oregon exemplifies this problem with so many of the respondents I have been reading. CLUELESSNESS! If Bob had been paying attention he would have seen that the expanded the language to “trouble assets” meaning that commercial mortgages are inclusive in this plan. Secondly. THE COST IS NOT $700 BILLION; that is only the line of credit to be used to buy performing assets at already distressed prices. Most of the Risk will be priced in!
Your IGNORANCE IS NOT ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT– NEWS HEADLINES MISREPRESENT THE FACTS!
I think a 700 billion dollar tax rebate would do wonders for the economy. Let us decide what to do with the money rather than bail out corrupt companies whose greed got us all into this in the first place.
Albeit a horrible situation our markets are in and yet a horrific time during The Great Depression, The US learned some great lessons from The Depression and we rid our country of many insolvent and shady financial institutions in the process.
Therefore, we should bite the bullet here folks. It will be hard to go through another Depression, but I dare say we need one to learn our lesson. The consequence of bailing out these irresponsible companies will be more costly than letting the market correct itself and start fresh. Otherwise we are looking at a never ending bailout of companies who put our nation at risk.
We’re being presented with a Hobson’s choice–either this particular bailout plan, which does NOTHING to restore desperately needed oversight and regulation (which were essentially removed in 1999 with the repeal of Glass-Steagall, thank you Phil Gramm!) and also rewards bad behavior by insanely wealthy people at the top of the heap–or do nothing and let the global system collapse. I want a third choice–a bailout that restores regulation, restores meaningful oversight, outlaws predatory and unethical behavior by high-level financiers, and imposes a real cost on them for their greed (see Bernie Sanders’ ten-percent tax surcharge proposal). Let’s talk about doing that instead of enacting this pig with lipstick, shall we?
By the way. If you think this is a lot of fun, wait until they start the bailout for the Commercial Mortgage Crisis that no one is talking about.
If you think the residential mortgage crisis is bad, just wait for the next shoe to drop.
So far the government bailout has increased the price of oil by more than 10% in one day…nice job. Throwing money isn’t always the answer, and while it is part of the solution, the bleeding needs to hault immediately. A 90 day freeze should be encacted through an emergency executive order, freeze oil, freeze foreclosures, freeze rates. Does anyone remember what Richard Nixon did in the early 70s? Bring this thing to a hault and give the government the opportunity to get their arms around the entire problem. Anything short, will unfortunately bring results which are only going to drive us further in the whole. We can’t afford a mistake. Last time I checked, “shoot from the hip” solutions rarely work in the long run.
Bush said:
He would capture Osama- it didn’t happen
The War in Afghanistan would be short – it didn’t happen
Iraq had WMD’s – none were found
The stimulus checks would jump start the economy – it didn’t happen
Anyone else see a pattern?
Each time we get into a Bush solution, someone gets very, very rich, and it is never the middle class.
I am now done with the Republicans, I changed my party to Democrat today – they seem to be the only party that cares about people who are not millionaires.
Conservatives are quick to reject big government and support deregulation, but now this republican (conservative) administration wants the taxpayers to bailout these unregulated failing big businesses and even worst, with 700 billion of UNREGULATED dollars. What happened to “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and don’t expect “big” government to help you out”? OK for the little man but not for BIG BUSINESS? Who’s paying off the debts/mortgage for the tax payer? If we the taxpayer pay off the debt of a big business, we the taxpayer should be part-owner of that business and oversee how they manage the business. NOT A 700 BILLION DOLLARS OF UNREGULATED CORPORATE WELFARE WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!!
Wait, the counter proposal is that the government gets a share in the companies they’re bailing out? How about WE the taxpayers get a share in those companies! We’re the ones footing the bill. Hey you greedy suckers, you want my money, you can BORROW it, not have it. If after the government takeover those assets can be made profitable again, I will be expecting your check!
Oh yeah this is great news – I hope they pump it up to about 1.5 trillion before passing it. Because this will tremendously deflate the dollar causing the rest of the world to stop buying dollars and treasury bonds. The dollar will crash and become worthless and the federal government will no longer be able to operate.
This will lead to the collapse of the federal government and finally we will have an opportunity to get our country back.
Suddenly it’s “urgent” that the government do this today – without any investigation and look at the crooks and what they have fabricated on their books. It’s just like invading Iraq
Have to do it now! No time to think or for anyone to actually make an intelligent decision. It amazes me that this decision won’t wait – Another plan before Bush leaves office in six weeks to screw the little guy and give his rich friends more benefits while he still can. This is more crooked rush to do something before anyone can think it out. Just like rushing to war then invading IRAQ without all the facts and in a hurry so they can all cash in. The world isnt going to end if this isnt done in a week or six weeks. This needs to be investigated. This isnt going to give anyone more loans – the average person is maxed out on credit. If Americans can’t pay the loans they have why and how could they continue getting credit. This is the avalanche of years where people finally just cant pay their bills any longer because if its a choice we eat, keep a roof over our heads – pay electric – if we can’t pay electric we do without and make do until we can pay electric. That’s what it has come to in the real world where most of us live working minimum wage or just above minimum wage. There is no money left to pay late payment charges, higher interest and keep paying yet the balance keeps going up not down to the point where we realize we will never get this or any of these bills paid off so why try?
When the late charges are more than our payment and the interest is added on and there is no regulation on these acts, consumers cannot pay and cannot see any end in sight if they do pay.
That isnt going to change by the government taking on the debt. It’s just going to make the profits higher and not only the profits – but they raise the operating budgets so there are no profits – because they have such high salaries for CEOs and Executives plus un heard of expense accounts. No wonder there is no profit. These companies should be carefully examined to see where the money went – expose the fraud and make the people pay back the money – not get a final Bush free Ride on the government for more corporate executives. They are all taking their money and running. This is more fraud and ultimate corruption and it is criminal. Once it is unraveled and exposed – they money will be gone along with the CEO’s living well in Costa Rica.
To Pat in CA: You raise an extremely important point. This is not just a financial crisis; it is rapidly becoming a social one. I remember the rage in the 1960s about racial inequality (the advocates of violent change – vs. of no change at all). This could be the next war: economic inequality. I think, Pat, we all have reason to be scared. The 1930s were closer than most realize to seeing our country dissolve – literally – under the strain of hardships people were suffering. This crisis is very far from over. And banking is only the most visible aspect of it…
If they pass this bill I might as well stop paying taxes because we aren’t going to pull out of this mess if they do. Every step by the Fed and the treasury so far has made it worse. This will sink the dollar, drive oil to $200 a barrel over night and basically bring the US economy to its knees.
We’re reacting to a volitale situation without knowing the underlining cause and effect of decisions made by the President, Congress and the Fed. Yes, we must consider our advantages and disadvantages to a critical situation; however, what controls if any are being considered to hold top executives accountable for the horridous mis-management of America’s fabric–it’s people? When will leaders stop being rewarded for screwing up our economy and the lives of the American people? I’ll pray to God for an answer, because our leaders will just look the other way in our time of need. Only God’s grace and mercy will see us through this difficult period.
We need to look at the past history of this administration, and it’s skill at manipulating timing. We are expected to believe that if we pause long enough to add safeguards for the taxpayers, congressional oversight, and transparency, our whole world will come tumbling down. Wouldn’t that mean the people we are supposed to trust to fix things are the same people who failed to notice an approaching debacle? If this is passed as the Bush administration wants, it will effectively prevent the next administration from enacting any new programs for health care, education, etc. Please ask your representatives to take their time, add safeguards, and the kind of “exit strategy” a financial war might require to be successful for the American people rather than a dying administration’s goals. We can’t afford another version of those elusive WMD’s driving bad policy. Our great-grandchildren can’t either.
I am so sick of hearing about what “WE” must do to save America. Maybe this is what America needs. A good swift kick in the financial pants and a grand reshuffling of the wealth, as it were, dependent more on a person’s skills and work ethic than who they are related to. I am so tired of these silver spoon babies whining about how they won’t be able to afford that 6th Mercedes Benz. The people screaming the loudest are the ones with the most to lose. No matter what they do, the economy will still going down the toilet. Let’s just send them all to jail and adopt a pay as you go economy. No credit for anyone.
NO NO NO! This makes me mad as hell. I am calling my senators on this and Pelosi’s crazy “you can only drill here and here” sham of an energy action bill. I have never taken action before, but I am to the point that I want my country back! We no longer have a country; we have a huge corporation being run by very greedy executives who only think of how to continue lining their pockets with gold. What is it going to take to get Americans mad enough about what is hapenning? Doesn’t anyone else see the quid pro quo? Doesn’t anyone else see that foreign entities are quietly buying our country in exchange for “good credit risks”? That the Fed is eagerly selling to them in order to keep our borrowing interest rate low and scored well by Moodys? Isn’t anyone furious that we the taxpayers are bailing out businesses while they go on paying their execs HUGE bonuses and golden parachutes? If we say ok to this, then we’ll just be asked to do this over and over and over again……Where does it end? Tax and spend has got to stop. I am responsible, you are responsible; when will the government and these companies and stock brokers and lenders be held responsible? We need some mandatory regulation legislation NOW. Is anybody listening?
The sad thing is, we, the American people still have no idea what is really going on. What the news gives us insultingly summarizes a government decision that could make or break our economy. From all of this, I gather that without cash, the economy will grind to a halt – your employer will not be able to pay your salary, your credit cards will be declined, and your investments/retirement account will lose substantial (all?) value, and on and on. So, in order to keep things moving, the government and the media make this seem essential – in the meantime, we sit here like idiots pointing fingers. Blame Bush! Of course, it was Congress under Clinton that repealed the Glass-Stegall Act, which argubly triggered these new, exotic types of investments. McCain and Obama? What do they have to do with this? Vote however you like, but know that neither one has a clue, and don’t be fooled into thinking our next President will solve this mess. Blame the CEOs. Yes, but here is where I draw the line. Americans need to turn the finger at themselves for being financially irresponsible. American consumers wanted it all, the huge house, the boat, the motorcycle, the clothes, the jewelry, expensive dinners and on and on. Then, when the bills came due, they walked away and were essentially bulletproof. Too bad our Constitution does not allow imprisonment for contract debts. Blame the consumer, who in many cases could have tried a little harder to pay the bills, who filed for bankruptcy and made it all go away, who mailed the keys to the house back to the bank as soon as the value of the house started to decline.
Yes, we are all to blame, and now, we will all pay, one way or another. I would rather pay with my tax dollars than to lose my job, my savings, and my purchasing power. I was among the responsible and did not get in over my head, but I cannot look down on anyone from a soapbox at this point – NOBODY CAN! We are all vulnerable – never forget that!
Bail out is the right term the people who allowed all these fraudulent lending practices to proliferate should be out on bail after being arrested.
We will eventually complete this bail out but not before our do nothing congress debates it to death and loads it up with even more giveaways.
700 Billion dollars is equal to $2,300 per person based on US population. I have a wife and 3 kids. That is $11,500 dollar that they asked me to pay! I am sure I can do better with that kind of money
I’ve been reading these comments and comments on other blogs, and I’ve been talking to my co-workers and friends, and I have to tell you I am scared. I am really scared. This country is a tinderbox right now. Every time Bush comes to the podium, I get a real sick feeling. Paulson doesn’t make me feel any better. I have a very sinking feeling about this country right now. I hope for our country’s sake that the election isn’t close, that it’s a landslide one way or the other because I’m afraid there will be rioting in the streets if it is close. People will take the election results as an opportunity to pour out all their frustrations. I’m really scared because I know a lot of people who have had it, and these people are white.
I think the bailout is necessary to get the economy back on track. But how did it all happen to begin with? How much money did all the chief executives of these companies walk away with? Just do something, before all of our retirement accounts are gone!!
Pretty scary, rewarding the jerks who got us into this mess and nothing for main street who’s feet are held to the fire for believing our leaders and financial wizards who walk out of this mess with “GOLDEN PARACHUTES”. American’s aren’t going to stand for much more trash. It worries me. A drastic change can happen here as well as anywhere else I suppose. I just hope we all understand what is at stake. Let’s keep a cool head!!! Our founding fathers revolted because of unfair taxes, and abuses of the crown. One of you made a suggestion of taking 700 billion and reducing all mortgages by half. This is indeed would free up capital, create jobs, and allow one parent to stay at home with the kids, put food on the table, allow for health insurance and retirement. It’s better than corporate welfare at our already strapped families expense. How about giving the little guy a break. After all it’s the little guy who has to fight the wars, do without health insurance, forfeit his retirement, and future education of his children, and balance the family budget in the land of the free and home of the brave. Oh yeah, let’s put some of those responsible for this debacle in the slammer for a change, which may include some lobbyists and politicians, instead of turning the other cheek all the time. After all, those of us who have been doing the right thing and playing by the rules deserve justice!!!
Anyone that thinks this is a problem with a particular administration or President, think again, research, and look at who the big investors are (and the candidate they support even now – you might be surprised); and look at where the real problems started – bad investing and people taking bad loans for houses they couldn’t afford. Yes, we need to get these investment firms and any others that are failing to take ultimate responsibility for their own stupidity and short sighted greed.
But, as a country we the people need to stop supporting this trend by avoiding high risk or questionable housing or business loans (granted, not so much of an option now), and avoiding bad investment practices.
Responsibility starts at home – we are paying for irresponsibility that has been growing in our economic system for years if not decades. At the Lehman/AIG levels, we might be at the mercy of large investors that play games with not only our savings, but oil prices as well, but we as a country of individuals need to get to the real root of the problem – the false sense of security in our get-rich-quick economic system and social mentality that has no solid foundation to stand on. No matter how you vote, we will pay for this bailout. The question is, how do we prevent it from repeating, or heaven forbid, getting worse. Vote with your dollars and investing wisdom. Show detached irresponsible investors who is really in charge of supply and demand. Demand integrity and buy nothing less. We won’t solve this with tax breaks, tax penalties on corporate profits, or government bailouts. This is just a band-aid on a much bigger problem.
And I agree with another poster’s suggestion (in concept), there should be a payback penalty/interest rate imposed on bailed out companies – that penalty should be applied to our education system with a new high school graduation requirement – passing economics & ethics 101.
If we took back all of the bonuses and over the top saleries that the executives of all these troubled financial companies got for the last 5 years, we could probably pay for a good chunck of this bailout. And why should my tax dollars go towards helping out the guy that makes half what I do (which isn’t that much!) but bought a house worth 3 times what mine was worth before the market collapsed. Better them than hardworking and responsible taxpayers(meaning I didn’t borrow what I couldn’t afford to pay).
Even today, Wall STreet just doesn’t get it. Barclays admitted today that it had agreed to pay $2.5 billion in BONUSES to 10,000 Lehman employees! DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE? These financial institutions take care of their own! They are GREEDY, GREEDY, GREEDY. NO, NO to the Bail out package. Sure, we may have a severe recession — maybe even a depression — but we are a resilient people. I’ll take my chances with Main STreet. THROW OUT ANY REPRESENTATIVE WHO VOTES FOR THIS BAIL OUT!
Bailout!!! Why??? Why reward or help the irresponsible and greedy companies and irresponsible, greedy and ignorant people??? NO TO BAILOUT.
On another hand, Federal Reserve will now be forced to monetize huge amount of US govt debt. Quantity of $$$ will grow, value of these $$$ will decline. $$$ value of GOLD will rise. Good news for us GOLDBUGS!!! Hooray to GOLD & SILVER!!!
Inflation, here we come.
To add to my earlier comment. We must all remember that Big Business can many times make a lot more money going bankrupt or through a government bailout than by having to face the consequences of their business practices.
Hell they are supposed to be Professionals within the banking and finance industry. If they can not balance their own portfolio they need to be incarcerated for fraud against their investors.
Congress is moving to insure non conforming loans created on the conventional market where the investors of that paper knew they were not insured by Freddie Mac or Fanny Mae.
For the government to do this makes this paper worth double what it is since those investments are going down the tubes. If there is going to be profits then the American public must share in that profit and Congress must take any profit made by these banking institutions if we are now going to insure their folly.
Otherwise it is retroactive use of the law which is unconstitutional!
If Congress does not incorporate repossessing these all assets of these banks then Congress is participating in the cover up of their own incompetence and mismanagement.
What the goverment fails to remember is that any country that does not have gold to back up the amount of currency they have in circulation is useless. Their currency would not be worth anything. In this case they want to put in $700 billion, but we dont have the gold to back it up, which will hurt the dollar even more then it already is. I say NO to the bail-out!
I am sick of the government spending OUR money like there is no limit. Where is the actual 700 billion coming from? I say no to the proposed bailout. It’s like giving a spoiled child more money to spend with the attitude it “will make things better” with no forthought of the possible negative consequences. Big business made the mess, let them figure out the resolution. We are just enabling them to continue in an irresponsible manner with the bail out as it stands.
Bottom line: This is unpatriotic & criminal …undermining the stability of the country!
How about some arrest warrants?
The CEO COOs & CFOs knew what was going on. So now they slap the face of every person they ever gave a pink slip to and laugh at the taxpayers holding the bag.
Is it me? Do I see Opportunity for the rich here, they will be able to buy up bad mortgages cheap? Then create some new way to sell them back to the middle class and turn another quick $. We are hearing it cant happen again hmmmmmm?
Let me see if I have this right? My government wants to take my money to purchase illiquid mortgage paper from foreign investors. Please correct me if I am wrong but the entire concept of paying good money for bad or “illiquid” mortgage paper does not sound prudent?
Folks, what is going on here is that the massive multi-national financial conglomerates have made the ultimate bet by going “all in” by refusing to extend credit for a short period last week in an effort to force Congress’ hand. And it worked. Now, we the people are being asked to foot the bill? And shame on you for those who claim that this may even be a golden opportunity for our government to pick up assets at fire-sale prices and make a profit from them in the future. I believe that everyone has now figured out that future real estate appreciation must be “real”. That real household incomes must rise proportionate to the price of housing, otherwise, you risk creating another real estate bubble market. Here in So. Cal., you will never convince me that household incomes will rise 30% to 40% anytime soon sufficient to add any value to the hundreds of billions of dollars in second mortgage paper which are essentially worthless here in So. Cal.. Do not buy into it. It is just another “short-term fix” which is politically motivated with just weeks to go before the 2008 elections. The price of homes in So. Cal. must continue to decrease to a point where the average family can afford to pay the mortgage with no more than 30% to 35% of the family’s earnings. Just as a family who spent too much has to, eventually, bite the bullet and forego luxuries and entertainment in order to reduce credit card balances to acceptable levels, our politicians have to realize that they, too, must bite the bullet and assume otherwise politically unpopular positions for the general good of our nation.
If foreign nations can coerce us into compliance with threats of refusing to continue purchasing U.S. debt obligations, we, as a country, have a very serious problem – and it is not, simply, “liquitiy”. It is a fundamental problem which finds that we have become a debtor nation and that we must beckon to the call of our foreign / sovereign wealth fund creditors. Radical changes must be instituted and now seems like a good time to start. However, incurring hundreds of billions of more debt is the absolute wrong course of action. The road to financial responsibility will be long and arduous and there is really no way to effectively lessen the pain. We must just do it by taking one step forward at a time until we finally reach our destination.
Search for S.190, 109th Congress at the following website:
http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d109query.html
__________________________________
S.190
Title: A bill to address the regulation of secondary mortgage market enterprises, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Hagel, Chuck [NE] (introduced 1/26/2005) Cosponsors (3)
Latest Major Action: 7/28/2005 Senate committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
_____________________________________
Now, take a look at who supported it and who opposed it. Think you’ll hear about this on CNN TV news or CNN.com? I wonder why not?
Call your Senators/Representatives and tell them to vote against this bailout of the irresponsible, criminal financiers. And tell them you’re tired of their BS, too!
I love the republican idea of a “quick, clean” fix. Have we not already gotten into enough trouble giving Bush and his henchmen blank checks? I understand the need for this to be done, but how about some accommodation for those of us with reasonable houses, cars, etc.? Why could compensation for executives in these greedy firms be disallowed as part of the deal? Why should the government not have a share in ownership, since they have been asked to socialize the risk while the profit remains privatized? Typical republican antics. Please don’t just hand over the treasury to these rapacious swine!
Whenever Professionals in any industry that affects everyone fail there must be an investigation to see where there may have been creative incompetence that was actually criminal.
The deregulation of the banking industry created this crisis. Regulations that had been there since the Great Depression were in place to prevent profiteering through the use of creative financing schemes and to assure that unscrupulous people would be prevented from corrupting the banking sector of our economics.
There are untold felons who have been found within the mortgage industry that have created billions in liabilities simply to get their own origination fees. Now we must bail out bad business decisions because the Professionals were not watching over the fiduciary responsibilities they have to their investors and the investors who will ultimately buy these huge blocks of paper investments.
These are criminal acts by the white collar sector and must not go unpunished. If banks must fail because they employed this lack of professionalism then let it be so.
But for Congress to pledge taxpayers credit to bail out institutions without immediately putting in place new extreme regulations so this can not happen again while investigations also begin to see where crimes were committed and prosecute these white collar criminals is in itself a crime against Americans.
I have been in the Homebuilding industry for 30 years and have lived through more than one serious housing recession. In the latter eighties the government never bailed me out when I was a million dollars in debt and interest rates went to 18% leaving no hope for either the homeowner or the homebuilder.
Today I am also in the mortgage business where daily I receive emails from numerous mortgage institutions telling me how we as mortgage bankers stand to profit through this bail out.
It outrages me because much of the problem was created by these same institutions pushing adjustable rate mortgages when fixed interest was at the lowest rates imaginable. If a home buyer can not qualify for a fixed rate when they are under 8% then they are trying to buy more home than they can afford.
Now everyday I get advertisements pushing the reverse mortgage which will one day create another crisis for elders who bought into this scam and where their posterity will forfeit the real value of their ancestor’s home when the bank sells them just to repay their encumbrances.
Congress simply must begin be held accountable for such irresponsible decisions or this country will end up just like Russia with the Ruble being devalued to the Peso.
Big business has moved into a position just like in Russia where they as the communist mafia have always worked hand in hand with the government to keep the poor Russian people appeased yet oppressed while Big Money people enjoy living in Palaces and are unaffected by such crisis.
MAKE BIG MONEY FACE THE MUSIC OF THEIR OWN CORRUPTION!
why not just take everything we have now. make us pay for the bigwigs? well they never helped us working people. LET THEM FAIL!
we pay enough in taxes as it is!!!
We should send a message to congress that we as a nation of hard working people could elect to not pay a portion of our taxes. What will the government do if half the tax payers in the country refuse to pay their taxes.
How would congress like to try to take 75,000,000 or so people to court?
It’s amazing what they think they can get away with, in our name. I for one have called my reps and let them know how truly upsetting this is. I see houses in foreclosure all over, yet no relief for those home owners, but we should jump to give these wall street banksters 700 billion to prop up their bad practices?
I think The Bush Administration has been solving problems by throwing money at them for the past 8 years. It’s time to say NO! The American people will learn the hard way how to manage their money in a responsible fashion, something that is long overdue and will come to pass anyway, even with another bailout. Let the markets work it out on their own, without government intervention. We’ll suffer for it initially, but all be better off in the end.
Thank god I am not US tax payer. I hope that it won’t happen in my life time.
It is ridiculous that financial is <5% of the US total jobs who bets on the remaining 95% of the persons saving. They just take risks on our money, if things goes well then they got million dollar bonus while things goes wrong then government is always there. Even if government won’t help, ultimately 95% people will suffer the fate.
Now government is giving blank check and ask them to give their bad debt to us and you keep going with big risk with tax payer’s money and earn million bonus again.
It is highly ridiculous to see such blind decision by US government. Best of luck US tax payer…
As usual, Joe Mainstreet will ultimately be left to pay the bill after the corporate pigs finish gorging themselves.
First of all no bailout, until the people responsible lose THEIR jobs!
If we are going to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to bail this system out, then why don’t we start by using the money to bail out those who are paying for it? The taxpayers! How about we start by bailing us all out of our over-inflated mortgages on our primary residence, or at least pay down half. Then we would all have more money available to buy groceries, send our kids to college,and even buy a new digital TV “required” by 2009. I would think this would do much more to stimulate the economy than another insulting $600 allowance check from Uncle Sambucks. Would this not be cheaper than the billions going to Wall Street and all of W’s pals?
For all the technical analysis of financial market failure, the basic problem is one of investor confidence. That is why the markets have “seized up”. Investors have justifiably lost confidence. So throwing money at technical problems won’t help. One-on-one, investor and borrower, as individuals and institutions, are going to have to rebuild their relationship. That’s why money won’t help. The bailout won’t work, and we don’t have the money for it. Did you read that the proposal includes an increase in the debt ceiling from $10.6 Trillion to $11.3 Trillion. Write all your congressional representatives, let’s get this foolish irrational proposal stopped before it is too late.
If these companies are too big to fail, then they are too big to exist. They need to be broken up, NOW! Re-regulate, or reinstate those regulations put in that stopped this from happening, so they can’t grow like cancers on the host of our financial system, supported by the working people.
We can’t take their disease of greed!
OK, Congress is going to act like suckers and pass this bail out — here’s how every American can fight back: STOP PAYING YOUR CREDIT CARD BILLS! There’s not going to be any credit, so no need for a FICO score. DON’T PAY YOUR CREDIT CARD BILLS! Stand up for your rights — if they are going to take our tax dollars without reason, then we won’t pay our credit card bills. In fact, if you pay your credit card bills after today, then you are a sucker!
Get real! Let them fail! This is another way to strip the middle class of money tax money. Congress don’t get suck in again by BUSH!
Enough already. Nobody here seems to work in finance or realize how connected the world is. We’re literally on the edge of the Great Depression 2.0, and we have a choice between letting the companies fail because that’ll teach ‘em a lesson, or grabbing the economy before it hits rock bottom. President Hoover made the first choice, for exactly the same reasons as people here are saying, and look how great that turned out. Is that the choice everyone really wants the government to make now? Is having the moral high ground over some CEO’s worth sitting on a curb with a cardboard sign?
If I made a mistake, knowingly or not and took on a mortgage that ultimately I can not afford, would the mortgage holder help me out at their expense? Why should the tax payers help these companies get out from under bad business decisions? And where are the details on the compensation packages of the CEO/CFO’s of these companies?
I was opposed, but am now reconsidering.. Stop and think about this, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If we can get the companies that we are bailing out (all of them) to provide us a percentage of their earnings on whatever they sell and put it back into the hands of the taxpayers who are bailing them out, the whole world will end up covering these costs and potentially making our grandchildren very financially stable.
I DO NOT believe that a bail-out is the right answer, we are a very greedy nation built upon illusion. Let the large buisnesses for once take responsibility. Wall Street should not be an aspect of Home Loans. Credit should be more scrutinized to avoid bad loans to begin with, as car, credit cards. Too many cards are given to people that can NOT afford to pay back. Bush, as well as previous presidents caused this by de-regulation. It is a shame that Bush will not be around for the ending, as he will be out in November. I vote for OBAMA for President, we DOT NOT need another BUSH.!
we must admit this THERE ARE BETTER SCRIPT WRITERS IN OUR GOVT.WE COULD HAVE WATCH THIS IN THE MOVIES CAUSE THIS ONE LIKE OTHER MOVIES HAS A BAD ENDING.WHEN BUSH AND HIS PALS EXCEPT THE DUMMY AWARD PLEASE THANK ALL THE TAXPAYERS
A bailout now, especially at this level is setting a bas precedent with the private industry. This is basically telling all companies out there that if they get themselves into trouble (provided you can affect the market and pocketbooks) we will bail you out.
Lousy policy. And better yet, my two children will likely have to pay for the mistakes of Countrywide.
This bailout is all part of the plan. The only option for the American people is to do our duty and remove the tyrannts and form a new government that serves the people (Declaration of Independence). If we don’t we are already a Fascist State. How could anyone elect McCain the deregulator who chose Phil Gramm ex-Chief of the Senate Banking Committe who helped make this mess. McCain advisors include 15 big oil lobbyists and fundraisers? His Tax Plan gives 3.8 Billion dollars a year to the top 5 oil companies. The Fascist States of America is what they want created. I thought Republicans were against socialism. If not, why not subsidize Health Care? If we the people have to pay for these criminals, they should be indicted and forced to pay back what they have stolen. The current pResident should be removed with all of his allies and charged for their crimes. The death tax should be reinstated so they do not live like Kings while we bow down to their will. This is what the Declaration of Independence is for, times like these. We the People don’t have to wait for Congress to impeach. List their crimes and make them pay back what their ill gotten gains. King George has to go now. The Boston Tea Party is a good example to follow. The Texas Oil Party and the Wall Street Bailout Party should be starting now. If we cover up their crimes, what message are we sending our children and the world? It is ok to lie, cheat and steal.
My parents have worked their whole lives to save for their children & died for us .No ones has bailed out my parents our helped my payment when we have had a hard time. I pay my payments on time never missed one & if those CEO gets so big of pay let them bail out the stock market & banking system that are in the wrong not playing by the rules. I cannot believe this is happing in the US today .The people will not stand for paying taxes for a wrongful bailout when we did not do nothing wrong . The people need someone in congress to trust in God we trust on the dollar & it is falling too!Please help US
Throughout the Bush administration, things come up and we hear “the sky is falling the sky is falling! We need the taxpayers to give up their rights and liberties to fix it.” This happens time and time again. We rush into poorly thought out resolutions. This new sollution, proposed by Bush, is one of the worst. And just like always, he is saying that we need to act fast and push this through. But it would take away more rights that we need to investigate.
“Sec. 8. Review:
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Take a moment to re-read that. This new LAW would place the Secretary of the Treasury ABOVE THE LAW.
This bill is being sold to us, the taxpayer, as a design to protect the American public. Ask yourself, if this new law is so helpful to the American taxpayer, why are we not allowed to review the decisions he is making with OUR tax-money? Why aren’t courts or oversight committees allowed to see what exactly it is he will be doing?
“Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.”
“The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time”
This is clever and nobody in the mainstream media has figured it out yet. If you think the cost of this bill is $700 billion, you’re wrong. The cost is actually infinite and the entire bill sounds like a giant money-laundering scheme.
Paulson can (and presumably will) buy up to $700 billion of these “assets”, then sell them. Let’s say he decides to buy them at 60 cents on the dollar and sell them for 10. You, the taxpayer, will eat the fifty cents, for an immediate cost of $350 billion dollars. Having done so, he is then authorized to do so again, since the $700 billion is no longer on the government’s balance sheet.
If Paulson and his successor decide to, they could literally cycle all $5.3 trillion of Fannie and Freddie’s debt through this scheme, potentially sticking the taxpayer for 20% or more of the total, plus as much private debt on various bank balance sheets as they can.
A better idea.
Take the 1.8 trillion this is really going to cost – divide it up and pay an equal amount on every first mortgage in the country. Restructure the mortgage to reflect the lower balance and lower the payment.
The tax payer/homeowner gets a break. The lenders get funds.
If they are going to take money away from us the least they could do is help us out a bit.
I think this is purely absurd! After years and years of these same financial institutions making rediculous money off of the poor by lending these risky loans at elevated interest rates, in the name of what they call, “HIGH RISK LOANS”, and years of lower class and middle class citizens suffering we offer the MONSTERS who created this fiasco a break????
If I were in congress i would VETO the entire bill. I am a 29 year old single parent and have worked in the financial sector for years watching these same institutions raising the interest rates on the same loan given to a poor customer with veriable work history and fair credit versus the loan given to a customer with a perfect credit score and the same work history. However, what they failed to realize, at the end of the day, and with a FAILING ECONOMY WHICH HAS THRIVED OFF of the poor and middle class for years, we all look the same, perfect credit or not. Now these same individuals with the perfect credit score, that we lended the entire bank to at no charge,and have perfect credit are the same ones now trying to scavage money after being laid off along with the individual with poor credit.
My solution, WIPE OUT, the overpaid executives of these companies, make the lending process fair and equitable accross the board. After working for some of the largest financial institutions and leaving them after seeing so many customers worked over,in addition to being overworked myself, day after day, I sat to advise my clients on their personal finances but could not even get a loan with the financial institution I had worked for, for years, due to past credit problems that had been resolved.
I switched to the credit union and this equitable concept has worked for them for years. In addition to that, we should not reward the uneducated and relentless disreguard from these financial executives who have for years made money at the expense of the Average American workers. My proposal, give the money to the individuals it hurt the most, THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS, and establish programs which demand institutions to refinance bad debt loans such has mortages and car loans with rediculous interest rates therefore, Americans could afford to recuperate from the damage that has been done for years!
I have four points about this bail out:
First, to the people who point out that the Fed is buying illiquid but supposedly valuable assets please consider that there is a reason for why the assets are not liquid – they are not worth as much as the banks are asking for. So this stands to be a terrible deal for the Fed. The parameters of the program all point to a huge loss of about $500 billion for the tax payer.
Second, this plan might actually aggravate the existing problem. The plan has counterintuitive effects. The plan puts money back in speculative markets and increases inflation. The dollar is likely to suffer and commodity prices will increase. This means food and gas prices will increase. Everything you buy will be more expensive – even interest rates will go up. More people will default on their mortgage and credit card debts. In general consumers will consume less. Banks might be better off in the short run, but consumers will be worse off and there is a real risk we glide into a very serious recession. The problem has become serious the minute Paulson framed the choice as do this or else. The markets were about to work the issue out. We could have been done with the crisis in month. The else part is going to scare the grab out of the market if the plan is not implemented. Intentionally or not Paulson gave congress very little choice.
This brings me to my third point. This plan is like a tax on each single one of us. It was presented in a way that leaves congress no choice but to approve it. So essentially the bailout is a tax without representation. Wasn’t there something in our history about no taxation without representation? This plan is a financial coup de etate. Paulson should not be put in charge of fixing a problem that he helped creating and he should for sure not be rewarded with special powers for his incompetence.
Forth, this plan is a one shot deal. Given the size of the plan the US government has only one bet. What if the plan fails? What if I am right and the plan drives inflation and speculation and puts more pressure on people who are on the brink of not being able to pay their mortgages? – Congress should better get this right or we will all be seriously hosed. There is no money for a second bail out.
This bailout is just plain retarted. The whole reason this country was founded was on the basis of the issue over Taxation without representation.I know for a fact if I went to congress or who ever in charge, and said i did not approve of this, nothing would change. I just saw the report on CNN today, showing just how much Just $85 billion actually is. You could buy the majority of the countries in Africa, and several counries in Europe.
Let alone this bailout for $700 Billion!!!!!
I can barley afford the medication I need on a daily basis. Insteed helping people who need help, we bailout screw-ups, and they get rewarded with millions of dollars.
Heres a thought I’ll go drive a goverment owned company to billions in debt and get off scott free. Sounds like a great job plan.
A letter I wrote to the President.
Donald Jr.
1021 Stratford Place
, FL
September 22, 2008
George W. Bush
President
The United States of America
600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am a long-time Republican supporter and taxpayer, and I am writing to express my concern about recent decisions concerning the handling of our current economic situation. I understand that the decision is being considered to loan or give insolvent businesses that have shown a total lack of regard for regulation or good business practice hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars to reward them for their fiscal, moral and ethical disregard for the same.
I do not believe that the benefit of rewarding these entities in the name of protecting the taxpayer is the best course of action. However should the Senate, Congress and you see fit to follow through, I would like to make a case for my own bailout. I am a hardworking fulltime, taxpaying employee of a very good company. My current employment is the result of a necessary career change at the age of 50 due to the current status of the Automobile Industry. I worked for 30 years in retail car sales prior to my new undertaking. I, as do the CEO’s of the aforementioned companies, do not feel personally liable for the downturn in the current economy or the economic conditions harbored on me by the downturn of the auto industry.
I was not aware of the ability to be irresponsible as a citizen, and expect the government to bail me out. Personally, I sold the home I could not afford any longer, losing everything I ever put into it as well as my down payment and all other associated monies (tens of thousands). I thought that was what you were supposed to do when you could no longer afford something. I now see that I should have just stopped paying for it and I could have kept it, and the government would have given me the money to pay for something I am responsible for.
Myself my wife and two small children, ages 7 and 8, are now on the brink of being homeless. We cannot afford to move, and we cannot afford to stay in our rental home. We filed bankruptcy last week so the bank could not repossess our only car.
Actually, for the first time in my 50 years of living and 35 years of working, this is the first time I have ever asked my government for help. I have paid and paid, but now I need to ask for a little bit of it back.
While yourself and Congress are handing out hundred of billions of dollars to bail out the criminals of Wall Street, I was wondering if someone could earmark about $25,000 for the Shrewsbury family down here in Florida.
I truly understand the difficult, no win position, you, our Senators and our Congressmen find themselves. Nonetheless, I must speak up for those of us that have tried to do the right things in life, regardless of the circumstance and have been willing to accept the responsibilities with the decisions we have made in our lives, right or wrong. I must wonder out loud, I wonder if our economy would recover faster if you gave those billions or trillions of dollars back to the individuals and families that actually paid those dollars in a large lump sum. My tax rebate check this year, well, it went to my ex wife of 21 years who wasted it. I did not see a dime of it.
I need some help Mr. President. I will copy my congressman and hope for a reply. If either of you get the opportunity to read this, I certainly hope you take it seriously and my family and I want to thank you in advance for your consideration on the earmark I requested. A hard copy of this letter will follow via US Mail. Thank you again for all that you do for our country. I am not sure I would want your job.
My very best regards,
Don
Cc; Vice President Dick Cheney
Senator Bill Nelson
Honorable Dave Wheldon
CNN
MSNBC
FOX Networks
To Richard Givis, Broken Arrow, OK –
Keep Arizona, we have lots of sun and wind we’ll need after we banish the oil profiteers. But since McCain is one of those, I’m sure we can arrange for Palin to give him asylum in Alaska. We don’t want him here, either.
So we have to pay for the bad decisions these CEO’s made, and they get to walk away with millions? Where are the investigations? Why is it if I where to take over a company and run it into bankruptcy, I get the boot, but these fat cats get bonuses? Why are they even getting bonuses for destroying our economy? The first money towards that 700 Billion should come straight from the Execs paychecks. Don’t tell me they did not know what they were doing. The Enron Execs claimed stupidity too.
P.S. My generation really appreciates you guys living large on our futures. Thanks
I already lose roughly 20% of my check to taxes. Having to extend the national debt limit in order to pass this is crazy. $85 billion to AIG, which I can swallow due to their global reach. $200 billion for Freddie and Fannie, and another 29 billion for Bear Sterns. By this time, if banks and other firms didn’t realize that mortgage securities were a huge liability, then they deserve to fail.
Bail out for Wall Street – Just say NO until !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us try and use common sense as a nation. If you go to a doctor and he tells you that you have cancer and need an operation to survive but it will cost you a million dollars and no guarantees. Common sense suggests you would ask 2 questions. I really want a second opinion and ask the doctor are you sure about the cost. This is common sense to everyday Americans.
Suggest we get a second opinion since my trust in George Bush has been a little diminished over the past several years. The most respected name that comes to mind is to ask Paul Volker the prior Fed Chairman under Reagan and Clinton to look this over on behalf of the taxpayers of this country. Volker got this country through a very bad 1981 recession and was Head of the Fed during the last RTC bail out of the Savings and Loan mess. He is honest and a man of integrity and more importantly not slave to party politics.. Give him (1) week to look over the numbers and report back to Congress on his assessment and recommendations. Congress has an obligation to the taxpayers to take their time and ensure this is not another fabrication to enable and reward Wall Street for their failures. Generations will have to pay for this mess. It took several years under Bush for this to deregulatory mess to evolve and I will be very angry if we meet the Bush demands of a resolution in 1 or 2 weeks. Wall Street will survive a little while longer. Bank on it.
Rick IN San Diego
And so:
There’s a way to pay for the costs of this enormous restructuring.
Require every hedge fund in the country to cough up 10% of its assets.
Require the top 500 businesses in the country to cough up a billion dollars each.
And let these business guys boss around these Financial Sector smart-alecks.
But alas, it won’t work, because they are country-club buddies and sit on each others’ boards of directors. this is the only solution i see thats fair this is a disgrace of our country we look like idioits to the world thanks to bush and his wall street buddies now i cant retire or heat my house WHY CANT YOU BAIL US OUT WE BULIT THIS COUNTRY NOW BEING DESTROYED BY GREED
While the bailout is troublesome, the consequences of doing nothing are more so. We have all (most of us) enjoyed the returns generated by Wall Street over the past number of years and we have never asked why the returns continued to be double digit, only that if they weren’t double digit,we’d move our money tomore “aggressive funds”. So, the all the folks (and that is all of us who made way too much money selling our homes and made way too many returns on our mutual funds/retirement accounts) need to give back a proportion of these gains- afterall these gains and our demands as consumers for these gains are in large part responsible for the crisis we are in now. It is appalling that so many people seem to think that it is only “fat cats” on Wall Street while they pocket the 200% increase in equity on their homes… get a grip folks, wake up and smell the coffee. Next time you are offered 20% return on your retirement investment, do the right thing and turn it down.. don’t put pressure on the wall street folks to make the risky investments and high returns that Wall Street and the millions of investors have come to expect. Remind them that 6% is acceptable.. and that retirement at 67 is early enough. we are a nation of spoiled kids who don’t want to pay for the fun they’ve just had. Grow up. get real. its not them vs us, its all of us in it together.
Ok, let me see if I’ve got this straight. Congress invited in the banking lobbyists who rewrote the laws allowing banks to do virtually anything they wanted to come up with new ways of sticking it to the consumer (if you don’t believe it, read your credit card agreement). Banks then proceeded to lure consumers into credit they could not afford, in loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc. They were able to hike interest rates to the hilt on all accounts if the customer was late on one payment by one day on one account. They increased mortgage payments to the point where people could no longer pay. After all this freedom from regulation they created for themselves, and all the torture they have put consumers through, they want us to bail them out? With what? By the way, where is the money going to come from? We are already so deep in the hole we will be lucky if we ever dig ourselves out! Will the Chinese be willing to fork over even more loans to pay for the purchase of all this bad credit? I think it is time for those who took advantage of all of us to reap what they have sown.
Please, Please, don’t believe Bush again. I feel this is a fabricated emergency–an attempt to get Bush and his cronie friends rich before the Republicans loose control of the White House. Please democratic congress, if the emergency is real, then please seal up the loopholes…tight.
I am a small business owner, and about 2 months ago, my business was in danger of failing. It was in danger of failing due to a slow economy and that’s it – it was not due to a bad product, dissatisfied customers, bad decisions based on greed, or bad marketing. However, those are the very reasons as to why these Wall Street giants are failing, and now, because of their bad decisions, I, along with the other taxpayers in this country, have to bail them out? Where was my bailout a couple of months ago? I certainly could have used a “cash infusion” when I was struggling, and I am sure many small business could have used one as well, or may need one now. This bailout is the worst thing that we could do. It is completely anti-capitalistic, and it cannot be allowed to happen. When companies fail due to poor decision making, greed, bad products, etc., then they fail, and new institutions rise up to take there place. They don’t get $700,000,000,000 to continue doing what they are doing. I personally would rather see that money go to heath care, the social-security crisis, national security, or education just to name a few. If this bailout gets passed, it is up to us, the voters, to see to it that those who approved it are no longer employed by the American people when election time rolls around. We must say “no” to big government getting bigger, and stop the bailouts of greedy institutions that do nothing but stand on the backs of the public while they count their money. Since the housing boom began, these institutions have done nothing to contribute to the overall well being of this country or to this country’s economy – they have effectively done quite the opposite. Their greed and careless attention to the world around them has lead to a failing economy, bad housing debts, a credit crisis, hyper inflation, and a crumbling global economy and has basically left this country teetering on the edge of a depression. I say let them fail, and let this lesson, and warning, go forth to all those that would attempt to swindle the public in the name of making a fast buck: If you make bad decisions, and try to capitalize on greed, then you will fail, and there will be no help from the very public that you tried to take advantage of. To the politicians what would allow for this bailout: Vote yes, and your days in office are numbered. By bailing out these companies, you are encouraging more destructive behavior on Wall Street that will only lead this country further into ruin. By voting “yes”, you are telling corrupt CEOs with poor business models, ethics and practices that it is okay to make decisions based entirely on their own self interest and when those decisions backfire, the feds will come to the rescue on the public’s dime, just so you can do it all over again. It is time for government to get out of the business game and let the markets play out as they must, let the corrupt businesses fail, and let newer, innovative, and more socially conscious and responsible businesses take their place. Maybe instead of bailing out the companies that are responsible for this mess, we bail out the public, and allow them the opportunity to invest in new companies and banks, and simply let the old institutions fade into history.
It all hit the fan before Bush could leave office and blame it on someone else. That is his biggest regret and the reason for the fire under his tail today. He doesn’t care about the average American and never has. This bailout is to help the rich and powerful not the working class.
Why should people with student loans or “bad/toxic mortgages” get a bailout? Why should anybody in the midst of foreclosure get any more preferential treatment now than in the past??? Let them declare bankruptcy and take their lumps! My wife and I had student loans and we paid them off. My wife and I had a mortgage and we paid it off… early. Thirteen years early, to be exact! What’s so hard about any of this? Live within your means and you too can have a paid off home and cash in the bank. A recent college graduate with a $40,000/year job shouldn’t feel the need to live in a 5,000-square-foot house and drive a new BMW. Rent an apartment for a few years and buy a used car like we did.
And as for these crooks on Wall Street, it should not be difficult to see where I stand on this issue: let them sink! Maybe Paulson can take some of his $30-plus million of pay and golden parachute he obtained while the head of Goldman Sachs. in 2002 and ‘03 and pay for the situation he helped create! Short of that, he should go to jail with the others who fleeced their stockholders and the American taxpayers!
And if you’re looking to point the finger of blame at some political party for this whole mess, I believe it was The Great Social(ist) equalizer Jimmy Carter who enacted the CRA law that started this situation, and Bill Clinton who made it even worse. Bush, in 2003, wanted to reform CRA.
We’re already seeing the bad effects of plans to bail out these greedy financial idiots. Oil has now shot up to $130, because another pack of financial idiots on Wall Street who are buying futures think the bailout will make the economy improve and increase demand for oil. They are so out of touch with the average person. I have news for you, Wall Street: we’re all broke because of you and there isn’t going to be any increase in demand for oil. We’ve all parked our cars and are staying home. Because of the greed and stupidity of financial idiots, my 401k is down 30%, my home value is down 30% and gas and food prices have doubled. And I’m ready to retire. I suggest we deprive George W. Bush of his retirement package. He’s walked hand in glove with these bastards, starting with that pack of thieves at Enron!
I think Bush is trying to salvage his legacy, I think the govt should only help the banks consolidate but also allow some to fail … they are the ones that took the risk why do we have to pay for it?
with oil now jumping 130 a barrel and gold up… I’d say that the market is telling us that the consumer is going to pay a portion in addition to the tax payer…
Inflation will hurt existing bond holders of securities other than mortgage bonds. Inflation will squeeze home owners and possibly trigger further defaults…
I think the markets are saying that they don’t like the bad debt shifting to the countries balance sheet…
NO BAILOUT, Period. The fundamental problem is the act of treason commited
by the Congress in 1913 and then by Nixon in 1971. The Constitution CLEARLY states that money must be “of gold and silver coin” and be issued
by congress, the representatives of the PEOPLE, WE THE PEOPLE. The bastards had NO RIGHT to give control of OUR money to a bunch of private banks. And Nixon had NO right to finish divesting us from the gold standard and force the American people to use worthless bits of paper called federal reserve notes instead of REAL money OUR MONEY %^&*%$# it, OUR MONEY.
This debt based fiat currency system was doomed to implode from the that day
of infamy in 1913, just a question of when. Creating limitless money out of thin air while you destroy the means of production and then think you can
package and sell the increasingly thinly collaterized debt as an asset
isn’t an economy it’s a ponzi scheme.
The econmy is going to crash, no way to stop it now but bailing out the
failing industries will eventally destroy the dollar when the world stops throwing good money after bad and takes the hit. They will recover but the American people will loose everything when the dollar disintegates
and proves to the world that it really is just a worthless piece of paper. Let
entire indusrties fail if you must but don’t increase liquidity to the point of destroying the dollar. If the government destroys the economy, the “French” solution used so successfully in the 18th century might not be un-thinkable here.
I feel that the government should implement the bailout, but not on the taxpayer’s dime but rather on the CEOs, Phil Gramm and James Leach (and any others responsible for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999).
First we need to extend the Bush tax cuts to these giants of finance. Second since Bush has given his blessing to the bailout proposal to the Sec. of Treasury, who from what I understand will have complete control over the money, wants congress to accept his plan as is, written on three pages, right now. Conme on folks, this sounds like Bush’s last great administrative accomplishment, saved us from the Terrorist, now from the Depression, as he is cleaning out his desk. Personallu, I don’t trust anything this administration tries to push through to help improve the quality of life for all citizens. I am even amazed that the Presidental race is this close after the Republican performance the past eight years, but apparently the Republicans are proud of it and will probably like this Wall Street “bailout” plan too, no questions asked. Remember, a Bushie with lipstick is still a Bushie….
I think that it is ironic how we are looking at the bailout, which has been contributed to Phil Gramm, who happens to be McCain’s economic advisor, who may secure the seat as Treasury Secretary if McCain is elected president. What else will the taxpayers have to help the government bailout?
I think the plan should address four concepts. First, allow and encourage restructing and some debt forgiveness to facilitate re underwriting of mortgage loans as an alternative to foreclosure. This helps main street! The taxpayers should share gains from the wrtten down amounts on the upside as homes are sold in the future. Second, golden parachutes should be disallowed at companies as a condition for obtaining Government purchases, which whould be made at a discount. Third, there should be professional liability investigations and civil suits filed where there is determined to be gross negligence and money available for recovery. This is done whenever a bank fails and suits are filed about 20% of the time. And fourth, the Government should receive an equity position in the companies that sell loans to the Government.
In effort to prevent a market collopase, the bail out is a necessary evil but what I found troubling is the money being given out to executives with high salaries–those responsible for this situation. Although you cannot conveict someone for making a poor, greedy, decision, I would like congress to award the bail out with the stipulation that executives are capped when receiving the bail out and forego any bonus, stock options or financial incentive. If we have to suffer, so do the decision makers.
The current mess of derivatives, CDO’s and other “complex” financial instruments look like a conglomerate of check kiting, loan-sharking, equity-skimming, Ponzi scheme, pyramid structure, mult-level-marketing and junk bonds.
And the conglomerates – the Financial Sector – was always on the lookout for a sucker to put up money to subsidize these “instruments”. Having run out of suckers, they now beg the Federal Government for money.
Let the conglomerates fail. No corporate welfare for these rich brats – the other rich folks should supply money – like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs – who just might force some badly needed discipline on the financial sector.
And so:
There’s a way to pay for the costs of this enormous restructuring.
Require every hedge fund in the country to cough up 10% of its assets.
Require the top 500 businesses in the country to cough up a billion dollars each.
And let these business guys boss around these Financial Sector smart-alecks.
But alas, it won’t work, because they are country-club buddies and sit on each others’ boards of directors.
Wow, you people are angry… but has no one ever told you to not let anger cloud your judgement?
Let these firms collapse, the bank credit line that your employer is paying you with get called due, and you all lose your jobs, then your car, then your house. Would that make you happy, to be unemployed and lose the things you do have? Yes, we would be all unemployed together, but do you really think that will hurt someone who made 30 million last year? Nope, hurts you, doesn’t it.
So, get over the enger, and do what’s best for you.
Also, please research a little. What is proposed is for the govt. (thorough the Fed) to buy illiquid assets (hard to sell), not giving tax money away. And buying them at a steep discount to boot.
Where will you direct your anger when the Fed sells the assets back and makes money?
Time to draw the line.
Do not try and fix a broken system, if it collapses and better system will emerge take its place.
Do not hang on the past, do not perpetuate this downward spiral.
Make those responsible take their medicine.
We will all feel the pain of this either way, but I am ready to rip the band-aid off.
1. If it’s a bailout, get out of Iraq. We can’t afford both.
2. Bail out the citizens, not the banks, and have them pay back the loan.
3. Use any profit on equity toward alternative energy for the household.
4.OR, Do 3 above with the $700 billion and let the investment firms writhe in the squalor they created.
This is as big a scam as the Iraq war. They want a “clean” bill, meaning no oversight, no restrictions, and no accountability. You saw what happened when congress gave Bush a blank check on Iraq. Billions of our dollars given in no bid contracts and hundreds of millions more that are totally unaccounted for. This bailout will not save a single home from foreclosure, it will only save the massive salaries and stock options of Paulson’s cronies on Wall Street. Paulson still owns 494,054 shares of stock in Goleman Sachs plus another 680,474 exercisable options to purchase more stock in GS. How can anyone call him “impartial?” This is the biggest scam ever perpetrated against the American people. The world will not come to an end if this bill is not passed. The gov’t. could consider making a loan to help the liquidity of some of these firms, but in return it needs them to write down some of the mortgages to help average people, and they must insist that this loan is paid back. The plan Paulson proposed is a $700B gift from all of us to the rich guys on Wall Street.
NO BAILOUT!!! It is so wrong! Why use the taxpayer’s money to fix the CEO’s problem. Make the CEO’s pay!
Assuming that legislation will be enacted, it should at least contain the following elements: (1) stringent caps on executive compensation, (2) complete prohibition on the beneficiary companies paying dividends on common or preferred shares until such time – if any – that the government has recouped all benefits that were received by the company. Have not seen the dividend aspect in any of the proposals that have made the news – maybe because that’s the power of the lobbyists and the extent to which Congress has prostituted itself.
From Websters “conservative”-hostile to change, save rather than spend, opposed to hasty innovations”..Those 11 GOP White male prospects were fighting up there on the stage to claim who was more “conservative”..after this bailout, since the GOP has completely mis-used/abused this term…may I suggest a new one for the whole party…CONSPLURGATIVE…this is more in line with what they have done to our country…leave the word conservative to those of us who would honor the word.
First of all, its $700-billion divided by the number of US taxpayers not US citizens, which is somewhere south of 150-million. When you make the calculations, its twice the numbers being thrown around. Not $2300. Not $3000. Think nearly $6000.
Please thank my Free Mason brethren and Illuminati cohorts for bringing this country to its knees.
What is going to happen when the bailout fails to stabilize the economy? Are we going to throw more money into it, in the hopes that this time it will stabilize? Furthermore, what happens when it gets even worse? Did throwing money at the problem, put us in even greater predicament?
Under this administration, anytime we’ve reacted in a panicked manner, the results have been expensive and disastrous. Can anybody say Iraq? Something definitely needs to be done. Yet, let’s be pragmatic and transparent, slow down and do it right. If it takes us an extra week or month or two months to wisely allocate seven hundred billion dollars of tax payer’s money, this great economy of ours will not perish… I PROMISE!
In this volatile climate, it is imperative that congress not be strong armed into supporting a bad policy that could possibly only make a bad situation worse. Can anybody say Iraq?
No one offered to bail me out when I got a permanent layoff because all of the Free Market, Free Trade, Deregulation, Small Government, Tax Cutting Advocates got the upper hand.
Free markets sound great, after all this is the land of the free. Unfortunately, in a free market, greed trumps everything. Let the fat cats burn. Even the small investors had dreams of getting rich without working for it. Let them learn the lesson. Our country will be better off.
Allen Bunch
Marion
Virginia
To expand on the earlier suggestion that the government just give the taxpayers each $1 million. Doesn’t this make much more sense? It would cost less the fed less than half a billion and the boon to the economy would be incredible. Everyone would be able to purchase a home, or start a business, it would create jobs… come on! 700 billion? give me a break.
If the Congress does not listen to all of us who are saying NO, Absolutely NOT, Hell NO, NO, NO, NO to a bailout then we need to say NO to taxes! If they cannot handle our tax money according to our demands for our needs, then they should not have it!
Are you kidding me, let the entire banking system fail. I cant believe the words im reading here. The government bail out sucks, but letting the markets fail is not an option. Im only 28 but I do remember reading in school about the Great Depression. Anyone else out there remember what caused it? I think it have something to do with the banking system failing? I dont know about you but I really dont want to live through that, I have children that I would rather not give up because im living on the street.
IRRESPONSIBLE HEADLINES Newspapers, New programs and even CNN’s websites are putting out disinformation about what this program is really going to cost. thsi article is called “the Bailout” Another headline on this site reports that Bush is eager to sign bill sepnding $700B. This is not a measure of the actual costs to the taxpayer. this bill is an appropriation to put up a facility that will by and sell trouble assets. I am repetedly seeing hedlines that say it’s a cost or a spending of $700B. The truth is we do not know if it will cost the tax payer much more than a small fraction of that.
It’s been called a bailout. The banks and other institutions holding these assets will take a significant hit on the sale of these securities. They are transfering the risk of future price declines, that is true, but they also forgo future potential appreciation.
THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT GET IT!
A BAILOUT is an attack on the very core of our american beliefs. It is an assault of our fundamental belief in the American system of governance, our way of life.
If the government bails out these companies can anyone say we believe in CAPITALISM?
I can’t.
Is it fair? Of course not. Do we have a choice? Absolutely not unless we’re all willing to lose everything to prove a point. I have no sympathy for those of you who voted for George Bush – especially twice. The rest of us who didn’t, have paid our bills and lived within our means will suffer because of the lack of oversight and greed in the financial markets. A long time ago I said that institutions providing mortgages should be required to hold a large percentage of their own paper. In other words, be willing to assume the risk of their own lending practices. Had this requirement been in place and these institutions not allowed to pass off anything and everything they wrote, things would look very different today.
I have planned my finances to be able to withstand a depression. I say no bailout and let the market stablize.
doc Los Angeles, CA
PW from Winslow, Arizona… Love it! “sell Texas and Alaska”. Brilliant! That should take care of banishing Bush and Palin from the US. But we should also throw in Arizona as well, just to make sure McCain stays out. Then let them see how badly our immigrant policies stink.
Just think where this money could have been put better to use.
Universal health care.
Roads, highways, bridges and other transportation infrastructure.
Job creation, re-training, unemployment benefits.
It is absolutely unbelieveable that we can squander such possibilties just to focus on some narrow-minded goal. Crap! I forgot we squandered 9-11 to start an uncessary war, so its not so hard to beleive anymore.
700000000000/300000000=2,333.33
Thats the amount of the bailout divided by United States citizens. Let’s play a little game here- its called WTF is going on with the national budget. We are already only over by 400 billion, so lets throw another 700 billion away. But wait, we don’t have that money- so where will it come from? Well two places, either the strength of the dollar or…. the TAXPAYERS- YAY!!!!!!
The End.
The law only works if it has common support or is implemented by jack-booted thugs. Should Paulson’s bail-out indeed turn out to be legal, it will have to be the latter. The orgiastic fostering of endemic banking toxicity is now to be nationalized, so let us install our own pimps – after all, the act of nationalization has politicized the racket. If we’re forced to buy toxic debt to the tune of $700bn, then it behooves our representatives in government – if that is what they are – to fire the avaricious jokers who generated the toxicity and replace them with elected officials. Should we all become shareholders, our first act will be to call a shareholders’ meeting.
And now the goverment is concerned about people’s paychecks and taxes. Where were they when big corporations started offshoring jobs and left people without a job or with a lower paying job. Now they are getting bailed out and we the people have to pay, again.
Paulson and Bernanke are not trustworthy and have no idea how to solve this as they’ve already proven with all the previous, recent bailouts. Yet they essentially want to suspend the rule of law and the Constitution to help their buds. If this passes you can bet the “professional money managers” will all be from Goldman-Sachs as they seem to like incestuous financial relationships. Let’s just say NO to this bailout because there will only be more bailouts to come after this.
While we’re at it let’s abolish the FED and create a non-profit US National Bank that will operate in the best interest of all Americans…not just the big banks and foreign central banks. It makes no sense whatsoever to have our money and interest rates managed by a private-for-profit FED that is only interested in itself and its cronies.
If this does pass…throw out every politician that votes for it.
This bailout is an outrage and a disgrace, but, unfortunately we are NOW caught between a rock and the hard place. This is what happens with diminished or no regulation oversight. Now the taxpayers come to the rescue again.
Congress needs to pass this bailout to assist in getting us out of what will be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. BUT, DON’T PASS IT CARTE BLANCHE WITHOUT STIPULATIONS. Those stipulations must include no “golden parachutes” for those corporate executives whose decisions put their companies into this mess, some reasonable level of morntgage assistance for those individuals who are in the sub-prime rate crisis (another result of ineffective regulatory oversight) and a transparent and clear oversight of the process, progress and results.
And, as a true middle class taxpayer who has seen his financial situation worsen over the last eight years, I AM MAD AS HELL OVER THIS.
There needs to be clear and swift action by the White House and Congress to make sure this type of crisis doesn’t happen again!!!!!
I think it would be a smart move to bail them out but then that would leave my generation and others paying off the debt.
I think we need to let these banks fail. The U.S. does not have the money to come to their rescue anyway. This, along with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, may result in $1 Trillion in new debt. I realize the economy will probably take a big hit but that is what needs to happen to get things back to more of a balance again.
As others have said, it makes me wonder why I should pay my mortgage if they pass this? It might create even a bigger problem to pass it.
They weren’t smart enough to see it coming. They said everything was ok. Why do we trust them when they say this will FIX EVERYTHING?
So these companies can socialize their losses and put the burden on the American people, but what happens when they start earning again? Will they privatize the profit? After all, it’s OUR money, so doesn’t that make it OUR companies? How will we be paid back? We need that answer before we consider coughing up the cash!
We cannot let Bush and Cheney, the Republicans in Congress off the hook for this mess. I’m against the bailout because when it is all said and done the CEO’s and power brokers still get their millions move on to screw up some other Corporations and we get stuck with the bill. Bush, Chaney and these reckless, heads of these financial institutions need to be held accountable!
NO BAIL OUT!
Bail out or no bail out it does not matter to me. I notice a great deal of whining, moaning, anger and resentment in the comments. The emotions are based on failure to do anything about it and take responsibility for yourselves. Quit being sheeple by blaming others, man up and call your politicians. I am no genius financial or otherwise and could figure out what is going on and planned accordingly.
The bailouts are only going to prolong the inevitable. The economy will either collapse or it wont. When/if the economy goes so will government.
I want to know where Bush/Paulson/Bernanke think the US government can borrow $700 Billion. I don’t think anyone will lend it to us. The only possible source is to print it. Weimer Republic, here we come.
It is unwise to bail out a business without also getting rid of the people who caused the failure. Not one penny should be spent until all those who should have prevented this have been fired. We can start with Congress, and work down through the CEO’s and their underlings. It’s not the workers that are taking the hit that caused this problem, and it’s not fair for the workers to be taking the hit, while the people who caused the problem continue to prosper.
And what’s the latest?
From CNN’s own article:
“At the same time, financial institutions are weighing in with what they want in the bill. On Sunday, the Financial Services Roundtable – a lobbying group representing the nation’s banks – called on Congress to make the plan “broad enough to include different types of assets.”
I really couldn’t care less what the irresponsible financial institutions want in the bill, and it’s outrageous for Bush to be nattering “for a ‘clean’ bill to be passed quickly and not be loaded up with provisions that would deter companies from participating.”
The fact that companies can choose to participate or not should be the first clue that this is another huge land and power grab brought to you by the George W. Bush Administration.
Bush has already nationalized more industry than Hugo Chavez ever thought of nationalizing. Hugo was right, Bush is the Devil.
Let’s stop this now: sell Texas and Alaska, before it’s too late for the rest of us.
I’m not sure if the bailout will have the desired affect or not but I do know that the fact that it will raise the Federal deficit to 11.3 Trillion dollars (37,000 for every man, woman and child in the country) is insane. The government keeps passing the buck. Sooner or later that debt has to be paid. They keep this up and the affect will make the Great Depression look like prosperous times.
Rush to bailout is economic counterpart to rush to Iraq war. Paulson, Bernanke, and Cox are financial neocons. Message to Congress – and the media: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
I wish someone would answer Whoopie Goldberg’s question regarding if the banks are bailed out, and morgage companies are basically starting over at zero, why isn’t MY morgage then not paid off by the bail out? what is the incentive to the average american struggling in these times and continuing to write their morgage check each month even though their home is no longer worth what it was purchased for? tell me why I should write another check please?
This all stems from those who have chosen to buy a house they can not afford. Citizens of the US need to wise-up and stop floating by and usingthe government. I have a house and I make the payments, what is so hard about that?
A bad or unpaid loan is just that. This plan should not be done quickly or without weighing all the consequenses to follow. From the information I have received, I would never vote again for anyone that agrees to this current plan. And no one as yet as provided exactly how this will help the housing situation to my satisfaction. Would these financial institutions accept or agree with these terms if this was reversed? This has not been thought out and common sense should pravail instead of a rushed decision with actually no benefit to the people which are being asked to pay for this program. Any business that would
agree with these terms would soon be out of business. It does not pass the test of sound financial business practices and no one person should have this much control especially if it looks as if this person has no successful track record. Develop a plan for the people including the ones needing housing but not the bankers. And it is difficult to believe any thing to do with credit card delinquency will be included in this plan. What is delinquent now will primarily remain delinquent and why would the public want to purchase the amount owed to a financial institution especially considering the issues with credit cards. Again, where is common sense being used?
First of all, us “common” Americans can do NOTHING about this mess!! What I would be in favor of, but it WILL NOT HAPPEN, is making the CEO’s give up $$ and possessions! By that I mean, they may have ONE home and may “walk” with about $100,000 and that’s it!!!! Let them suffer like the rest of us! $100,000 is a lot of $$ to MOST Americans, not to mention, how many Americans don’t even have ONE home!!! Let them give up their luxury “extra” homes, their multiple country club memberships, their MANY luxury cars and have to worry about paying their bills like the rest of us, for God’s sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why should they get off scot free????? But you watch…THEY WILL!!
Faced with a similar climate of fear and anger, Franklin Roosevelt uttered a memorable phrase, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself”. Good advice for us, today.
Richard in OK…you are like so many others. Doomsday complainers. You should move to China or Iran so you can legitimately be the official chicken little on a daily basis. The bailout was a rescue mission, and it was needed. A collapse of the world economy is not worth it, no matter how much people like you and the media hounds would love feeding off of it.
In the history books they will refer to this as the beginning of the end for the United States as we know it. CEO’s with hundred million payouts will be the first to have their heads placed on the guillotine, followed by the all the politicians that support this robbery of the American taxpayer. Where in the Constitution do these people think they have the right to fund private businesses with taxpayer money? Capitalist economy my arse, this is socialist America, and it won’t last long.
a 700 billion dollar bail out will not work giving money to these compaies will not stop the problem only slow it down and the tax payers will pick up the bill.any time you have something like a stock market were the price keeps going up has to come down there is only so much money in the world you can’t just make more let these compaies
die thay have miss managed there money
for too long gas prices are too hight for tax payers to pick up the tab.
quote begin:
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Since when does the court system have no authority ?
Why the rush to bail out the Financial Sector?
Because elections are coming up in November – and if the Financial Sector does not get any money from the government, they won’t be able to contribute to the candidate’s campaigns, and won’t have any LEVERAGE later to keep the LIBERAL laws that regulate them in place. Or is it the “conservative-less-government intrusion” laws that LIBERATED them?
Because if the law is not passed – see Section 8 – the current president will not be in office and will not be able to grant pardons in case they are convicted of crimes.
Because if the law is not passed they will lose their source of income and hence their prestigious social position and might have to take jobs that ordinary Americans will not take – that illegal aliens had been doing – like cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors. And they know they aren’t as good at that kind of job as the illegal aliens were!
It’s ok with the Financial Sector that military personnel return from combat severely injured or dead – but don’t anyone dare deprive US (the Financial Sector) of our priviledged lives! We (the financial sector) are too important!
For the $1 trillion the government is expected to pay for this whole mess, couldn’t they have bailed out all the CONSUMERS who have bad debt? But, oops, I guess that would interferred with the free market…
A lot of good this will do me. What was the government doing when I became ill, lost my eye sight, medical expenses wiped my savings out, fired from my job because I could not do it due to losing my eyesighrt, and forced into foreclosure with family being tossed out into the street.
THEY BAILED ON US, WE BAIL ON THEM!!!
Take this money and force it to be put back into OUR, OUR, OUR ECONOMY. LOAN IT TO COMPANIES THAT ARE WILLING TO “IMMEDIATELY” BRING FACTORIES, AND OTHER SMALL BUSINESS INTO THE US, USE IT TO FIX OUR INFRA STRUCTURE, USE IT TO FIX OUR SCHOOLS, USE IT TO HELP THOSE OF US THAT ARE IN FORCLOSURE OR BEHIND, USE IT FOR US!!!
BAIL THERE BAD DEBT OUT, I WILL NOT VOTE VOR ANYONE THAT APPROVES THIS.
MAD IN NORTH CAROLINA
If Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the government want to hand out cash and bail out everybody with their hands out, then let THEM pay for it out of their own pockets. What’s that? They can’t afford it? Well, now they know how we feel! The banks and everybody else need to take responsibility for their own actions! That’s the bottom line.
I realize that “doing nothing” carries risk. However, I can’t fathom how our lawmakers are so willing to commit $700 billion to a problem we don’t fully understand. Moreover, it doesn’t appear that controls are being implemented that will prevent this in the future. The market has “pounded it’s fist on the table” for years…asking for less oversight and regulation. It got what it asked for. Let the market live with it.
I applaud the government for recognizing the severity of the situation and deciding to act in the best interest of it’s citizens. No one complains when we send BILLIONS in aid overseas, much of which to countries that hate us. It’s about time our money is spent where it belongs…fostering our economy and taking care of ourselves!
I agree with those that believe we should revalue everyones mortgage to 85% of appraised value. That would put real money in our pockets to spend or save whichever we choose. But I still believe we should buy the illiquid paper for 5 to 10 cents on the dollar, so then in the future we may make some profit on it. But to leave everyones mortgage value where it is would be criminal. More power to Barney Frank and company, he’s the only one looking out for us.
This is the other way to steal the peoples money, the first way was the Bill Clinton bubble economy and the mortgage scandal, and now this.. All this is just to preserve the capitalism democracy…
This is one way to gamble and take a nation to war, let people with billions of dollars per week pay for it and if you remember, just few years back they wanted to start the same dilemma with the social security…, in the other hand if there was a functioning democracy people who started all this should be in jail by now…… but then again… we should ask the democrats, the present majority, what they are going to do about it… if you ask me… I think, one way or the other they well sell the people out… after all they, and the majority of the republicans, they all voted for this catastrophe when they started the Iraq, Afghanistan war.
Why are the same people who let this happen in the first place in charge of orchestrating a bailout? It is obvious they do not know what their doing. The people have lost their voice and the media has lost its influence. Washington is severely broken as the system of checks and balance no longer can do its job. This is a sad time in American history as our constitution for “We the people” has been replaced by unethical lobbyist, congressmen and leadership that caters to the wealthy. So, there is not point in protest, you’ll only be ignored or possibly arrested. Democracy, well less just say- it has seen better days.
Why is the government bailing out companies whose main interest was greed and for all purposes to deceive and take advantage of the American people?
The American people were victims to predatory lenders which resulted in individuals losing their homes, wreaking their households and tearing up lives. Gas, school tuition and food prices, crime and drugs are going up and employment rates are going down.
The government refused to help the American people and made it even worse by preventing individuals from filing for bankruptcy (when the banks were the cause of many of these problems) just so the banks can profit off of our debt ruining our credit.
Then the government (not even asking the American people) wants us, MILLIONS OF AMERICANS to give back to the same FEW idiots who created this problem.
The government should do what they told us to do….sink or swim, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN??
As I live and breathe, I have never seen anything as ridiculous as this in all my days (45 yrs worth). Why should thieves be rewarded with rescue; why are we doing this again after the Saving & Loan debacle, after Enron, after Worldcom? Why does it end? What’s to say that we won’t get this sort of crisis again!!! REGULATION, REGULATION, REGULATION. It’s just ridiculous that in America we can be so fiscally irresponsible! Why do I need to bail these people out! Jeez, I’m already being buried in low wages, college costs rising, a credit score and credit scenario that is ridiculous to be sure! I guess American’s greed will have to shut down the WHOLE WORLD before we get that you gotta pay your damned bills and you gotta STOP CHEATING PEOPLE TO DO IT!!!!!!!
So you want to let the market crash and burn and let the RICH suffer. Well, I’m not rich but I do have a job and a 401K that I do not want to lose after working all my life. If something is not done to stablize this economy and banks continue to fall it will be us who lose all we have worked for over the years.
There should be strict guidelines if a bailout is approved and there should be no PORK by congress tacked on to this bailout…we will have enought debt without adding more.
I think we are a short breath away from disaster in the US and so close to Biblical prophecy, and later than you think.
This is nice they don’t want to make a national goverment hetlthcare system but they want to give money to banks with Stuck up CEOS.
Bailout the bankers and brokers are pure and simple robbery from taxpayer. We understand that without government rescue, some financial company, such as GS, MS and WM, may eventually fail, which may further damage the financial system. But why NOT let them fail? After elimination of the problematic banks, there are still good banks left there, and the financial system will still function. Now, the problem is, the government and the congress are NOT representing the American people. They are working for the Wall Street capitalists. They are trying to use your money to compensate the bankers for their own fault. I don’t think many of us can benefit from this $700B bailout. Don’t listen to the stupid reporters who are saying you are short-sighted. Call your congress man and woman, and tell them “You vote for it, you’ll get fired!”.
When regular/everyday Americans can’t afford their contractoral obligation, they are foreclosed, repossessed, put out in the cold. No second chances/bailouts. Not even sympathy!
These are the very same institutions that uphold this kind of business ethic. Yet they come to us when their down and out?
Wake up America!
I can’t believe we are even thinking of doing this.
We can play the political blame game all day long. If you take out the politics (REP VS. DEM) and put the blame squarely where it belongs on the companies who chose to do this type of lending we would be on a level playing field. The bottom line is, who is in need of help? The people or the company?
My wife and I have been saving our money for over 46 years in hopes to retire this year….but as a result of the resent finacial crises we will be compelled to postpone our retirement.
we have lost over 40% of our savings in our 401 plan.
congress should be fired and replaced.
Our government has failed us , the American people. In every faset of goverment and now another Bailout at the tax payers expence for corporate America if you keep doing the same thing you will keep getting the same results WHICH ARE FAILING Who is on the list for a Bailout Next week .
Will this Bailout create Jobs,lower Gas prices,Help pay your Mtg payment,
Will it make you better off in any way
Do you thing it will put food on your table, May be it will make your house that has droped 50% jump back to full value ( THE ANSWER IS NO TO ALL)
Who Benifits from this BAILOUT THE VERY COMPANYS AND INDIVISUALS THAT CAUSED IT
THIS President This Congress,Should Be held ACCOUNTABLE This Was LET to happen
NO BAILOUT-NO BAILOUT-NO BAILOUT
I am MAD AS HELL. I am tired of rewarding institutions and people for the bad decisions they have made. I have had to wait to buy a house because I need to pay off my bills and student loan. Now that I have done that you are tell me that I have to bailout these institutions, HELL NO where US government when I wanted to pay my student loan. It is only now that I am buying a house I have never had bad credit but I waited. I am as MAD HELL.
Forget it Washington, I’m sick as hell of this crap, a 2 trillion dollar bailout? You’ll mortgage my grand children’s future over my dead body.
The federal government is the least responsible and accountable institution historically and in the past has never made money from banks, mortgage companies and others that are going belly up. Any high school kid understand the credit VS debit balance equation. Since Bush the federal deficit is over $4 trillion and the total over $11 trillion. And the national debt to the Chinese, Arabs, Japanese / other over $14 trillion. The Cost of the fraud Iraq war and equally untenable BS war on terror in Afghanistan over $20 billion a month.
The Value of the USD the lowest ever in history, under the conditions and circumstance, how the hell can the SOB economic pundits, the Treasury Secretary, the FED, SEC and the rest claim the economy being fundamentally strong. John Sidney McCain, the senile old coot is off his rocker. Bush and his MBA Presidency is totally incompetent and these greed creed conservative republican thieves the lowest scum. Now at the 11th hour before election, they pull this stunt to once again misled the gullible public with the propaganda of economical terror hype, fomentation of fear, polarizing hate within the country and republican patriotic feeding frenzy to control the hearts and minds of the misled and gullible nation is total unmitigated stupidity.
This economy will never recover under the prevailing flawed system.
All this crap that it is the housing market and mortgages responsible for the mess is pure simple poppy cock.
The solution is to first admit that the system is flawed and pumping in more money and increasing the deficit is an exercise in futility, The CEOs and the likes of Bush walk away scot-free is a whole sale fraud,
To tackle the housing market and set things right is to unbundle the scheme of free market economy BS.
1. Pass strict laws that property value will not appreciate 10% over ten year period and at the end of that cycle for home owners based on ware tear repairs etc a tax depreciation would be allowed and the cycle to start again. Most of the homes build in this country do not have a viable life of 30 years.
2, Strict home builders code and homeowners bill of rights is a must if this basic enterprise is to be viable.
3. All food fuel, oil, energy, electricity, water, other basic necessities to be banned or restricted commodities not allowed to be speculated as futures as is at the present. The profits of the middlemen brokers, bankers, retailers etc to be shared equitably with the framers, manufacturers and producers.
3, International curbs on the real-estate, mortgage bankers, property tax collectors, property assessors and the like. In other words strict uniform rules/regulations.
4, The legislative branch with the consent of the people to set up in writing the power, duties and limits of the executive instead of this all mighty executive privilege of secrecy of the megalomaniacs and no accountability. No more decider in chiefs
We are getting played….The sense of urgency and the request of this Administation to not waste time by analyzing the reasons behind the bailout or what it’s paying for should make us think what’s really going on here? We all need to ask ourselves the following: How simply and quickly the plan was introduced, three pages for such a monumental endeavor? Does anyone know what our 700 billion is really buying? These mortgages were packaged and re-packaged 15 times over into who knows what. The one man oversight…I don’t know Paulson from Jack but I don’t want him soley in charge of the Federal Reserve, reserve’s using it as collateral at will and without question or oversight…Things that make you go hmmm. He who rules the banks rule the world…This all seems a bit seedy to me. Another question why nothing for main street, afterall you want us to foot the bill with nothing to show for it. The unmitigated gall of the Republican Leadership to call it loading and burdensom to include the average american in the plan. Now that’s just plane insulting! That makes me mad and because of that I say HELL NO!
Wall Street and the powers-that-be don’t get it: We Americans on Main Street are not afraid of the Second Great Depression! I don’t think the people in Washington (and certainly not those on Wall Street) know exactly how bad things are out here on Main Street. We are already experiencing unemployment (or, more accurately, under-employment) and we know what it is like to have no health care. Many of us are living as badly as our grandparents did during the First Great Depression. NO, the only people who are scared of the Second Great Depression are the wealthy. I say, bring it on. Let’s clear this financial mess right now. Bring on the depression and let’s get back to basics. I’m not afraid of the Second Great Depression — I am afraid of unlimited powers of government (Patriot Act) with unlimited power to take my money (bailout). NO! AND IF CONGRESS APPROVES THIS BAIL OUT AS PRESENTED BY PAULSON — THAT IS, WITH NO OVERSIGHT AND NO HELP FOR MAIN STREET — THEN WE OUGHT TO THROW CONGRESS OUT ON THEIR ASS**S.
Once again, We the people of the United States, won’t have a say in what happens,,,government will do what they wish.
Everyone is ignoring the 800lb gorilla in the room: Adjustable Rate Mortgages. This bailout will be inflationary, interset rates will rise, and more homeowners with ARMS will be unable to make payments. Foreclosures will rise, house prices will keep falling. ANY BAILOUT PLAN SHOULD INCLUDE A PERMANENT BAN ON ARMS FOR FIRST MORTGAGES. ARMS ARE THE REAL “WMD’S” AND WE MUST STOP THESE PREDATORY LOANS BEFORE THEY DESTROY THE ECONOMY FOREVER.
It makes no sense to buy up bad investments as an indirect way of recapitalizing the banks that made these poor loans in the first place. We are just rewarding failure. Instead, if we are going to spend $700 billion to expand available credit, why not just capitalize a new government bank (call it Feebie since Freddie and Fanny are taken) and start making new loans to businesses and individuals? That will provide a fresh line of credit to keep the economy moving without immunizing the Wall Street fools from the moral hazard of their prior, poor investments.
America (we) need to Cowboy up , and get back to grass roots. Our down towns are dying. Communities are dying.
Our country needs this awakening!
No Bail-Outs. I refuse to pay!
To Phil in Sunnyvale:
This is not a financial armageddon. There is no reason to jump out of skin, do something rash, and once again get led down the garden path by a government that doesn’t have the financial sense of a goose.
Take a deep breath! Now, don’t you feel better?
Not enough oversight??!!!!
It’s a gross understatement to say that this is a gross under statement.
Freeze intrest accrual. That $700 billion into , should be put volchers,and sent to at risk home owners to pay debt, and on behalf people who already lost there home to pay off debt to compaies. what ever is left is the companies’ problem to bear.
House values plummets in England prior to the U.S. why was this such a surprise. I have only one thing to say replace the CEO’s, clean house, fire everyone in charge and VOTE DEMOCRATIC this November!
Take away all the assets of the fat cats CEO’s (remember Bush’s base) the ones who fleeced the people. Take away their houses, yachts, offshore accounts and throw the lot in jail. Let the SOB’s crash and burn the way they screwed the working American’s out of their retirement and savings. Let Wall street clean its own mess. Else this will be perpetrated again and again. The average American should stop investing in stocks until everything is cleaned up, CEO’s pays and bonuses capped, lobbyists eliminated, corruption curtailed, regulation with teeth reintroduced etc. etc.
they say this is to restore faith in our economy? this bail out DESTROYS my faith in the economy. It reveals it to be an unreliable fraud, where the rules change to protect those already in power.
there are people still paying their bills, still maintaining good credit… they could/should/would buy up investments as their prices fall, and benefit from their investments. These are the people who SHOULD benefit. Why instead punish them for paying their bills on time, for not overspending on their homes, by making them pay for the mistakes of those who could NOT manage to pay their bills on time and manage their debt?
the government doesn’t have ANY money… this would be the people [all taxpayers] bailing out the people and the business who made bad decisions and failed. These are not the people we should be loaning to when we are already so straped. Let them fail, so we can loan money to successful businesses and people with good credit who are still paying their bills.
You can take the CEOS who put the BANKS in this MESS. And they CAN BAIL THEM OUT!! EVERY TIME OUR GOVERMENT TOUCHES ANYTHING IT IS A TRAIN WRECK!!
Let them fail, let the global market fail, especially since we the people are the ones that are going to take the brunt of it all anyways. Why are we so afraid to let these outdated, unsuccessful practices go extinct? We don’t need them, we need something new, something fair, and something that will serve our futures better. If we have to pay for it, then make everybody pay for it (on a global level). We are all in the same boat, why can’t we get together and fight together against these insane ways of dealing with this crisis. I am not financially well off, and i deal with that everyday, and have been since this country has gone into a recession sometimes around January, I am glad that they are only feeling the presure now, but for some of us it’s already been bad for months, and I would really like someone to bail me out, and everybody else that is out there needing it more now then ever. Don’t give them this money, they don’t deserve it and they are the cause of this situation. Why don’t the CEO’s that have made millions pitch in and pay for their own companies failure.
Where is the anger for the people who defaulted on their loans? Isn’t that the root of the problem?
Moreover, how much of the $700B is for the defaulted loans and how much is the cost of handling the defaults, including the exorbitant salaries?
Seems to me like there are two groups responsible: borrowers defaulting and businesses mismanaging…
Doomsday Schmoomsday, if the government has the money to put into these companies, then they surely have it to help the citizens whom they took an oath to serve and protect. They need to help those who are in NEED and about to be on the street rather then a company whom is responsible for this mess in the first place.
Cole from Atlanta, GA: YOU have no clue. The bailout idea will do NOTHING except put the government, and especially us humble taxpayers, far deeper in debt! We already can’t afford to pay our mortgages because the economy sucks. So increasing our taxes to payoff corrupt corporate greed is going to fix the financial crisis??? All year I have been trying to convince everyone we are in a recession. Well get ready folks, the next Great Depression is just around the corner. Especially if we get another corrupt republican like Bush into the White House.
The cure for too many loans is to loan Wall St more money….out of the pockets of future generations ? This is more lipstick on a pig. Fool me once…. The US economy is not just about Wall St. Banks and it will recover, but we must treat all the root causes – in addition to the mortgage crisis we must stop hemmorhaging money to Iraq and in spending for foreign oil that gives us nothing lasting in return.
It’s just incredible to think that someone could allow the country to get into such a mess. I worked in the real estate industry for 30 years and about 10-12 years ago I knew that the situation could not go on although I didn’t think it would bring down the country. I thought we would have another situation similar to the S&L bailout.
We are sure in a banking mess and a credit crisis. But are we doing enough to handle
situtation.
The governments efforts to encourage consumer spending in the early 2000 -2002 by indirectly making
credit available to high risk entities is the cause for this mess to begin with. So why are we
saving the corporations alone and not individual Americans who are bearing the effects of this market meltdown,
credit crisis.
Here’s a plan that will help each American family and in turn pull us out of this mess.
Instead of bailing out banks,let’s write down the mortgage amounts to realistic match with the
market values. This will bring down the amount families pay on their mortgages, stabilize the housing
market, and spur consumer spending. As indivuduals we don’t need tax cuts or more credit, we need real money.
I believe that taxes will go up no matter who says what in the next 10 years. Where are we going to get
all this money that we are putting into the system now?
By making credit available to the financial market so that corporations can solidify their balance sheets
where does it help indivudual hard working Americans, since we are not able refinance our mortgage as the values of
our homes is a lot less than what we owe on them.
If we can’t write down mortgage debt, what a shame atleast let homeowners get tax credits for not only on mortgage
interest but also the diference between real home value and the inflated mortgage value.
American family asset values has been reduced to nothing by falling home values, stock markets and the fear
of loosing even money saved in saving accounts, raising cost of food and energy, and most importantly loosing our jobs.
We need more help with our tax money not irresponsible corporations.
WHY DOESN’T CONGRESS TAKE SOME PERCENTAGE OF THEIR INCOME(S) AND USE THAT TO BAIL OUT THEIR BUDDIES,,,MR SMITH DOWN THE ROAD NEEDS IT, TOO.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU…..to the CEO’s and all upper management make millions of dollars for screwing the average American Family’s time and time again. Why doesn’t the government take the 750 billion, and with the current population on of the USA is 305 million, and write EVER American a check for $2,295 and then HANG the CEO’s? Why should any hard working American family who abides by the rules have to pay for there greed? That is completely absurd to me!! But then again, I’m wasting my breath because we can all bitch and complain but Washington is going to do whatever they want to do. I realize something needs to be done, but seriously we need to start holding CEO’s of major corporations liable. They are screwing with peoples lives to pad there own pockets. It is getting way out of hand!!
Dear CNN,
You just ran a story at 1:00 p.m. that said that if every man woman and child in US received part of the $700 billion directly, it would = $2,300 per person. At 300 million US citizens, my calculations indicate it would be $2.3 million for every US citizen. Please check your math.
The “bail-out” comes to about $10,000 per US couple. I doubt that the average couple in the United States can afford to lose that much money. Put the blame where it belongs; first take back all the money from the fat-cats that took the $700,000,000, then see what is left for Jane & Joe Taxpayer to shell out.
Wall Street and the Bush administration must think Americans are really stupid if they want us to sign off on this “3-page” bailout plan without having in place protections for main street America too, AND provisions to make the CEOs and their cronies responsible for this mess as well. And, with what the Republicans are asking us to do on this bailout, how can there ever be a net reduction in taxes, when this bailout is going to cost us Americans even more now??
Unfortunately the taxpayers will have to bail out the financial institutions but let’s not blame all of this on the government and banks. The vast majority of the individuals in these mortgages knew what they were signing, especially here in California. I notarized loan documents through 2004 – 2006 and I can assure you most of these people understood. They chose to refinance their homes and use them as banks so they could live the good life and buy their Mercedes, travel, etc. not thinking about tomorrow. We are all responsible for our own actions and consequences of those actions.
The politicians are completely off base with this bailout and disconnected from middle America.
The poor and working poor are struggling to find a dollar today. So, how is this bailout going to help us?
When did the creation of man, i.e. the economy, by default become all that is was and ever shall be.
The economy must fail so that a new order can come about and refusing to allow this Truth to come out will see the same mess only worse in the near future just as the last bailout occurred in 1991, when do you expect the next failing of the UNNATURAL economy based civilization?
I want CNN to continue to inform us fully of the truth. This is a crisis only because the upper echelon say it is and because will lose money. They had us scared to death that Iraq had WMD’s, that Al-Queda was going to destroy us. Now they are trying to convince us that if they don’t bailout these greedy crooks that WE will suffer. HELLO…they don’t see how much we are suffering now. So how is bailing out their greedy cronies going to help us? IT ISN’T. I refuse to be afraid of them and their scare tactics anymore. If it all goes to hell in a handbasket then I guess we’ll have no way to go but up after that. We can do this without a bail out using my money. Also, I want to see this plan PRIOR TO any vote on it. If I’m going to pay for it, I want to know what I am paying for and I want a say in it!
The cold war proved Communism does not work. The Bailout proves Capitalism does not work.
Sad. I believed in capitalism. We were proudly told it is the best system in the world. But, now that the chips are down this country turns to Socialism, Communism, or whatever this is.
One Question- What is the financial system of the United States? It certainly is not capitalism.
Is this our October surprise? How about a $700 billion public works program instead of another trickle down/on the taxpayers? This is deja vu all over again: like the Enron execs emptying the corporate vaults for themselves on the way out the door, Bush’s cronies are soaking the taxpayers for their golden parachutes. NO!
Remember that one time, when the entire market collapsed and – after several previous attempts – a bunch of rich, private bankers convinced the American public that if we allowed them to set up a central banking system, this sort of thing would never happen again?
I don’t think it worked.
When are we going to admit to ourselves that the Federal Reserve has nothing to do with the Federal Government and that there are some serious problems we’re not addressing here – like the selling out of current and future generations of Americans through tax and credit card and mortgage debt?
To Cole in Atlanta:
I want you to think about Weapons of Mass Destruction! Do you have that image in your head. Now, imagine that your government is now feeding you this as the latest evolution of WMDs.
Got it!
There is no catastrophy awaiting us if we do nothing. These are the “Smartest Guys in the Room,” and we all know what they’re trying to do to us.
We won’t be scared by a government that is “Crying Wolf” again.
Just say no to the bailout!
The free market, unfettered by reasonable oversight caused this problem, the free market should deal with it – otherwise Wall Street will learn the exact wrong lesson: we can take huge profits from the American people and then when it backfires we can transfer the problem to the American people.
If it requires a worldwide depression to get us to realize that the entire US economy (and government) is hopelessly in debt, then so be it. My kids (and their kids) futures have already been jeopardized by the US’s insatiable appetite for debt – the sooner we face up to it the sooner we can start to act reasonably – and bailing out Wall Street isn’t facing up to it.
Let the market crash & burn. We need a fresh start, and also send a message to the wealthy that they can’t keep taking and taking from the middle class.
I bet there is an average Joe out there that is smart enough to come up with a better solution then having us bail Wall Street out of their mess.
The comments in this thread are shocking. For the Republicans to accept this bitter-pill give most folks an idea of how bad this really is. It is no less than an admission of total failure of the deregulation mantra championed by Republicans for the past 25 years.
Failure to act and would lead to nothing less than the SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION and harm our way of life and future no less than if we suffered a nuclear attack. If anyone has forgotten history, this country barely survived the last depression and we are completely unprepared to endure another one. Our whole infrastructure is different. Then, we were still mostly agricultural and had room for more industrial expansion. We actually BUILT THINGS then. Today, we’re a service economy, and Great Depression II would wipe us out as a world leader. This would be more like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the End of Socialism in the Eastern countries. We’re already holding on by a thread. This is a DOOMSDAY SCENARIO unfolding before our eyes, people. We must all pay attention!
Why is it that we are helping the big guys? Let’s halt all foreclosures let the government put the money into a restructuring these loans, buy down interest rates and put the money where it belongs, with the people who need help not the giants that created this problem. Yes, I realize that the consumers got the loans, however, many acted in good faith trusting the brokers/lenders who got them into the loan. If this bailout happens, what is going to come next week and the week thereafter? Where do we stop the madness? What company will they deem worthy of help next?
the fed is betting not so much on wall street, but on the fact that many, many more homeowners are going to fall to foreclosure, which then would hurt wall street further. instead of doing something to help the people stem the tide of foreclosures, they’re assuming that it’s going to happen. it’s like wearing a condom vs abortion. one measure is preventative and another is prescriptive.
if the fed intervene, they should do so in a way that requires banks lock-in rates in so that people can pay their mortgages. though there could certainly be a reduction in interest a bank makes, that reduction could certainly be made-up by the fact that there would be fewer foreclosures. this is all about mortgages right?
Owners of the foreclosed items should have a right to buyback their properties within some time period (10 years?) taking into consideration low interest rates, the inflation rate and some 10% of the maybe profit to be made if the RE market improves.
This way properties will not be marketable without the full agreement of the owner and may restore confidence.
Treason was specifically defined in the United States Constitution, the only crime so defined. Article III Section 3 delineates treason as follows:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
However, Congress has, at times, passed statutes creating related offenses which undermine the government or the national security, such as sedition in the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, or espionage and sedition in the 1917 Espionage Act, which do not require the testimony of two witnesses and have a much broader definition than Article Three treason. For example, some well-known spies have been convicted of espionage rather than treason.
The Constitution does not itself create the offense; it only restricts the definition and permits Congress to create the offense. The crime is prohibited by legislation passed by Congress. Therefore the United States Code at 18 U.S.C. § 2381 states “whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” The requirement of testimony of two witnesses was inherited from the British Treason Act 1695.
In the history of the United States there have been fewer than 40 federal prosecutions for treason and even fewer convictions. Several men were convicted of treason in connection with the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion but were pardoned by President George Washington. One of American history’s most notorious traitors, in which his name is considered synonymous with the definition of traitor, is Benedict Arnold. The most famous treason trial, that of Aaron Burr in 1807 (See Burr conspiracy), resulted in acquittal. Politically motivated attempts to convict opponents of the Jeffersonian Embargo Acts and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 all failed. Most states have provisions in their constitutions or statutes similar to those in the U.S. Constitution. There have been only two successful prosecutions for treason on the state level, that of Thomas Dorr in Rhode Island and that of John Brown in Virginia.
After the American Civil War, no person involved with the Confederate States of America was tried for treason, though a number of leading Confederates (including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee) were indicted. Those who had been indicted received a blanket amnesty issued by President Andrew Johnson as he left office in 1869.
Several people generally thought of as traitors in the United States, including Jonathan Pollard, the Walker Family, Robert Soblen, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were not prosecuted for treason, but rather for espionage. John Walker Lindh, an American citizen who fought for the Taliban against the U.S.-supported Northern Alliance, was convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals rather than treason.
The Cold War saw frequent associations between treason and support for (or insufficient hostility toward) Communist-backed causes. The most memorable of these came from Senator Joseph McCarthy, who characterized the Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations as “twenty years of treason.” McCarthy also investigated various government agencies for Soviet spy rings; however, he acted as a political fact-finder rather than criminal prosecutor. Despite such rhetoric, the Cold War period saw few prosecutions for treason.
On October 11, 2006, a federal grand jury issued the first indictment for treason against the United States since 1952, charging Adam Yahiye Gadahn for videos in which he spoke supportively of al-Qaeda.
print money for needs………when i played monopoly with my brother i would steal money from the box not to go bankrupt…………..wow lol
the Little Texan cries “WOLF”…again…..and again…….and again………
Tax the oil companies and big corporations who’ve been paying ZERO and peel the government blood sucking leeches off the average joe.
Cole, Atlanta, GA: September 22, 2008 12:46 pm
I think you’re wrong; people have a real clue about this. What everyone is asking for is to act in a fashion that is honorable to the American values that the rest of us live by. This is going to be the biggest transfer of public wealth to private hands, and we want to be sure those hands are cuffed. If we are to bail out Wall Street at the expense of our children’s future we better get some dam good assurances in the form of regulations and oversights. To use your house fire analogy, its more like an apartment fire where the taxpayers live on the bottom floor and we don’t give a rat’s arse if the fat cats living in the penthouse above us burn. We will try to save our house but in doing so we want the upfront promise IN THE SAME BILL that this will only benefit the taxpayer and not the bankers who started the fire.
You can’t say do it in another bill, because we have what they want now. IF we give them a blank check they will veto every single regulation bill we try to pass, it has to be fixed NOW. Personally, I think we apply the hacker punishment. If I’m a computer hacker and I break a computer system I’m bared from using a computer, we should bar every banker, and every govt. official that had anything to do with this from working in the finance or banking industry until every penny of our bail out is paid back.
A couple of things: Paulson did not mention the fact that the reason housing prices continue to fall is because banks are being forced to sell them increasingly cheaper. The banks can’t find new buyers for their original sell price, so they’re writing off the losses from the original borrowers. This is what is primarily driving house values down. Even individuals trying to sell their houses legitimately are having to sell into this problem market the banks have created.
Also, the number one reason why people are defaulting on their mortgages continues to be that they are underwater on their mortgages. It doesn’t make any sense to them to continue to pay on a mortgage that is worth more than the value of the house, especially if they are leaving the house anyway. The result is that they walk away and default on the loan, generating new bank write offs.
As long as banks continue to dump houses on the market for cheap, housing prices will remain suppressed, and therefore people will continue to walk away from their mortgages.
This $700 billion bailout is being made to clear up the balance sheets of banks so that they can lure in new borrowers, primarily new homeowners. However, new borrowers have virtually dried up citing that housing prices continue to fall. Housing prices that have driven down prices on houses under sub-prime and alt-A loans will only lead to a foreclosure crisis in the Jumbo and fixed-rate mortgage type. Real-estate prices not only need to bottom, but they also need to go back up to 2006 levels in order to avoid a Jumbo and fixed-rate crisis.
This bailout is all about corporations getting out of their obligations through government subsidies (a $700 billion one) while leaving the borrower to fend for themselves. The idea that banks would actually renegotiate rates prior to a default problem on the loan is ludicrous! That would cut into their bottom line. People will either try to avoid ruining their credit by continuing to be weighed down with a heavy mortgage that isn’t worth its weight, or they will continue to walk away knowing they could get someone else’s house for cheap. This kind of greed destroys societies.
At least the mortgage securities are backed up by hard assets (real estate). Now the Government is going to buy Credit Card backed securities which are backed by nothing. Unless you want to include the Plasma TV’s, designer handbags, home furnishings and whatever else people bought but couldn’t afford. The credit debt at close to a Trillion worthless dollars is scarier than the morgage assets, because there are no assets to sieze.
The bailout will surely raise Treasury’s borrowing costs, and drive down the value of existing bonds. If an institution wants to take part, they should bear some of the risk: whatever the “price” of the assets they unload, pay them in Treasurys at par. If they need cash to lend out, they can use the bonds as collateral for a loan, or just sell them. If we pay them cash, they’ll mostly just buy Treasurys anyway.
How does a capitalist spell socialism? B A I L O U T
Who steals from the poor and gives to the rich? Capitalist
Who lied about WMD? Repulicans
Who say trust me and gamble our money away? Republicans
Who lies down and say walk on me? Democrats
Who lives pay check to pay check? Average Americans
I say let the chips fall where they may. No Bailout. We have very little to lose.
Just a few years ago the financial institutions had congress pass more stringint bankruptcy laws for individuals trying to start over after a mountain of debt(usually due to medical bills). Now it is much harder on individuals to walk away from their debts. So let them suffer the same fate. No bailout!!! Follow the vote of your congressional reps and if they vote for this bailout then vote for another candidate in November.
the government cant be trusted with that amount of money they are the cause of the problems now untill they can do their jobs right they shouldnt be trusted with anything else
I like the plan proposed in an earlier post by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dutchess County, New York. It sounds almost identical to Obama’s plan for America. I just disagree on a couple of terms. The CEOs and upper management of those companies our corrupt president Bush is trying to bail out, should all be fired along with the President as well. Don’t just cap the CEO salaries. What kind of justice is there in that? Bush has blown so much borrowed money for the IRAQ war, that he can’t afford to bail out those corrupt financial institutions, because his White House Credit Card is MAXED out!!! Impeach Bush if you want to fix the economy is what I say! The sooner we get an innovative clear thinker like Obama into the White House, the better.
My e-mail sent to Sen. Pelosi:
Dear Sen. Pelosi:
If you really care about how the American people feel about the 700 billion dollar bailout for banks, check out the link below from CNN.COM:
They asked Americans one simple question, “What do you think of the government’s response to the financial crisis?”
http://cnnmoneytalkback.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2008/09/20/the-bailout/
The overwhelming majority of Americans are against this bailout. I am against it.
Sincerely,
Mark Zimmerman
P.S. Remember how many Congress people regret their vote for the Iraq war. Think hard before you leap off the cliff with others who have made bad decisions for Americans.
To all those who say that doing nothing is worse than the bailout: what horrible thing is going to happen? Are the Chinese going to storm Orange County to seize foreclosed property they own? Is China going to send nuclear missiles to destroy Wall Street if we don’t pay our debt? What, exactly, is so horrible that we cannot oppose this bailout? Oh, right, stock prices will go down and then Wall Street insiders will lose money. Of course! That makes everything so much easier to understand. If I lose money because of inflation and stagnant wages, then that’s my tough luck. But if Wall Street loses money because of unwise decisions and outright fraud, then of course we have to bail them out. Tell me exactly how I am wrong about this?
The 800 pound gorilla in the room that is not being adressed is the one quadrillion dollar market in highly leveraged global derivatives. 700 billion is a drop in this bucket. when will we see some reporting on this problem?
Homeowners don’t need help. They took the loan, they should pay for it. Banks don’t need help. The government is going to take their mortgages and buy them at a deep discount.
The rich are obviously rich because they aren’t fools. The amount of whining due to ignorance is laughable. A heck of a lot of people LOST money and their jobs, and do nothing, see how much worse it gets for you.
This is an opportunity for a do-over, where the government can actually END this hullabaloo going on in the market now. Resell the mortgages later for a profit. And get the economy turned around.
If people do like most of you suggest and Do Nothing. Like the Do Nothing Congress, we’ll see what gets fixed.
WAKE UP PEOPLE, THEY HAVE TOO BAIL THEM OUT, THAT WHY THEIR IN OFFICE RIGHT NOW!
YOU GIVE ME MONEY FOR MY CAMPAGNE AND I WILL HELP YOU IF YOU NEED A BAILOUT….
No! to this desperate plan. I have no confidence in Sec. Paulsen– he should have brought these problems to Congress earlier. Now he wants immunity and unprecedented authority in administering these funds. NO WAY.
Time for Congress to put on its gloves and stand up for the tax payers.
For the Record they will not be cutting mortgage rates for those that are currently struggling.
There is NO current language in the proposal that states that.
I’m tired of posters saying that……Read the propsal and stop posting WRONG info.
CONTACT YOUR GOVERNMENT AND LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR THEIR BAD DECISIONS ANY LONGER ! INCLUDING WALL STREET AND IRAQ! TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK ! SO WE AND OUR CHILDREN CAN LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM .
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
I understand that it will cost each taxpayer something like $3000 to finance this bailout. True or not, whatever money it is going to cost me, it will reduce the amount of tax refund I would normally expect and receive each year. Now, basically, the gov’t is taking money away from me. Taking it. If I took money away from someone else, took it without asking for or earning it, I would be heading to the big house. I wonder how many who propogated this mess will be heading in that direction? Fair to say, no one?
I am just as angry and appall by the recent bailout proposals. Privatize gains
with socialize losses is always hard to swallow.
For those of you who lack the time, patiences or foresight, I outline the outlook for the next few years.
Election
- Obama will be the next president of the US. He will usher in a welfare state caring for the growing lower class. Taxes are heading alot higher especially for the crooks on wall street to pay of our mounting debt.
Investment
Stocks and real estates prices will continue their decline. Hold cash better yet a stable alternative currency. Gold is the perfect hedge against the fall of the dollar and fiat currecy but goodluck storing it.
Food & fuel prices
alot higher. The fed and washington have opened a can of worms. All ailing industries like auto and airline will go cap in hand looking for bailouts.
Adage
This is not the time to panic and hide under your mattress. This is the time to educate yourself on monetary & economic policies and prepare yourself to weather out the day of reckoning.
I am tired of this administration governing by fear. They used it to rush us into war and they are trying to use it to rush us into this bailout. When will we learn? The banks handed out unstable loans that they knew could not be paid and now the administration wants the taxpayers to do the same. If we must bail these people out we must have oversight, collateral, and above all accountability for those in charge. If they find this inconvenient, then let them fail. I also want Paulson to answer the question, “What happens if we bail them out and they fail anyway?” “It has to work,” is no answer at all and completely unacceptable to me as a taxpayer.
I grew up in the Depression. I know a thing or two about how the government can help its people. But this bailout plan does nothing to help me or other ordinary Americans. Roosevelt told us that there was nothing to fear but fear itself. Bush is trying to scare us now into doing something that is going to create hardships for my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I’ve lived through the Depression, and it was hard, but we got through it by depending upon our neighbors. We can get through another financial crisis. We can’t burden our children and grandchildren with this enormous debt. That is just not ethical.
I am no financial wizard but I saw this coming a year ago…..who was manning the ship ? Paulson, Bernake, Bush ? I mean really they let it get to this point and now it is an “emergency” give me a break…and now we are supposed to trust these same buffoons ? No way NO BAIL OUT !
How about a market based soluton? Let CME Group, NYSE, and NASDAQ apply to become market makers for these securities. As a market maker, they will be required to buy or sell these securities from anyone interested. The market maker sets the buy price and the sell price for these securities to clear the market, and make a profit off the spread.
This solution would give us badly needed transparency, increase liquidity at the banks, and would not require taxpayer money be put at risk. Competing market makers would ensure fair pricing. If it turns out the market value of these securities means there are insolvent banks, then that issue can be taken up as a separate program.
No bail out!
You take the risk you pay the price! not me. You reaped the rewards now pay for your failure. I will not reelect anyone who votes for this bail out.
Stand back and let it go down hard and be done with it. your not ever going to be there for me in this way why them.
NO bailout.
As said below: call your elected officials and make it clear you will NOT vote for them again if he/she vote for the bailout plan.
I just called my congressman and my senator and voiced my disapproval of the bailout. Other than Ron Paul, I’m not hearing anything about anyone opposing this massive bailout! This is craziness! And it’s also kind of nuts that Ron Paul seemed like a wack job a couple of months ago, but now what he said on Wolf Blitzer last night makes alot of sense.
It’s not that we, the taxpayers, don’t understand that this HUGE bailout may be better for ALL of us in the long-term. It’s just that we REALLY REALLY want to see the CEOs, the senior managers and the Board of Directors of these banks PUNISHED!
Dear Congressmen — If you find a way to tie HUGE PUNISHMENT of these greedy and irresponsible corporate gamblers to the HUGE bailout, many of us will find the bailout easier to stomach. And personally, I will find it easier to remain civil to my irresponsible neighbors with mortgages he can’t afford and who I will now have to help bail out with my tax dollars and my plummeting home prices.
after reading all this please get off the blogs and call your Senator and Congress and let them know what you think…I know I am ….this bailout goes against the moral grain that America was built on…hard work and self sufficiency…this bail out says its Ok to be greedy and fail because the US Government will bail you out ! That is not what should come of this…let this market take a correction and let these fat cats pay not you and me who understand what hard work is and we as Americans are not afraid to get our hands dirty and do the work….if we bail these guys out it will be a mess and we will be paying for it for a long time.
The people that are saying NO to the bailout have no clue. Complaining about not punishing the culprits, yea, fine, but it does not do anything to help the situation. It’s like if someone in your house started a fire. Would you try to put the fire out? Or would you try to teach that person a lesson by letting the house burn to the ground? Sure, they need a lesson, but the consequences far outway the benefit of letting them feel the pain. And for the people complaining about the taxes, same deal. That’s like somebody in that same house fire complaining about their stuff getting wet when the fire fighters put out the blaze. C’mon, get a grip. Think long term, not what’s right in front of your face. If the Fed had done nothing, it could have been 1929 all over again, except globally. Is that really worth it to you? I am and always have been against Bush and his croney administration, but this time he got it right, thanks to the advice of his treasury staff. You should be thankful you aren’t in a soup line instead of complaining about collateral damage.
Hey, I still have $3.00 in my sock drawer that you missed!
Let me know when you are finished with the raping,looting, and pillageing of everything in America. I worked hard and did a good job but, when the layoffs came I packed up my desk and walked out the door with $177.00 a week unemployment.
I am in my late 50’s, no health insurance, almost nothing left in my 401k after the thieves mismanaged it.
My home is on the market but will never sell. I can’t afford to fill up the gas tank everyday to continue looking for work. Forget eating healthy foods. I don’t expect a bailout
from the government for myself. So, why would I even remotely expect the fatcats to get a bailout.
Amazing, the same people that created this mess ( Mr. Paulson and his friends on Wall Street) will lead us to the promised land. What about some change!!!!!!
This rush to judgment on a area that is so complex no one know what will happen either way, I would say let the market decide, not all the banks made these mistakes. This quick action was what created the Iraq problem. Once in you can’t get out.
No, I don’t think we should bail outthese companies.
Isn’t it just like the present government to not object to Corporate Welfare – I guess for corporate issues the government is not too big. I would rather see the money go to refinance the mortgages so people can pay them. Negotiate a low interest 30 year loan. Help the people. I wonder aare we going to be paying for the outrageous pays of the executives and the extra money they get when things get all messed up and people get fired?
why are we shocked??!! another outstanding example of the Worst administration in history taking care of BIG BUSINESS and the shoddy, shady, crooked and poorly conceived business plans.
surprised–not at all. incensed, why yes indeed!! will be interested to see how America votes on 11/4. i’m not too sure we get it yet.
how much do i have to lose to get bailed out?? forget it–i’m not a major corporate sponsor of the current administration!
WAKE UP AMERICA! OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE! WE HAVE JUST BEEN SCAMMED ONCE AGAIN!
WELCOME TO THE NEW UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WHERE WE HAVE FEWER CIVIL LIBERTIES THAN EVER BEFORE. THE PEOPLE THAT ARE RUNNING THINGS ARE ALL CORRUPT AND COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN.
THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE SO FAR GONE THAT WHENEVER PEOPLE WHO ARE INFORMED MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT IT THE AVERAGE PERSON DUBS IT “CONSPIRACY THEORIES”. KEEP IN MIND THAT TRUE PATRIOTS QUESTION THEIR GOVERNMENT. I AM A TRUE PATRIOT AND I AM SICKENED BY WHAT’S GOING ON!
The Federal Government has become like an enabling parent that needs to attend a 12-step program.
These bailouts are nothing short of bad behaviors & stop gaps that prolong the needed economic corrections in the market. Are these downturns painful? Yes, but it will be much worse later if these interventions are permitted to happen.
I recommend long-term counseling and creation of a 12-step program designed just for the White House & Congress.
What about all the homeowners that have never missed a mortgage payment and always pay on time. The people that honor the contract. The people who lived within there means.
It is not easy to always pay on time. How about a reward for playing by the rules.
Get over it? Ahh, CNN, surely you aren’t suggesting that Americans are a bunch of whiners? Get over it?
No, I think this time that Wall Street and Congress should get over it. In fact, I think we should start over, with Main Street leading this time instead of a bunch of whiners on Wall Street and their syncophants in Washington.
I wouldn’t be so quick to blame George Bush here. This mess started back with Jimmy Carter and enhanced by none other than Bill Clinton.
I think it is time for Social Darwinism to take effect. This is not a party issue, the President did not cause it-he has little control over such matters, it crosses all party lines. Greed caused it- and greed is universal. So now the Fed will set a precedent of nationalizing businesses, any business if they feel the need. The investment bankers have made incredible fortunes right down to the lowest account executive. Now we who lost our money will bail them out and pay again. I say let the fittest survive. If they were dumb enough to overspend, and overinvest, let them fail. Don’t signal to the next group of businessmen that there is no penalty for poor practices.
Let’s consider alternative legislation to the proposed $700 billion bailout of some of the biggest names in finance. The proposed legislation absolves the biggest shareholders from financial responsibility for the errors they have made. Simply wiping out their mistakes is not consistent with the American way of accountability.
The goal here, we can agree, is to inject capital back into the banks. One alternative to the proposed bailout is for the Treasury to take an equity position in financial firms who need the capital. Forcing the firms to issue additional stock would dilute the values of these financial stocks thereby addressing the accountability issue by the shareholders, the biggest being the Boards of Directors of these firms (the proposed legislation lets these biggest shareholders off the hook). Secondly, the burden of sorting out the mortgage backed securities would remain the responsibility of the individual firms. And, as these financial stocks eventually rise, the US Treasury can sell the stocks back to the firms thereby increasing their value and reducing the massive Federal debt this bailout is sure to cause for the taxpayer.
We need to pause to consider this alternative. The initial cost might be the same but the mechanics of a payback to the People, the taxpayers is worthy of consideration.
So after a life of hard work, this is my legacy to my children? An unpayable debt? A lifestyle that will never match the middle class environ of their youth? The rich seem to continue their march destroying the resources for those less “endowed.” See what has happened “on Golden Pond.” And yet the government (that is certainly a euphemism) deems an equitable solution to bestow monies beyond my comprehension to those bad boyz who did this? Oh, I get it… it is an early Christmas… the government buys $700 billion dollars of worthless paper for the public to enjoy! Hey, let’s try making the people who made this mess, clean it up themselves!
Who is focusing on legal responsibility for Fannie May, Freddie?? That’s the REAL issue at the very HEART of the problem. Get to the ROOT cause at these two organizations, and make some HEADS roll.
I don’t know enough about this but what I don’t understand is why there can’t be some previsions to help people stay in their homes, keep foreclosures off the market because it keeps prices up.
Some CEO’s are not taking their big payouts because they want to avoid further inquiries to avoid criminal charges. What about the CFO’s. COO”s, etc. they are in it too.
Who did Paulson work for before he became Sec. of Treasury? Former Chairman of Goldman Sacks…..is he taking care of his own.
the bailout cost is about 200 – 250 K for each person so for a family of 4 it costs almost million dollar to save wall street and others who made money. I think the banks with bad debt should deal with it. fixing it with my money.. not intrested.
call your elected officials now and tell them if they go for the bailout that you will certainly not vote for them again.
i surely have to work to pay my debts.
i get taxed on my income and get taxed on my expenditures….maybe we should(all of us taxpayers) just not go to work for a month and see where they would get the money to pad their pockets with.
ENOUGH already
What is important in this Federal Bailout is that the people responsible, the CEO’s, will retain their multi-million dollar lifestyles, that the politicians will gain favor despite their complicity in it, gaining favor by first encouraging it, and now condemning it, and every homeowner who has no right to the luxury of owning a home far beyond their means keeps that home and laughs at you while you struggle to meet your obligations fairly and honestly. Frankly, that’s life. Why is it shocking?
No one has written a comment since Sept of 08. Today is July 2 2009 and I am ashamed of being an American. MY health is poor my money is gone I have no job and the greedy banks now want 5% up from 2%. on credit card balance’s. No more God bless America, God help America!