The Captain of the Street

Why didn't Newsweek quote verbatim from the document Paulson has submitted for approval for over $700 billion dollars?

"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."

In other words, the executive branch will have immediate and absolute power over the administration of the bailout - without any checks and balances by the judicial or legislative branches. Being implemented by the a financial wizard/CEO from the financial world that has created this debacle in the first place.

hang them all.........sell out crooks ......hang them all starting with king George.

In 1929, the stock market crashed because there was no regulation of trading practices (e.g., buying on margin). During the 1980's, many savings-and-loans (including the one run by John McCain's close friend Charles Keating) collapsed because they had been deregulated during the Reagan Administration, and subsequently engaged in incredibly risky practices (e.g., buying junk bonds), leaving us with a $500 billion bill to cover their insured accounts. Over the past twenty years, antitrust legislation has become a joke, leaving America with companies so large that we "can't afford to let them go under." This century, the unregulated mortgage practices have led to the need for Paulson's "radical game plan for beating America's financial crisis.

At some point, we will understand that American history has repeatedly shown us that unregulated business simply does not work, and that when we do not use an ounce of prevention, we need a ton of cure.

Are you crazy! The "big calm man" who is asking for unprecedented power, no oversight, no strings attached?? The man, who just two years ago, was working for Goldman Saks, the company who was betting the market would go down? The man who works for the Bush Administration, who once again says: "Its a crisis! Trust us! No time for oversight! It's an emergency" Act now!" Can I sell you a bridge in Brooklyn?

"Obama should really tell the truth. He needs to repeat several times that he is a leftist socialist in the European tradition. "
"Obama is Muslim..."
"He???s a communist"...etc.
"Bush/McCain are intelligent and trustworthy"...

This is the sort of conjecture we keep getting from the noecons, the far right wing, as our nation???s equity
slides further into the abyss! Where and who caused the slide? Its is a fundamental flaw due to conservative policy of no oversight, no regulation on the fat cats, big business all the while giving them a taxless gravy train!

All such statements are most irresponsible-they are based from nationalist fascist views of hate and bigotry fueled by plutocratic greed!

They are views that believe it is correct to, "socialize the debt or our nation and privatize the wealth for the elite!" Is this American? (Corporate welfare- capitalistic socialism)

The nations future, its fate hinges on a ledge. We are uncertain about the future!

But we do know how we got here and the time has come to assure ourselves that it doesn???t happen again!
The GOP / conservatism are failures, they have not taken up with mainstreet America, they have not looked after the American dream. They sold out the many to side with the few. They even betrayed much of their own constituency!

Keep assassinating Obama???s character with slurs/ lies!

Are you the fascist, who believes every injustice that has happen to our nation over the past eight years is nothing, all is fine?

The bad loans are backed by something so it is not a total loss as with the dot.com bust. Not all the loans will fail and will be sold at some rate. The poor guy who could not afford a home a few years ago can aford one now, because he has a job and will be able to get a loan. This is not Jimmy Carter time, where interest rates were 16% and gas lines. The one change I would like made is that all the Chairmans of the various federal committies responsible for oversite for this problem for the last 10 years be sent home without the chance to screw up again. Oversite is now done from CNN or Fox but before

There is only one way to "fix" the mortgage crisis. A) Automatically set every mortgage in the country to a 30 year fixed rate at current prime rate plus .5% (there has to be just a little profit just to keep things going). B) SLASH salaries at the banks so that NO ONE has a salary of more than $60K per year (Gee, Mr. Bank President might have to sell his $35million mansion and live in a 3/2/2 like so many of us...). C) Make the bank executives put back into the bank what they took out, you know save their own skins so to speak. D) Reinstate usery laws, no credit interest rate can be more than prime plus 4%. E) Outlaw variable rate credit.. F) when it comes to stocks (or anything else) you can only sell what you actually have, no speculating. Finally, flat rate taxation. No fancy shelters etc. Just a flat rate. The other side fo the fence comes in government itself. Outlaw lobbying, slash government projects, and formalize regulation such that whan congress passes a bill, it is only about one thing, no "riders" attached (i.e. no pork barrel spending). Add in roll social security back to the way it was orignally designed to work (it was making a profit before LBJ came along) - not a part of the general fund and no double dipping by former spouses (thanks GF..) to deplete the resources. It's not just the banks, it's government wanting to hold theoir hands. This bailout , no mater how it goes, will screw over thenext two generatioons of Americans, all thanks to bad management for the past 40 years (all you party memebrs, don't point fingers at the other party, it's BOTH of your fault). I didn't get these folks into this mess, I'm not going to bail them out. If the bank can't hold up it's end fo the contract in a mortgage, then they should default the tittle to the homeowner. Poor planning on your part does not a crisis on my part make.

Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

(to the melody of Big Rock Candy Mountain)
Lyrics By WilliamBanzai7


One evening as the DOW went down and the ABX was burning
Down the track came a banker hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away from Wall Street's crystal towers
So come with me we'll go and see the Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

In Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow from the Bush bailout pros and you sleep sound every night
Where the ABS books are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the bonus trees
Where the perrier springs where the squawk box sings
In the Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

In Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains all the regulators have wooden legs
And the shorts all have rubber teeth and the taxpayers lay golden eggs
The traders books are full of fruit and the bankers play all day
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

In Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains you never sell your stocks
And the glimmering streams of origination fees come a-trickling down the rocks
The enforcers have to tip their hats and the bears and shorts are banned
There's a lake of stew and of champagne too
You can sail all around 'em in your custom yachts
In Bernankies Big Rock Candy Mountains

In Bernanke's Rock Candy Mountains white collar jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung that jerk from Berkshire Hathaway
In Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in Bernanke's Big Rock Candy Mountains

I have the strong feeling that Bush put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Which allegations are stronger? To his buddies in the wallstreet or on the mainstreet?
Well, Rumsfeld liked to call the Europeans sclerotic when they didn't fallow Bush to Iraqu (except Toni Blair)
History has rather proven them right. They also seem not to be willing to t follow Bush n Paulson in the way they manage the financial crises.
Maybe, not every old man must be sclerotic.

It is so funny the government thinks I am going to take a hit as a taxpayer for the theft that is going on?Not for one minute.Today I drove around and looked at what state natural resources were going to pay my taxes on my land because I will never put in another 30 yrs. to the man.My felow blue collar workers do not put 20 to 30 more yrs.working in a system that will never retire you or take care of you when you are too old.We need to take all corparate dictatorships down now is the time.Find someone with a white collar on and bury them.

Whilst this financial crisis is threatening to become the deepest and most serious upset to the world's economic stability in history, the fact that your article focuses on one man, his biography, and his working style is deeply troubling. This very crisis is proof that the system is in need of serious regulating, because men like Paulson have been given free reign in making money for their shareholders and themselves without actually creating value, just by using the system and its lack of rules or safeguards, which they have lobbied Congress for decades to loosen or eliminate. Your readers deserve a better analysis than "Don't worry guys, this ex-football star is the Right Stuff for the situation."

There is something very wrong with the numbers here if this "bailout is because of the foreclosures.

I do not have access to the actual numbers but it appears there are roughly 2.5 million foreclosures.
Assuming the banks would lose perhaps $30,000 on each forclosure this would equal 75billion, not $700billion.
Even if my numbers are way off, to have a lose of $700billion the banks would have to lose nearly $300,000 on each foreclosure.

Seems that Newsweek once us to believe once again that the elusive WMD???s have been moved from the desert sands of Iraq and are now lurking on wall street. The best bail out for America is to erase all consumer debt owed by credit card holders and home owners struggling with their fixed and exotic mortgage payments. American is a consumer based economy and the only product America produces in the 21st century is personal debt and Govt. IOUs. By erasing individual debt our nation will prosper once again because we can consume our way into prosperity.

Seems that Newsweek once us to believe once again that the elusive WMD???s have been moved from the desert sands of Iraq and are now lurking on wall street. The best bail out for America is to erase all consumer debt owed by credit card holders and home owners struggling with their fixed and exotic mortgage payments. American is a consumer based economy and the only America produces in the 21st century is personal debt and IOUs to the world. By erasing individual debt our nation will prosper once again because we can consume our way into prosperity.

A PARAPHRASE FROM KANSAS ANDY FOR JOHN McCAIN:
= = = = = = = = =

For your 13 cars including the 2 "foreign cars" you told Michigan autoworkers you would never buy, because you only buy American:

- - - $490,000

For the 7 homes that you can't remember having and none are in foreclosure because your lobbyist friends looked out for you:

- - - $19,600,000

For the 1 pair of shoes you are wearing today, minus the bootstraps you never needed because your wife's father agreed to bank roll your political career after you left your first wife:

- - - $500

That sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you just can't keep a lid on all the lies ahead of Nov. 4th election:

- - - PRICELESS!!

THE VOTER'S REGISTRATION CARD - - - DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!!

After years of promising trickle down economics, which never trickled down at all, we have finally reached the goal at the tail end of the Bush administration. These bailouts will trickle down on the American public for years, but in the form of debt instead of the trickle of prosperity that was promised.

The figurative goodbye from this president as he repairs to his luxurious home in Dallas near his library at the prestigious Southern Methodist University, will be, "Adios, and take this economy and eat it".