Big Government to the Rescue

Would someone please tell me why I and my children should purchase $700 billion worth of garbage.

what are you saying exactly? Bernanke and Paulson or any economist for that matter, can assure that the bailout will solve the problem. Taxpayers would be paying the "big giants" mistakes with NOTHING in return. Isn't enough that these same taxpayers are the ones losing their homes and their jobs for those "big giants" mistakes and let's add lack of government supervision to fraudalent market actions.
Bailout? And they need it quick??? Giving a blank check to the big giants. Don't you think there is enough money out there...let's say China, Dubai ...to buy shares from AIG, Lehman, etc? YES! there is.. as a matter of fact Lehman already did that..SO! NO BAILOUT!! It makes no sense to risk billions and billions of dollars for a plan with no guarantees to succeed. Government is trying to buy speculation...that's all there is to it

This is a crisis of immense proportions and a testimony to the fallibility of any system of economic management. We saw this coming - huge swaths of risky debt instruments were created with no regard for risk profiling. Unbridled optimism in the ability of the market to create wealth ( and regulate itself) has resulted in a debacle that combined with a rudderless political leadership might be a symptomatic of the decline of a once great nation called USA.

If Paulson has so much "intelligence, drive and pragmatism" why did he wait until looking in to the "abyss" to do or say anything that experts like Kevin Phillips author of Bad Money) have been saying for years: the market was headed for a meltdown due to reckless, unregulated practices and greed. And if Bernanke is "brilliant" ,so knowledgeable and wise, where has he been? Cheerleading the Bush economic policies and trying to "calm fears" so more people would invest. administrators.

Fareed has the 'ability' to be balanced and unbiased. This is extremely unusual for Newsweek - Their integrity and ethics are generally questionable at best.

If Newsweek can get their act together and be fair, Zakaria has a eal rfuture there. Elsewise, a man of his calibre will go elsewhere.

Did we really see government behave as it should?

One wonders.

FDR's famous speech, about the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, gives us pause. There's an awful lot of fear mongering going on these days, from both dems and repubs, from both congress and the executive branch - do we really want a government that traffics so well in fear tactics making decisions for us?

After all, this is the government that gave us the Iraq war, NAFTA, and an abysmal response to Katrina. And when I say government, I don't just mean the Bush administration, I mean the democratic controlled Gongress too, and the Clinton administration and the republican controlled congress before. We've had 16 years of incompetence - plenty of blame to go around.

The real loss of confidence may not just be with Wall Street - it may well be with Washington, too.

Things are to the point where the average citizen doesn't trust their government officials any more than they trust the private sector.

And when that happens, can revolution be far behind?

Just watch. Congress will do the same thing that was done to get us into this mess. They will look to the lobbyists who represent the institutions in question to draft the legislation for the "regulation" that we now demand. Congress persons are very busy trying to get elected the next term and they really don't have time to sit and write legislation. They look to the experts furnished by the businesses that they will pass laws to govern to draft the legislation that concerns them. Just watch.

A spoof of what's really happening....

********** Request for urgent business Relationship **********

e-mail
From: Paulson.Bernanke[@]federal_reserve.Nigeria.gov
To: citizen[@]USA/TV.gov

First, we must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. We are sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude.

We are top officials of the Federal Government who are interested in obtaining funds presently held by our government's treasury and trapped in the treasury by the restrictions over Congress imposed by the 'Commerce Clause' of our Constitution.

The government officials previously set up companies and awarded these companies contracts which were grossly over-invoiced in various
departments (Pentagon, Aerospace, N.A.S.A., etc, etc.).

We are presently attempting to seize all remaining funds.

Before these monies are paid out we, as civil servant, are unable to access these funds directly because of the 'Commerce Clause" in the
Constitution, and we request that you petition your elected representatives to ignore the commerce clause and deposit the initial sum of
$700,000,000,000 (7 hundred-thousand-million dollars) into the Federal Reserve Banking Consortium.

We admit that there is a strong possibility that The Supreme Court may find that the framers of the constitution enabled Congress ONLY to make
laws and NOT to transfer the contents of the treasury to a quasi-government institution, but we implore you to not petition The Supreme Court to see if this proposed transaction is constitutional. We MUST keep the courts out of this transaction.

Faithfully yours,

Paulson Bernanke
Federal Reserve Bank, Nigeria

end of spoof..... ?

None of these men are 'brilliant' The are just 'brilliant' at hosing the American people and making money.
If they were 'brilliant' they would bring back the jobs to America that they have sent offshore. about 10 million jobs so far....and counting.

The immediacy of the federal government to bailout a multi-national insurance corporation without doing more for the majority of Americans (over these past 8 years ) that earn less than $250-300k just shows the influence and power that big corporations have in this country, and how some reform in regards to goverment regulation and oversight of Corporate America is in the best interests of the American people.

Corporate bailouts make major proposals to help America's middle -class families by reforming our nation's healthcare and educational systems seem much less of a stretch in the grand scheme of things, doesn't it? Ironic, how the candidate who proposed these major changes early on, was viewed as the less sensible of the two. How quickly things can change! Go team Obama-Biden!

Let me get this straight, less regulation was wrong. Rewarding those who were wrong is right. If that is so we have a lot of other people who need rewarding. Or is it we are only rewarding those failures who have the right connections or clout? If you are democrat or republican vote out anyone who votes for this travesty. If you are not sure wait until it hits the fan then you will know vote these people out. Leave no one in office who ssupportssupportsg thisthis get rid of them all

What will be the actions in order to stop the loss of value on housing?? Is someone reviewing the Appraisal processes?? If someone don`t stop it, it will suck us all... until the houses value will be cero!

Crital: Differenciate between Regulation vs Interfiering. We need Regulation that controls the greed of some unconcoius people. At this momnet we need the actions taken by the goverment, but also I will like to see how this huge financial companies, that created and/or enjoyed the mess, are going to pay for it. I will be very unhappy seen huge earnings for this companies and in the mean time we paying higher interest rates.

The most important thing is to distinguish between Regulation and Interfiering. Markets need Regulation, that allow them to grow but also protect the participants (all of them, not only the big ones!). At this moment action has to be taken. What I would like to see is how this big financials companies , that created the problem, are going to pay for this mess. At this moment I only see how we, ordinary people !, are going to pay for it.

daplane, obviously you have no idea about markets. Did you ever hear about perfect competition, oligopoly, etc. If a market is not a perfect competition market, that market is subject to inefficiencies. The market you are talking about just by selling apple and orange are not perfect markets, and more importantly are not fundamental for the health of an economy. So you can let them work as it is. But some markets are crucial.

To nnnft, if market don't need regulation, why do you punish insider trading with prison term? Do you even know why insider trading is illegal? Isn't it a regulation? If you're so against regulation, OK, let's make insider trading free and let the markets find the insider traders and punish them itself without any government intervention. Then come here and talk about the results.

To nnnft, if market don't need regulation, why do you punish insider trading with prison term? Do you even know why insider trading is illegal? Isn't it a regulation? If you're so against regulation, OK, let's make insider trading free and let the markets find the insider traders and punish them itself without any government intervention. Then come here and talk about the results.

To nnnft, if market don't need regulation, why do you punish insider trading with prison term? Do you even know why insider trading is illegal? Isn't it a regulation? If you're so against regulation, OK, let's make insider trading free and let the markets find the insider traders and punish them itself without any government intervention. Then come here and talk about the results.