BAIL OUT THE TAXPAYERS:
1) Reduce permanently 10% of the federal and state work force - those left need work harder like most workers still working are forced to do,
2) Make all government employees INCLUDING senators, house of reps & the President /VP give up earning any more pension benefits (like most americans no longer have), INSTEAD give them a match of 50% on up 6% of their annual wage they contribute into a 403B plan - USE the TAX savings resulting from the dropping of new pension TO PROPERLY FUND SOCIAL SECURITY FOR THE TAXPES SINCE THATS 10 year from going BROKE
3) Have the FEDERAL government stop paying 80% for federal employee families health premium - drop it to 50%,
4) Increase the FEDERAL employee health insurance deductible to $1000 like most private employers now have,
5) make all senators and house of representatives serve NO MORE than 2 term limits - ends the power of long term senators, etc to force senators, etc to approve EARMARKS on bills alreday released from committee
6) Go to a flat tax Federal tax program so the IRS audits can stop (laying off 50% of that organizations tax payer supported staff)
7) after 1st child's birth to a single mom STOP paying for single mom's child birth , offer free sterilization - more than 1/2 the baby's being born in the US now being paid for by the government (TAXPAYERS in other words) and don't give these single mom's, who are abusing the free childbirth /single mom welfare system by having child after child out of wedlock, money to support more than 1 child
8) NO Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare benefits to ANYONE NOT A US CITIZEN even if their "citizen" child brings them into the US - as are all being done now for NON Citizens!
9) Give the President Line Item Veto rights
10) Give life in prison to ANY politician find guilty of any abuse of power or corruption while in office
11) OUR prisons - lower the taxes to care for the Prisoners - no more coffee or juice, let them drink water at ALL MEALS, feed them oatmeal/toast for breakfast, peanut butter/jelly sandwiches with crackers for lunch and inexpensive stew (easy to make and serve requiring less kitchen labor) And for medicines make them pay the FULL COST of medicine - why reduce their costs out of taxpayers pockets ? I didn't unjustly put them in prison THEY BROKE the law - suffer the CONSEQUENCES
STOP THE MADNESS
P.S. Anyone running on the above platform will WIN any FUTURE elections, so Go for IT you TRUE AMERICANS!
JUDGMENT CALLS
Robert J. Samuelson
The Bailout Isn’t a Morality Play
Inept bankers may not deserve help, but that's not the point. If the financial sector isn't revived, then the economy will stay depressed.
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
If this were a movie, we'd call it "TARP, The Sequel." The Obama Administration will soon unveil its plan to bolster the nation's financial system by buying or guaranteeing banks' bad loans and securities. Given the widespread revulsion against financial fat cats, the public reception may be underwhelming. But we need to move beyond populist denunciations of "bailing out Wall Street." The fundamental purpose is more compelling. It is to reverse a massive worldwide credit contraction that is clobbering the real economy of production and jobs.
Global finance has swung from one extreme to the other. Having engaged in excessive risk taking—by misjudging the hazards of collateralized debt obligations and other feats of financial engineering—banks and investors have become traumatized by all risk, which they now seek to avoid. The result is paradoxical. As individual financial institutions try to minimize their risks, they actually increase the risk for the broader economy by denying needed credit or dumping securities (bonds, mortgages).
It's a vicious circle. Here's how it works.
With the economy weakening, more loans and bonds go into delinquency and default. Distressed households and businesses can't meet their payments. Diane Vazza of Standard & Poor's predicts that the default rate on "high yield" corporate bonds issued by smaller or weaker companies will reach nearly 14 percent in 2009—a record, and up from only 1 percent just two years ago. Some firms piled high with debt from private-equity buyouts seem particularly vulnerable.
Growing losses then make investors and creditors even more leery of risk. To conserve capital, they further curb new commitments. The consequences are global, not just local. Money flows into developing countries have collapsed. In 2009, they may be down 82 percent from 2007 levels, forecasts the Institute of International Finance, a research group. Private companies in these countries (Brazil, India, Mexico and others) have $100 billion of maturing debts in the first half of 2009. The IIF worries that much of this debt won't be refinanced. Scarce credit implies slower growth or recessions that will worsen the global slump.
So, we've gone from too much credit to too little. Surprisingly, banks—institutions that take deposits—aren't the main problem. In December, total U.S. bank credit stood at $9.95 trillion, up 8 percent from a year earlier, reports the Federal Reserve. Business, consumer and real-estate loans all increased. True, lending was down 4.7 percent from the monthly peak in October. But considering there's a recession, when people borrow less and banks toughen lending standards, the drop isn't disastrous.
The real collapse has occurred in securities markets. Since the 1980s, many debts (home mortgages, auto loans, credit-card debts) have been "securitized" into bonds and sold to investors—pension funds, mutual funds, banks and others. Here, credit flows have virtually ceased, reports Thomson Financial. In 2007, securitized auto loans totaled $73 billion; in 2008, they were $36 billion. In 2007, securitized commercial mortgages for office buildings and other projects were $246 billion; in 2008, $16 billion. There were also sharp drops for mortgages, consumer loans and other forms of securitization.
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
My Take
Each Newsweek reader is different—and now your Newsweek can be, too. Use this page to create a experience that's personalized for you and your interests. My Take: it makes Newsweek whatever you want it to be.










Discuss