A Bargain Bailout?

As a public high school teacher, the current state of our public institutions reflect our values as a society, from my point of view. We are bailing out these failing institutions with taxpayer dollars while the state of our public school system continues to decline.

I invite readers to compare the federal funding and bailouts for failing economic powerhouses verses the declining support and funding of our public schools: Strong schools and education that ALL of our children and citizens benefit from.

Good teachers are being laid off and class sizes are growing. No child left behind is a law that requires improvements without the promised funding to implement these improvements. And our schools are listed as "failing schools" because of unrealistic goals that are never supported or funded by the federal government in the first place. What is left in our public schools is often a stressed out skeleton staff that does not have the ability to properly educate our students, which we would hope will lead us someday to more effective ways of running this country.

Meanwhile, these corporate lobbyists have effectively secured deregulation and what they consider "optimal" conditions for their financial success (deregulation). And a few well-connected people have lined their pockets with enormous amounts of other peoples' money.

This sort of short-term gain at the expense of long-term growth way of thinking has infected our entire way of running our society. This is NOT A REPUBLICAN VS DEMOCRATIC "WEDGE" issue. Enough is enough!

Unfortunately middle and lower class young people (the MAJORITY) of our future do not have the money or the resources to hire corporate lobbyists. Their teachers and their schools have limited resources. And there is little to NO organized efforts to effectively support the reform and progress to lead our public schools to educate and prepare our future. In every other developed and developing country we compare our students' progress with, there is a clear and dedicated effort to improve, fund, and prioritize education. In America, we are starving our schools while bailing out reckless fat cats who've thrived on greed. Is this the American Way? Or have we lost our way?

Let this be a lesson to us!!! Hopefully (as we say in class) we will learn from these mistakes and become better - isn't this the American Way?

melbee71@yahoo.com

The spin newsweek puts on stories makes me wonder if it is run by the CIA. Does anyone know if they were one of the news organizations penetrated during the '50's and '60's by the cia?

Why is the writer assuming that loans under $417K were not made in "bubbly and frothy" market areas? Have you looked at the number of For Sale signs in marginal neighborhoods? This article makes so many similar assumptions as to render in not credible in the overall.

What makes anyone think that the U.S. debt "can never fail" ? This article is not taking into consideration any of the real world impacts due to the fact that a large part of Fannie and Freddie are held by foreign central banks, and a selloff of over a trillion dollars of "implicitly " U.S. government backed debt instruments would eviscerate the ever weakening dollar. On the other hand The savings to the average American is not that big a deal. One million people with one dollar each doesn't change much, but if you take that one million and put it all in one person's hands, that person can do quite a bit with it. That is what Fannie and Freddie are doing: skimming a small percentage off trillions of dollars of debt to enrich themselves and thier cronies. So 5% down initially helped people get into houses. it also helped people get into more house than they could afford, and stoked market conditions for inflated house prices. What is going on with Fannie and Freddie is a bailout, and it will cost all of us dearly. This is just another cable snapping in the failing bridge which is our banking system created by the perfect storm of greed and hubris that was the housing bubble. Daniel Gross, it seems that you are deliberately trying to understate the problem, avoid the larger ramifications and mollify the layman.

What makes anyone think that the U.S. debt "can never fail" ? This article is not taking into consideration any of the real world impacts due to the fact that a large part of Fannie and Freddie are held by foreign central banks, and a selloff of over a trillion dollars of "implicitly " U.S. government backed debt instruments would eviscerate the ever weakening dollar. On the other hand The savings to the average American is not that big a deal. One million people with one dollar each doesn't change much, but if you take that one million and put it all in one person's hands, that person can do quite a bit with it. That is what Fannie and Freddie are doing: skimming a small percentage off trillions of dollars of debt to enrich themselves and thier cronies. So 5% down initially helped people get into houses. it also helped people get into more house than they could afford, and stoked market conditions for inflated house prices. What is going on with Fannie and Freddie is a bailout, and it will cost all of us dearly. This is just another cable snapping in the failing bridge which is our banking system created by the perfect storm of greed and hubris that was the housing bubble. Daniel Gross, it seems that you are deliberately trying to understate the problem, avoid the larger ramifications and mollify the layman.

Socialism for the corporations and free markets for the people! This world is backwards,
we protect the criminals and punish the working people.

Daniel Gross.... Get your head out of your %#S & take a walk in the real world

This is yet another fluff piece that sets out assuming what it is trying to prove, simply to gloss over the actual costs to US taxpayers of this mess. It makes fantasy assumptions about both governments and markets as a sop to politicians and banking executives so they can more easily skate around their complicity in the actual costs and consequences of the deregulation and privatization of government.

Think about the exposure mortgage leaders have with all the homeowers who did not refinace in the last decade. Borrwers with little debt or homes owned free and clear . You state "the government would have to come up with about $31 billion...big ...costs for taxpayers" .Back to the poor sap who stayed out of the GSE debacle and private lable (sub prime) turmoil is'not so insulated from exposure. Fannie Mae and Feddie Mertz mismangement. You say the U.S. government is a "Question" mark in accordance with the potential cost to taxpayers .while home prices in some areas drops by 75% in value. So now the guy in our example can brag about losing 3/4 of his equity and look forward to paying a bail out taxe for a problem he had nothing to do with.

Fannie and Freddie should hire Obama's campaign advisers. They will show them how to collect millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of people of modest means by using the internet. Just tell them why you need the money and give them a good reason for why you should have it and, voila, it's done. This would eliminate the middle man, the IRS, who collects our income tax. Millions saved in collections alone. The IRS is the last place that any citizen would like to pay money if they didn't have to.

Notice to the Bankers; it is time for you to go back to your loyal customers and send them notice on what is happening in your branch and what they can expect. Let them know where you stand in your asset control and how you plan to allow the BUBBLE to float on water until it can be restructured to a raft. We the people who deposit every day need to be given the chance to contribute and will if you will take a chance and believe in those who allow you to lead a great life. It would be nice to see the notices go out to each person who is making a deposit and each person who has a bank statement go out each month. Don't wait to allow corporate america to control your assets.

Notice to the Bankers; it is time for you to go back to your loyal customers and send them notice on what is happening in your branch and what they can expect. Let them know where you stand in your asset control and how you plan to allow the BUBBLE to float on water until it can be restructured to a raft. We the people who deposit every day need to be given the chance to contribute and will if you will take a chance and believe in those who allow you to lead a great life. It would be nice to see the notices go out to each person who is making a deposit and each person who has a bank statement go out each month. Don't wait to allow corporate america to control your assets.

Lets go back to Fuzzy Math and the BUBBLE that really doesn't exist except on red lettered papers in corporate america. what did america learn when the philippines banking went on holiday. Who gained. BANKS. yes, the delightful way of driving up the investors of the world by buying large corporate loans knowing that your default could bring on a major challenge to the bank. Let the bank go under and buy it back at a fraction of the amount and start it back up not owing a dime. sounds like a great way to turn a profit. Personally, I will support my bank and keep my money in there. I am not going to jump across the border because a few big corporate executives can't tighten their own belts they want to curb their employees buy cutting the payroll. Well, in the year 2008 it is not going to work. Unless you can break unions and buy up foreign minfins to pay of a 50 billion write off of russian money launders. Its a Wonderful Life that presents the American public at large a even bigger challenge. We have a lot more power then some shined shoe sales man sitting in a high rise thinking he can out the guy in the next office. Know who your bank is lending to, make note of their lending status and go check out their portifolio on their web sites. If your banks risk level is off centered it is time to bring the board to reality. Make that phone call to the bank president and send a letter to congress against Credit card bilking the real story behind the story of the subprime. Make sure if they are making that dollar you get a small bean to put in your pocket or your dealing with the wrong agency. Education is the foundation of our country don't ever let someone say that a child doesn't deserve a chance to get educated because he can't get the loan. The foundation is weak and hasn't crumbled yet. Start sand bagging it until we can get a real engineer like our famed Greenspan to let us know how to deal the cards. Lucio Tan where are you when we need a real giant? Make the call and do your homework. You are worth every penny or perhaps we should all cash in our pennies being the average joe has approx $27.00 of pennies in their home. We could put the mint out of business in this area for 3-4 years. AMAZING! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that someone is making money and what kind of gain would you and your community like to see from it.

Sounds like these organizations have been integral in fueling the housing crises bubble. It's time for the government to get out of such things as home mortgages and student loans. Easy avialability of credit only drives up prices of things such as housing and tuition. Thanks Big Bother for all your help.