What is it Really Going to Cost?

Hershey,
Ridiculous!!! Let's do the math - assume 50,000,000 legal taxpaying Americans x$200,000 = 10 Trillion dollars.

This is not a problem than will be solved overnight simply by moving money around - it's going to take years and a lot of pain before we can see any semblance of recovery. We need to throw off our addiction to credit and get back to basics - education, saving and hardwork.

Maybe soup lines and $10 a gallon gasoline is what is needed to get us to realize we aren't the chosen ones and can face the realities the rest of the world have been subjected to. My biggest peeve is the wealth the fat cats have been able to accumulate while the rest of the country suffers.

This came as no surprise to the politians and investment people. Remember this always...MONEY NEVER DISAPPEARS...IT ONLY CHANGES HANDS.

Here's the problem. If the banks all have problems, no one lends money. That causes the economy to go into a recession, and we all suffer. If the government bails out the banks and provides them with cash, business can go on as usual, without a big hit on the economy. The costs of the bailout go to the national debt.

I have two comments.

1. Fire Paulson. His stupidity got us here in the first place. People have been warning about this for a long time, and Paulson kept saying "Everything is fine." He is the last person I want to see try to resolve this mess.

2. Pay as little as possible, as slowly as possible, while avoiding a full economic disaster. Err on the side of safety, but giving the banks a free ride simply encourages them and others to continue in this behavior. Free markets make people suffer for their mistakes, that's way they avoid making them. The other option is a huge amount of government regulation, some of which is needed, regardless.

If the government pays as little as possible, the long-term impact may not be that bad. If they over pay, we will be paying for generations.

This came as no surprise to the politians and investment people. Remeber this...MONEY NEVER DISAPPEARS...IT ONLY CHANGES HANDS.

How can we be expected to pay for this, when many of the taxpayers are losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgage. The housing industry is ridiculous with the prices. Many people go into a high mortgage because they "THINK" or hope they can afford it. I know people who paid over $350,000 for their home (not new) and after renovations, etc. they find it hard to pay the mortgage. Now as taxpayers, they have to pay for this plan and still try to pay their home.

The people of this country are about to make the biggest and most important decision effecting this country and the world in about forty or so days. That decision, which they will make, trumps anything happening on Wall Street to or in Congress today. Let???s get on with the business of the election. Eight years ago and again four years ago, the people just simply blew it. Today, they have an opportunity to take a step towards correcting the bone-headed decisions of the past two elections. Millions of lives have been destroyed, hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, trillions of dollars blown, likewise, needlessly and destruction untold are just a few of the results of the grossly erroneous decisions the people made. The people asked for this mess with their wayward votes and now they got it. With their votes, they called for and got a repeat of the Herbert Hoover era. With their votes, they yelled, in effect, "ENCORE". It's here!!

The election is much more important than the political haggling going on in D.C., which in the end will result in making incompetent CEOs on Wall Street and elsewhere more filthy rich than they already are. You watch. In a year or two we will be counting the upgraded super stretched sea-going yachts headed for Tahiti and elsewhere. It will be thanks to bail out funds gone awry and disappearing into the bank accounts of the greedy, incompetent CEOs, who wouldn???t recognize the word patriotism even if it was explained to them by a six year old. As it did with Katrina and has done and is still doing in Iraq, tax payers??? bail out money will just disappear into an abyss without explanation for the non-existent or ineffective oversight. All Americans should be trembling in their shoes as they ask themselves exactly how many millionaires will 700 (no controls) billions make?

Will the banks or mortgage lenders still be able to write these forclosures off as a loss and get another tax break for their loss?

A federal deficit is a DEFERRED tax--put off to the next generations.

Accordingly, Pres. Bush has raised your children's taxes by $400-500 Billion.

Hershey:
Ridiculous!!! Let's do the math - Assume 50,000,000 legal tax paying americans x $200,000 = 10 Trillion dollars. This is the sort of thinking that got America into this mess. Ultimately we ned to get back to basics and away from our addiction to credit.

This is a massive problem that was in the making for years and won't be solved overnight by moving money around. Maybe soup lines and gas at $10 a gallon is what's needed to shake people up and realize we aren't the chosen ones and can feel the pain much of the rest of the world already faces.

Why is it the members of congress LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTE IT IS OUR MONEY!!!!!!CAPITALISM IS WHEN AIG CLEANS UP THERE OWN MESS NOT THE TAXPAYERS IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER WHY DON"T THE COUNTRIES WE BAILED HELP US OUT OR BETTER YET EXXON WOULD INVEST IN AIG !!!!!!!!!!NOT TAX PAYERS ASK ROSS PEROT

Each company receiving gov't assistance should be required to return a like percentage to the gov't, that would be divided up between the Treasury Dept and all tax payers, in the form of a tax credit.
Honesty and corporate accountability are must haves !!!

America, fasten your seatbelt, we're in for a bumpy ride

We cannot allow the economy to collapse.
However, I believe that the government, and tax payers should own a share in all companies receiving aid. Any profits should then be returned to the government and taxpayers as a percentage based on the amount the government"invested" to save the company.

David, MBA

I don't understand this. Can someone please explain it in laymen terms? How will this help me? Will our taxes increase? Will it help with unemployment? Will it help the people that are behind on mortgage payments? Someone please explain this.

I don't understand it. Can someone put it in laymen terms for me. How will this help me? Will this increase our taxes? Will it help with unemployment? How will it help those that are behing on mortgage payments? Someone please explain this.

I had, be it good or bad, the opportunity to work for the FDIC/Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) from 10/1987 thru 12/1995 during the ???Savings and Loan Bailout???. Whether you agree or not, the ???Savings and Loan Bailout??? occurred due to deregulation and poor over-site by the US government of the Savings and Loan industry.

The FDIC/RTC???s quick liquidation of the failed savings and loans, their assets, and closure of the RTC offices by 12/1995, was merely to hide the US government???s failure of the deregulation and poor over-site. Fortunately, the cost to the taxpayers of the bailout was around $5 to $6 billion. The most important fact is that most taxpayers had forgotten about this bailout.

The bailout of the US Financial System (Wall Street) again is occurring due to deregulation and poor over-site by the US government of the Financial System (Wall Street). In the beginning, the so called experts compared the bailout to the ???Savings and Loan Bailout???. As we all know, this bailout (or failure due the lack of regulation and over-site) is more complex, much larger, and will impact everyone from Wall Street to Main Street USA, and the economies from Europe, to China, and around the world.

My concerns are not of the greed from Wall Street or even the economies around the world. It???s all about Main Street USA. It???s the hard working middle-class, the poor, and each and every small business that in their hey day grew this country to be the world power that it was. Look at the US statistics, the majority of the residents in the US are 50 years and older, and the middle-class and poor make up more than half of the population. How does the US congress expect to pay for the bailout? The US is not in the position to roll the dice.

Today???s taxpayer will not stand for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Period??? It being election year you???ll see it in November. Once the bailout is passed (if it passed), the bailout most completed in orderly fashion, and handled from and by a ???Private Sector??? business perspective (not necessary the companies that caused this problem in the first place). Not like a FDIC/RTC liquidation fire sale. The US government should have over-site.

My God, does congress fully understand the impact of the $700 billion bailout to the middle-class, the poor, and the small businesses in the US? We can not afford quick fire or a slow burn.

"I God We Trust"

SAOrzel

I had, be it good or bad, the opportunity to work for the FDIC/Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) from 10/1987 thru 12/1995 during the ???Savings and Loan Bailout???. Whether you agree or not, the ???Savings and Loan Bailout??? occurred due to deregulation and poor over-site by the US government of the Savings and Loan industry.

The FDIC/RTC???s quick liquidation of the failed savings and loans, their assets, and closure of the RTC offices by 12/1995, was merely to hide the US government???s failure of the deregulation and poor over-site. Fortunately, the cost to the taxpayers of the bailout was around $5 to $6 billion. The most important fact is that most taxpayers had forgotten about this bailout.

The bailout of the US Financial System (Wall Street) again is occurring due to deregulation and poor over-site by the US government of the Financial System (Wall Street). In the beginning, the so called experts compared the bailout to the ???Savings and Loan Bailout???. As we all know, this bailout (or failure due the lack of regulation and over-site) is more complex, much larger, and will impact everyone from Wall Street to Main Street USA, and the economies from Europe, to China, and around the world.

My concerns are not of the greed from Wall Street or even the economies around the world. It???s all about Main Street USA. It???s the hard working middle-class, the poor, and each and every small business that in their hey day grew this country to be the world power that it was. Look at the US statistics, the majority of the residents in the US are 50 years and older, and the middle-class and poor make up more than half of the population. How does the US congress expect to pay for the bailout? The US is not in the position to roll the dice.

Today???s taxpayer will not stand for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Period??? It being election year you???ll see it in November. Once the bailout is passed (if it passed), the bailout most completed in orderly fashion, and handled from and by a ???Private Sector??? business perspective (not necessary the companies that caused this problem in the first place). Not like a FDIC/RTC liquidation fire sale. The US government should have over-site.

My God, does congress fully understand the impact of the $700 billion bailout to the middle-class, the poor, and the small businesses in the US? We can not afford quick fire or a slow burn.

"I God We Trust"

SAOrzel

The safeguards for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were rolled back 12 years ago so more people could get mortgages. Things like proof of employment and earnings. Now we are paying for it. How is that Bush's fault?
How many people paid for big screen TV, new cars and credit card debt with home equity?