Hell no, any form of socialism is a big no-no in my book. I'm just belching out facts I'm hearing on Foxnews.

 

Note the avoidance of the Bush is a bad leader question, Stealth is programmed to only criticize Democrats, unable to realize reality.

 

Facts and FoxNews. Talk about a contradiction in terms...

regards

 

A few things to run up the flagpole. If y'all don't agree I can understand but I do think our emotions are running a little high right now.

1. Whose Plan is it/was it??

It is my opinion based on what I have read and seen/heard that it was in no way GW's plan. To be catty, he ain't that smart.

I believe it is Hank Paulson's Plan, worked out with Bernanke and what's his name at the SEC. According to what I read, Paulson is almost universally respected not only on Wall Street but around the world in financial circles. He spent 30 years at Goldman Sachs, leaving as Chairman/CEO.

While this may sound naive, I understand he wrote the original 3 page Plan in such a way that it gave almost unlimited power to the "Secretary of The Treasury" to resolve the crisis. To himself, and perhaps his successor, not the President. My thought process here is that neither the incumbent President nor the two current candidates would chance interfering with the Secretary of The Treasury. All three know there is no chance of taking credit for anything good coming out of this and a huge risk of being blamed if they got too involved. Let Paulson do the job and if it works, he is the hero and if not, he is the goat.

Yesterday, he was interviewed on one of the Sunday Talk Shows, I forget which one, and the sense that I got from reading the transcript was that he was very disappointed and frustrated that people were so emotional about the amount and the fact that it was taxpayer's dollars that were involved.

He is pretty firm in saying that when the whole thing washes out in a few years, worst case scenario is we do lose some of our tax dollars but save ourselves from a disaster, probable scenario is the Government/Us will make a small return on the money spent and best case that we will make a sizeable profit.

The devil, as they say, is in the details and he was equally blunt in saying that he didn't have a lot of time for details right now. Said the same thing about executive compensation. Nobody gets rich on this one but don't press me for details would be a fair characterization of his remarks.

Sort of the ultimate "Trust Me" Hail Mary play. "I know what I am doing, let me do it."

2. We are not in this alone

I am far from an expert in International Economics, but I did work for two Swedish companies for 25 years and that included 3 two year tours in 3 other countries.

I don't think there is a country out there who's economic system is not totally intertwined with ours. There are bank bailouts going on today in Belgium, Norway, Hong Kong and other areas that are totally tied to their exposure to the American system.

If we think things are bad now, here, we have no idea what may happen if this is allowed to continue and spread around the world. We are so dependent on our bank and investment dealings with the rest of the world, if some of our major trading and banking partners start to go down, this week will look like a frat party.

3. This is sort of a throwaway comment, but I could not believe what I read about Pelosi's remarks when the Bill came up today.

She was a lead partner in both the original Plan and later the actual Bill itself and it was almost a slam dunk. She and the Democrats could have taken credit for it, if they wished. Instead she went off her nut and took the occasion to blast everything the Republicans stand for. As I read the comments, her remarks were enough to push enough Republican Congressmen who were on the fence over to the No side and the Bill failed.

4. What Now???

My real concern is if we don't do this Bill or something similar to it, what are we going to do?? I have to agree with Bush that to do nothing is not an alternative. I also fear that Paulson and his lieutenants may just give up and more or less dump the whole thing in the President's lap. That would not be good.

Just some thoughts for the day.

Bill

 

We also have the largest corporate tax breaks allowed in the world. Most have taxes they HAVE to pay. If you factor in what is really paid we are near the bottom of actual taxes paid to government.


Many other experts have been sounding warnings for months, even the last couple of years about unregulated market...How did Paulson miss this so completely?
I have money in the market im losing, business I own and invest in are being crushed and I would benefit from the bailout and I still think it's fundamentally wrong....I still say no.

Recently when Wamu failed the president who only been on the job 3 weeks got 18 million reward when he lost his job.

If we (government/market) made bad financial choices and have to pay, what will pumping more money in a broken system do?

 

Very well said Bill. Some people just like to hear themselves talk( or read what they post) and have little idea of what the ramifications of doing nothing really means.

 

Did Obama vote "PRESENT" again?

 

If I read the roll call right, neither McCain nor Obama voted, and the list doesn't mark them as not voting either.


http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml

 

I just didn't have the heart to point that out!

 

Figures, am backwards on the House / Senate.

Just like they all are..

 

Well, I think a good arguement could be made that were they members of the House, they would have skipped it.

 

Nope, just pooping my pants. They got pooped (most recently) in 2001 as well.
I just checked a few things on line. I reserve the right to jump out a window..........

 

As opposed to?

 

Ya, like fair and balanced.

I heard a congressman state on the radio today that everybody seems to have forgotten that any business can prosper or fail. It is not the place of the government to prop up failures, at the expense of the tax payers. I agree.

 

Bill, I watch 60 minutes last night and saw the interview... Hank seems to be in a panic and very emotional!!! Pelosi this afternoon reaffirmed that she is a first class dumb b@#$% who is easy to ignore... Hank admitted that this would do nothing to strengthen the economy. It is not even a guarantee that banking community would not fail. He also did not say anything except without passage the banks are doomed. Without exception, they are all saying that the credit card banks will be next if this passes or not ... So we are going to pass this for what purpose? To prolong the inevitable?

The problem as I see it is that we have been living in a propped up economy since the middle of Clinton. Clinton was lucky that the internet boom and y2k created millions of jobs in technology. Any knuckle head could have been president during that time and could have not ruined the economy. That influx of earnings helped all industries grow. For example, In 1998 if you could turn a computer on, you could get a job in the computer industry. At the end of 1999, I was looking around and thought to myself what is going to drive the job growth now? Because I saw too many examples of the lame employees who should thank their lucky stars they had a job making 60K+... In 2001, we all know what happened and what happened to the economy, well all of the markets except HOUSING. We had Major Corps taking huge loses, service industry jobs leaving by the millions to other parts of the world. How could it be that the housing market stayed so strong? We should all know that this housing crap was policy that was expanded by Clinton and CONTINUED by Bush... (I would bet my house, that these housing practices were allowed to continue, because if they put the brakes on, the economy would fall flat on its face)... Think about it ... there were law firms that SUED BANKS and MORTGAGE Companies that did not make enough enough sub-prime loans in a year.

So the brakes have been put on for us and this "bank crisis" is going to hurt and it is going to hurt real bad. This can and will correct itself. The banks need to take the hit and suck it up and kick the people out of the property and sell the property at $.60 on the dollar (not look to federal funds to wipe it all away). ALSO, take the BAD POLICY OFF THE BOOKS!!!! NOT ONE PERSON (President, VP, Congressman, Senator, Presidential Candidate) HAS SAID THAT THE REQUIRED SUB-PRIME LENDING IS NOW (OR IS GOING TO BE IF I AM ELECTED) A THING OF HISTORY. IF THAT IS NOT PART OF THE BILL, I HOPE IT CONTINUES TO FAIL!!! JMHO ...