The Monster That Ate Wall Street

nav41 said "If the Dems were that smart, they'd be pubs..."
On the contrary, most would be ashamed to be called a Republican, and given the exodus from the Republican Party it would seem I am correct in that assumption, barely 25% of the registered voters are Republican.

I read that 65% of the voting citizens in the US were against this Bailout..That leaves 35% that want it...Since when is 35% a majority?? Whatever happened to WE THE PEOPLE??? When we as LEGAL AMERICAN TAXPAYERS get RIPPED OFF by our own GOVT..It is time to do something about it..
REVOLUTION!!!! Means CHANGE!!! Vote out all of the representatives who voted for this Bailout...Get new blood into office...REMEMBER WE ARE AMERICANS AND THIS IS A DEMOCRACY...WE CAN VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT OF OFFICE...If WE do not vote these politicians out of office, the the only ones WE can blame is ourselves...

The Mayflower vision: the only solution to debt and the threatening debtor's dilemma, is the Mayflower vision! Armed with the greatest and most superior faith of the universe - the Judaeo-Christian faith - they were seeking land and a new air amidst the stultifying medieval version of Wall Street in their feudal, problematic times. Today, the US - the bringer and protector of freedom of which i am a fan forever - can never allow itself to lose the singular edge it still has in space technology and science. And one of the only ways to do that, to ensure the continuing superiority of the vision that founded the US and ensure that the positive, superlative, compassionate superiority persists for the good and the future of the world -- is to have real, concrete land objectives sustaining the ancient, beneficial impulse of exploration in the reachable realm of outer space. Resistance is futile! And may G-d be blessed.

Newsweek's analysis on the role of the credit default swaps is very profound and helpful. However, I would take it a step further and track down the root cause of the debacle of the mortgage crises. They were not necesarily bad loans. Lest we forget, the mortgages began to default as soon as the gas prices began to increase. It is not difficult to understand that if gas goes up, a working person has to chose between getting to work and keeping a job to feed his or her family or paying the mortgage. The choice is easy, you chose to keep going to work, pay higher gas prices, and feed you family. Rising gas prices initiated food prices, and on and on. The spiral has reached the top of the feeding chain, the wall street bankers and now it, comes back to the consumers to bail everyone out.

While Newsweek would simply point their finger at fat cat bankers, the government has played a significant role here. Clinton signed legislation that REQUIRED lenders to relax their lending guidelines in order to provide home loans for more minority buyers. Predatory lenders then issued mortgages that were glorified rent payments (ARMS, etc). And what of the responsibility of the consumers who took on loans that were beyond their means? I see a triangle here of do-gooder (but ignorant) government, greedy financial institutions and gullible consumers.

How's that "free market capitalistic system" working out for you? It's costing me $700 Billion. There is no "free" market. Trickle down economics doesn't work. Reaganomics was a disaster and the new version has brought our country to the brink of economic collapse. Trying to help the poor get homes wasn't the problem. It was the predatory lending that profited from putting people in homes that they couldn't afford and the consumers who thought they could get more than they could afford. Then when you don't regulate those making all the profits, man's natural tendency for greed takes over. Free market is a nice phrase for those making money in an environment that doesn't monitor abuses. It's only "free" if everyone is honest and held accountable and we all know that's not the case.

Big Happy knows everything. I was cheated on refinance of a property I have owned for 20 years. It was appraised for $900K and I refinanced $100K (no cash out). But he says I refinanced due to greed. News for Big Happy. I have owned it for 20 years; I plan to live in it until I die. I had to refinance due to a divorce and had to refinance again because the company I had done business with for 18 years was dishonest. And I accepted that I was partly to blame. But Big Happy has it that it was all my fault and I am greedy. This is why it is pointless to post on these blogs. People twist everything to their own views. The house is still worth $700K or more (went up to $1.5M, coming down). Who cares what it is worth as long as I can pay the mortgage. I was only saying a) that even companies one could trust in the past went over to the dark side b) My business (not my home!) is at risk because of GREED. Big Happy is now going to explain how a person who is completely debt free except for a $100K mortgage on a house I???ve owned for 20 years is really at fault because somehow I???m greedy?

It's not the Republican's fault? Really? They are the dealers who gave the crack cocaine to the (let me guess) probably Republican CEO's whose companies are at the epicenter of this mess. I'm sure there are a lot of greedy Democrats involved as well, because greed knows no boundaries, but to say they have no fault is naive at best. Then they enabled the addiction by looking the other way and saying "we don't want to involve the police". We'll handle this in-house. Well the house of cards has finally fallen. Welcome to the intervention.

How about the democrats connection to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They kept geting positions at Fannie and Freddie and paid millions while riging the financials so they could get their bonuses. Where is the Senate Banking Committiee charimand , Dod or the House Banking Committee Chairmand Banrney Franks in this article. They kept the pressure on Fannie and Freddie to get the poor loans without any restrictions. McCain asked for more restrictions on Fannie and Freddie but was rebuffed by both the House and Senate Banking Committees and his bill in 2005 was rejected. Lets get look in the right place instead of the slanted view above, against our free market capitalist financial system. I say dont bail them out and let them go broke for the institutions that do not affect the whole market. That will stop them from doing it again.

It is not the republican's fault that we are in this economic mess.

Comment: It appears as though Wall Street big firms did not need federal permission to create this vehicle. If ANYONE thinks that government should have been more diligent 14 years ago, perhaps they should look at the Clinton administration then in power. I'm sure that the Clintons could shed some light on the situation... It's pointless to blame Bush for every woe that the Democrats can conjure up or imagine. If the Dems were that smart, they'd be pubs...

Make no mistake about it. The current financial mess on Wall Street and Main Street was created by pure unadulterated American greed. The burden will be borne bt Middle America either in the form of a $700B bailout taday or through higher unemployment, cost of living, loss of savings/investments over the next five years. The American taxpayer will pay for this one way or another it's just a matter if we care to do so quickly or over time.

Washington has already screwed and fooled everyone again.
All eyes were on the bailout as the latest Senate budget was passed with more pork that taxpayers cannot afford. Not one politician that I know of told anyone to look at what was going on there. We should review this, cut out all the pork, and use that money for Wall Street AFTER the FBI has been allowed to honestly investigate the failing firms for unethical dealings and recovering the missing monies. Also, I thought we already had systems in place to handle failing-mismanaged companies.
One is Unemployment compensation, and for the executives that performed on a less than ethical level we have the Criminal Justice System.
Amen

When will we get it. it nis not the Dem or Repu its both. They r bought and paid for by lobbyist. Lobbyist R running this country into the ground. We have 2 get rid of the lobbyist and influance. We have become a country of specal interest, for specal by specal interest.

Picture in your minds eye America when it was leading the world. The GIANT manufacturing base loaded with people working and paying taxes that could support our huge growing government, and the service sector which SERVICED our manufacturing people. Enter the idiots with ideas of moving factories overseas. Now picture in your minds eye one lone manufacturer left in the USA with one guy running a production machine there. Picture that still huge government with their hand out to this one remaining worker needing his taxes to support the government. Picture the insurance industry with its hand out, and the financial industry with their hands out as well. This lone worker cannot produce enough to carry the government, the insurance industry, the financial sector, and the restaurant worker who makes $8.50/hr. and is the only guy the banking industry can find to loan $200k to on a home loan. Are you getting the picture? Now, add in the fact that any nation???s conventional military is only as strong as its manufacturing base. We have paid for and built the enemy's factories and armies. The only money left is in the baby boomers bank accounts and retirement funds. The financial sector is picking this money clean. Does this give anyone out there a clue?

Here's the lead of a New York Times story on Sept. 11, 2003: "The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." [see link below]

McCain said in co-sponsoring the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, "If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole."

What was Barney Frank and fellow Democrats saying at the time of these attempted reforms? According to reports, Representative Barney Frank(D-MA) claimed of the thrifts "These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) added "I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing." [ See Community Reinvestment Act, second link below w/ history]

The first link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed second, after Dodd, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Kerry and then Clinton. The last link describes how some in Congress tried to use the original bailout bill to funnel money to groups like ACORN. See:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=M2QwNDhkZTg2OGYzZjkzM2E2NDEwM2U5OGVkNTc0YzU=

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj