Paulson's Panic

a bailout that will surely cost the ordinary taxpayer with no benefit in sight - if this bailout goes forward it must be with some future benefit to the ordinary taxpayer (i'm talking about those of us who pay their bills and honor their debts and live with the financial decisions they have made). This benefit needs to be either a certain tax break or credit or perhaps a way to fund social security and health care!

I agree very much with your comments and while I don't go into some of the factual details (by the way very informative although in some places debatable) I do allude to the same phenomena in my post at xwallstreeters site : http://www.xwallstreeters.com/content/forum-topic/care-explanation/questioning-modus-operandi

Still calling all Republicans? Where have you gone? Funny how Republicans keep winning elections but I can never find them to explain the socialist policies of Bush and McCain. Come out come out like Republican gay rep Foley and a gay Idaho Senator! Come out of the closet you Republicans. Not one of you can handle the truth.

LET THE FREE MARKET RUN ITS COURSE. NO BAILOUT. WHAT WILL WE LOSE ? ALL WE HAVE FROM THEM IS DEBTS. WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ANYWAY. THEY WILL LOSE ALL OF THEIR ILL GOTTEN PROFITS AND HOPEFULLY, THE REST OF THEIR DAYS IN PRISON. NOT SUCH A BAD DEAL. NO BAILOUT.

We regulate free transportation rights by posting reasonable speed limits on our roads. So get rid of posted speed limits to be rid of 'big government'? Getting rid of ALL financial regulation as unneccessary 'big government' simply invites predatory behavior. DUH.... Oh, of course, unless your have your 1/2 or one million dollars or more to invest. Then there is no such thing as 'predatory' financial practices, just free market profits. Its all relative right ??? I guess that's why Thomas Jefferson said wisely, 'sometimes revolution is a GOOD THING." Then it can be relative when we little people stomp the crap out of you ass holes.

I have not heard any mention in discussions re the bailout as to who will pay the interest on the 700 billion. The 700 billion will not be in the US budget but the interest will be and I would guess it would be in the neighborhood of 30 billion. I think this is an important issue.

"May", schmay. Rather than blathering on about Nixonian wage-price controls, etc, can the writer state what he would DO if he were the Treasury Secretary he chooses to malign. I suspect not since ivory tower musings from afar pay the mortgage and remain risk free.

Fred Norris has a point; however, his synopsis of events doesn't tell the whole story. When a well-educated, articulate professional agent deals with a person of much more modest education and communications skill, especially over complex loan application forms, it isn't on equal terms. This was frequently the case with loan officers involved in the "sub-prime" lending schemes that were at the heart of the present crisis...loans specifically made to people of limited means. There is such a thing as "fiduciary duty", or there used to be. This isn't just a case of regulation or non-regulation, either, but of visiting the consequences of bad economic decisions or advice upon those who are most responsible for them... and in this case, that group of highly culpable people includes many executives, who knew the wheels would eventually come off, but were not concerned, because they knew their golden parachutes would waft them off to safety, and others would be left holding the bag. It will not be easy to identify the people responsible for irresponsible decisions, and deny them, individually, from profitting from those errors of judgment or morals.

Calling all Republicans! I can't get anyone to answer. Tell me why Bush's plan is not socialism on a massive scale! He admitted that he was going to circumvent the hand of the free market. This bailout to the tune of almost a trillion dollars plus his massive expansive of Medicare make him the biggest socialism and expander of government since Nixon. Speak up you cowardly Republicans! Call a spade a spade. You are socialists if you support Bush like McCain supports him! I can't hear you.

This is boiling down to the American tax payer wants to let the FREE market play out. If it wipes out $5,000,000,000 of Buffet's riches...who gives a sh*t? If Paulson???s buddies at Goldman Suchs don't get $24 million bonuses, WE DON'T CARE!

The rich muckity mucks want US to guarantee them future profits. They want US to guarantee they get to stay rich (at our expense).

They can try all they want to convince us that the sky will fall; it???s not going to scare the American wage slave. Let the cards fall where they may. Live by the sword, die by the sword you greedy bastards. We wage slaves don't need million dollar loans to get by day to day. If your den of thieves (Wall Street) collapses we will feel justice is done!

If every wage slave family in America gets stuck with a $10k tax liability bailing out these evil chumps I'm gonna invest in some torches!
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Just another example of the pernicious pessimism of the press feeding the negativity of the average Americans! With the 24/7 drumbeat of talking heads that the economy is in a freefall recession???which is not true???how can the consumer maintain confidence in a financial system that is not readily understood. We are in a crisis of confidence; the trust needed for the smooth operation of functioning markets is not rebuilt by persistent predictions of apocalyptic scenarios. The regulators and Congress were grossly negligent to let greed,both on the part of Wall Street and Main Street, get out of balance with common sense






doingdo-nothing

Any

I thought the economy was drunk and had a hangover. I think BUSH was drunk for the past 7 years, and HE had a hang over that didn't want to deal with this. Or he hoped to be out of office when the shoe dropped. Either way, Republicans who wanted less government involvement with the financial system are to blame. I won't vote Republican again as long as any of the incumbents from 1999 who voted on the Phil Gramm bill, are OUT OF OFFICE and face legal recourse for their part in this mess. I would like to see them pay back the tax payer for every dollar they made in office.

I have many objections to the Paulson plan. Firstly it seems to be purposefully designed to make it very difficult to be passed by both sides of Congress. A clause for no oversight, nothing about trying to help homeowners, nothing about how the securities will be priced etc. It looks like Bush is giving such as bad proposal to Congress that he knows will not be passed and then he can pass the blame to Congress for not dealing with the mess hes has gotten the country into.

THE ONLY REASON THEY WANT TO PUSH THIS AS A CRISIS...........SO OUR ILLUSTRIOUS GOVERNMENT CAN PULL THE WOOL OVER OUR EYES JUST LIKE THEY DID FOR IRAQ!!!!!
THEY WANT NO RESTRICTIONS, FULL PACKAGES FOR DEPARTING EXECS, AND NO COLLATERAL OR BONDS FOR OUR TAXPAYER MONEY.
THAT MEANS THAT WE, OUR CHILDREN, OUR GRANDCHILDREN, AND OUR GREAT GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE PAYING FOR THIS THE REST OF OUR/THEIR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT A TRAGEDY, THAT THEY DON'T SEEM TO REALIZE THIS PLOY RIGHT B/4 THE ELECTION WILL ONLY HELP ALL WHO VOTE FOR THIS, THE WAY PAULSON AND BERNAKE WANT IT, WILL BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE COME NOVEMBER AS THIS WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN BY HARD WORKING AMERICANS WHO DO NOT GET FREE BAILOUTS WITH BENEFITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!