Is Your Money Safe?

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  • Posted By: rednews72 @ 10/30/2008 4:52:41 PM

    McCain/Palin lie nearly every time they open their mouth (Bridge to nowhere, making commie/terrorist comments) and you're going to make a big deal out of Obama going back on his word (which is not a "contract"). Puh-lease! Millions of people are giving Obama a money advantage so that we don't have to suffer any further stupidity ala Bush. The bigger crime would be not to accept it. The people are speaking loud and clear....

  • Posted By: Herb from ND @ 10/30/2008 3:49:45 PM

    ". . . the President isn't really in control." (EPinPA) Washington is like a log floating on the river. There are thousands of ants on it and they all think they are seering it!!! Now we will choose a new head ant.

  • Posted By: BPinPA @ 10/30/2008 3:23:41 PM

    One thing that we all have to remember, the President isn't really in control. Sure, he gets the final sign off on laws and can 'direct' the nation; but ultimately, what really gets done is what our 'friends' in Congress act or not act upon.

    Don't worry, Obama's trickle-up poverty plan will do the world wonders. And McCain will clench an iron fist to slow the economy even further... another election of 'lessor of two evils'...

  • Posted By: Herb from ND @ 10/30/2008 3:04:36 PM

    I agree with Nins on one point "within 18 months YOU could be standing in a bread line." Only I even fear for the existance of the beadline if the entire system goes unstable. . . who pays for it!!!

  • Posted By: Nins @ 10/30/2008 2:44:03 PM

    Honestly, looking at McCain and Obama objectively (without any party affiliation or any racism) I really can't see why anybody would vote for McCain. Obama has offered a much more coherent plan to get America out of the economic disaster we are in.

    Right now, most people are anxious about the economy, fearing the worst but hoping for the best.

    Reality check: within 18 months YOU could be standing in a bread line. That's how bad it really is. And Obama will work actively to prevent this short term, as well as make us strong again long term. As much as I like McCain and admire his patriotism, he really is not up for the job, not now with the global markets falling apart.


    Obama's economic plan can be found at:

    http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/index.php

  • Posted By: ObamaGuy27 @ 10/30/2008 2:00:40 PM

    Nowforsomemoretruth, get your facts straight. The Republicans are the ones that got us into this mess and it's going to take another Democrat to clean up after a Bush. McCain doesn't even know the basics of emails, I don't trust him to understand the interworkings of this complex problem. McCain/Palin will and should lose, deal with it.

  • Posted By: Herb from ND @ 10/30/2008 1:08:25 PM

    "All will be well" until the intire system goes broke. Then none of "our money" will be worth anything. I'm convinced this is what both side od the politicians were trying to prevent with all of the bailouts. But it's just getting us in deeper. I'm from North Dakota. Both our state and my family "balance our bugets" each Year!

    Wish the country could do that. It may not be too late.

  • Posted By: studenlawyer @ 10/30/2008 12:30:34 PM

    Bank by nature tend to be risky. They create money to fuel the economy but this could be the problem. Using the one bank in a city scenario could illustrate this: A puts 100$ in the bank, B borrows it and buy a car from C. C banks the money, D borrows it and buys a pig from E, E banks it, F borrows it and buys stove from G, G banks the money. This can go on indefinitely. In short only one hundre dollars the bank may have but there is, depending on how long this goes on for a while. However, 300$ are deposits while 300$ are loans.
    Now if thing continue as in good time, there would not be a problem. If there is a recession and the depositors lost their jobs, etc, and demand their deposit, the banks has only 100$; they may call in the loans but hardly the borrower would have the money. This bank could fail but it was alright until the recession and the cash flow became a problem.
    In these hard times, you could help your bank survive. Just do not run on your bank. Use common sense. Exercise hope and confidence; be positive in your dealing with your bank. There is no evidence that the bank is trying to steal your money. Be patient and all will be well

  • Posted By: Nins @ 10/30/2008 12:21:00 PM

    Taxation is and always has been a redistribution of wealth. Once you recognize that point, the question is, how are we going to spend the money we raise in taxes?

    For the past 8 years, our tax dollars have gone to killing civilians in Iraq and giving big payoffs to Halliburton (co-incidentally owned by the Cheney family). And since there wasn't enough in the Treasury to do this in style, we borrowed money from communist China and ran up the national debt to pay for it. Then, once the fallout from the Republican deregulation of corporations kicked in and the market started collapsing, the tax dollars are also being stretched to bail out the Wall Street fat cats.

    Like 80% of Americans, I am sick of this particular redistribution plan.

    Obama's plan reduces taxes on 95% of Americans. The other 5% of us (who make over $250,000 a year) can afford to pay an extra 3%. That extra 3% comes out to only $300 for every $10,000 they make above $250,000. It's not going to kill them. In fact, if you make over $250,000 a year, $300 probably doesn't mean much to you. The other source of increased revenue will be making corporations that ship jobs overseas pay a higher share of tax. Right now, these corporations pay a lower share than companies that keep their employees in the USA. No more incentives to hurt America. We all can agree with that.

    Obama promises to go through the Federal budget line by line and cut all the wasteful spending. He promises to have transparency, a website where you can go and actually see the real Federal budget, not the made for TV version you can access under Bush.

    Furthermore, Obama's economic plans will lead to a strong economy, an educated workforce, more American based jobs, affordable health care, and freedom from foreign oil. We will regain our position as a world leader, a nation that spreads democracy not with guns and threats, but with prosperity and diplomacy.

    How do I know this? I read Obama's Blueprint for Change. And I compared it to what McCain had to offer (more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, more wars, a really inadequate health plan, and the stated intention of overturning Roe v. Wade). You really should visit the websites of both candidates and read their platforms.

    http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d4a6RNhCUo

    http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/jobsforamerica/

  • Posted By: ljmahuiki @ 10/30/2008 11:54:48 AM

    NBC News has learned that Robert Feinberg - a former Countrywide loan officer who handled what were known as the "V.I.P." mortgages - spent six hours last Thursday with a six-person team from the Justice Department. The team included prosecutors from the Public Integrity section, which handles investigations of possible public corruption.

    "The Justice Department is making very serious inquiry into any possible wrongdoing that may involve (former Countrywide CEO) Anthony Mozilo, other Countrywide employees, Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Kent Conrad, (former Fannie Mae CEO) Franklin Raines or other public officials," said Feinberg's lawyer, Anthony Salvano. "Robert has always cooperated thoroughly with authorities and is strictly a witness in their investigation."

    That was from an article posted today; we need to stop the corruption, we need to stop bailing out large corporations that made bad decisions based on greed to screw americans and make them slaves. I am sick of our goverment and Vote Now's comments about this situation could not have said anything better.

  • Posted By: ljmahuiki @ 10/30/2008 11:51:02 AM

    NBC News has learned that Robert Feinberg - a former Countrywide loan officer who handled what were known as the "V.I.P." mortgages - spent six hours last Thursday with a six-person team from the Justice Department. The team included prosecutors from the Public Integrity section, which handles investigations of possible public corruption.

    "The Justice Department is making very serious inquiry into any possible wrongdoing that may involve (former Countrywide CEO) Anthony Mozilo, other Countrywide employees, Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Kent Conrad, (former Fannie Mae CEO) Franklin Raines or other public officials," said Feinberg's lawyer, Anthony Salvano. "Robert has always cooperated thoroughly with authorities and is strictly a witness in their investigation."

    this goes to show that no banks are safe, they are all mostly corrupt, the government needs to keep the corrupt banks from buying out small owned banks and creating monopolies, thus ensuring that if they fail, they will be "too large" to fail and that taxpayer dollars must save them. We need to put a stop to the bailout programs and force them to play by the rules, you know, like average american citizens have to do, we have to play by the rules, if we don't we get in trouble and have to file bankruptcy, which banks, insurance compaines, car companies and everyone else who makes bad decisions. THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEFT TO FILE BANKRUTPCY.

  • Posted By: martin_gray @ 10/30/2008 10:49:51 AM

    I second Vote Now's well researched comments.

  • Posted By: MikeinNY @ 10/30/2008 10:41:16 AM

    TO vote now, You neglect to mention that it was good old Billy Clinton, getting hummers under his desk, that pushed for Fannie and Freddie to write no income no doc loans for minorities. So if your going to point fingers point to all that are involved. I definately will vote now, but not for a terrorist backing socialist.

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:54:17 AM

    People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

    In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

    But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

    Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

    The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

    If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

    Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

    What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:54:08 AM

    People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

    In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

    But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

    Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

    The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

    If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

    Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

    What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:53:56 AM

    fter 9/11, the US government started rounding up Muslims without cause and without due process of law, like we did to the Japanese Americans in WWII. The Bush administration called it's main internment camp Guantanamo Bay. While there are certainly many guilty terrorists held in Guantanamo, there are also many innocent American citizens who have been held illegally for years without even being charged with any crime. They have been tortured by our government. Some of them have died.

    Recently the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in the matter of Guantanamo Bay. The Supreme Court Justices were NOT on the side of the terrorists. They were on the side of the Geneva Convention, that says you can not torture POWs, and on the side of US laws that state you can not imprison a person without charging them with a crime and bringing them to trial. I'm sure that like most Americans, the Justices who voted against the illegal, immoral doings at Guantanamo didn't feel sympathy for the terrorists. They felt sympathy for the laws of AMERICA, the land of the FREE, where even rat finks get a fair trial.

    Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the Bush administration is busy trying to build a smokescreen to hide the CRIMES they have committed. Those pesky weapons of mass destruction. Just think, the National Debt went up over 6 trillion dollars under Bush. More than 2 TRILLION of it went directly into the pockets of Halliburton, a corporation owned by the Cheney family. Halliburton is now a DUBAI corporation and therefore is not subject to US taxes. All that money they took out of the US Treasury is going into the coffers of a MUSLIM country.

    Did you hear about how the US government is being charged millions for Halliburton deliveries of sand into Iraq from Kuwait? Sand. Like there is a shortage of sand in Iraq? Another contractor shipped sand from Idaho to Iraq at our expense. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses these and other excesses of our current government's out of control spending in Iraq.

    Your grandchildren will be working like slaves to pay off this debt, so that the Bushes and Cheneys can live the high life in Dubai.

    Yeah, they're patriots, Bush&Co. They wear flag pins. And hide the money they stole from America in Dubai.

    And they want me to believe that Obama is a socialist. Right.

    In case you think McCain is any different than Bush, watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:53:48 AM

    fter 9/11, the US government started rounding up Muslims without cause and without due process of law, like we did to the Japanese Americans in WWII. The Bush administration called it's main internment camp Guantanamo Bay. While there are certainly many guilty terrorists held in Guantanamo, there are also many innocent American citizens who have been held illegally for years without even being charged with any crime. They have been tortured by our government. Some of them have died.

    Recently the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in the matter of Guantanamo Bay. The Supreme Court Justices were NOT on the side of the terrorists. They were on the side of the Geneva Convention, that says you can not torture POWs, and on the side of US laws that state you can not imprison a person without charging them with a crime and bringing them to trial. I'm sure that like most Americans, the Justices who voted against the illegal, immoral doings at Guantanamo didn't feel sympathy for the terrorists. They felt sympathy for the laws of AMERICA, the land of the FREE, where even rat finks get a fair trial.

    Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the Bush administration is busy trying to build a smokescreen to hide the CRIMES they have committed. Those pesky weapons of mass destruction. Just think, the National Debt went up over 6 trillion dollars under Bush. More than 2 TRILLION of it went directly into the pockets of Halliburton, a corporation owned by the Cheney family. Halliburton is now a DUBAI corporation and therefore is not subject to US taxes. All that money they took out of the US Treasury is going into the coffers of a MUSLIM country.

    Did you hear about how the US government is being charged millions for Halliburton deliveries of sand into Iraq from Kuwait? Sand. Like there is a shortage of sand in Iraq? Another contractor shipped sand from Idaho to Iraq at our expense. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses these and other excesses of our current government's out of control spending in Iraq.

    Your grandchildren will be working like slaves to pay off this debt, so that the Bushes and Cheneys can live the high life in Dubai.

    Yeah, they're patriots, Bush&Co. They wear flag pins. And hide the money they stole from America in Dubai.

    And they want me to believe that Obama is a socialist. Right.

    In case you think McCain is any different than Bush, watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:53:34 AM

    THE GREAT BUSH DEPRESSION
    I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
    He perfectly predicted the current meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen next
    is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
    The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
    The government took them over because they are bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
    the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything seen in generations
    McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
    That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand how its been broken.
    It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use quantum mathematical models very few people understand.
    Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
    Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
    Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
    No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He was the last to know somthing was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
    It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
    even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a budget surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
    If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
    When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
    So why are the polls even close then ?
    Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
    which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
    They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
    Let's teach him we are smarter than that
    Stand up and hold them accountable
    Bush isn't on the ballot this year but his policies are
    Elect Obama Biden 2008






    Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

  • Posted By: Vote Now @ 10/30/2008 7:53:23 AM

    THE GREAT BUSH DEPRESSION
    I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
    He perfectly predicted the current meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen next
    is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
    The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
    The government took them over because they are bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
    the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything seen in generations
    McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
    That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand how its been broken.
    It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use quantum mathematical models very few people understand.
    Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
    Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
    Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
    No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He was the last to know somthing was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
    It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
    even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a budget surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
    If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
    When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
    So why are the polls even close then ?
    Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
    which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
    They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
    Let's teach him we are smarter than that
    Stand up and hold them accountable
    Bush isn't on the ballot this year but his policies are
    Elect Obama Biden 2008






    Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

  • Posted By: Elsie18 @ 10/30/2008 5:20:38 AM

    May I respond to this article and not whether Obama is a socialist or not? My husband and I were Citibank customers for nearly thirty years--kept savings and checking there; responsibly paid our mortgage there; used their credit cards. We had a branch with live tellers . . . until we didn't. Then they pulled their ATMs out of our town. Bonehead move because then some of the elderly in our town no longer had a local bank to stow their considerable savings from houses they sold. I was so annoyed by the loss of the branch then the ATMs that when it came time to park an early buyout deposit, I did not put it at Citi, our own bank. When we sold our house last year, and had a considerable amount of cash, I opened an account in a new bank. Service was horrible. Last year, I could not get them to send the IRS form for deducting mortgage interest. I had to file taxes without it despite umpteen phone calls. There was no synergy between their various energies and no synergy with us--their longtime, loyal customers. I still have a business account there but plan to move it. Now the big banks are trying to get or keep our business? Fuggetaboudit!

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