Why is it that Congress is taking the Jewish holy days off, if this is the largest crisis since the Depression? I think they should work straight through, whether it’s a Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Druid holiday.

Am I the only one who’s incensed that they’ve split the scene in the middle of all this?

I realize there’s some time needed to come up with the next move, but I’d at least *feel* a bit better seeing the lights burning all night rather than watch them take a couple mental health days in the middle of the week, in the middle of a crisis.

I read this VERY interesting article back in March 2008: http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/02/19/Black-Scholes-Pricing-Model

Being a Finance & Accounting Major from a Big 10 school, a am very aware of how financial derivatives are priced. I knew the model had weaknesses, the above article did will to explain them.

Now, my concern is how Congress will address and control the pricing of the mortgage derivatives it’s proposing to buy, insure, or whatever. There is a 100% difference between 20 cents on the dollar and 40 cents on the dollar.

How our government values these banks’ “assets” is an important and largely undiscussed element of this bailout plan. I would LOVE IT if NPR took this topic and ran with it.

Politicians are babbling the easy talking points: “Main Street, Wall Street, Credit Crunch, Market Drop.” There’s a lot more to consider than these four buzz words when crafting new laws.

Thanks for listening.

Can anyone explain how it is logical or mathematically sensible to consider money a commodity? When we use terms like “market for credit”, “buying debt”, “money is expensive” and the like, that’s exactly what we’re doing. This bothers me because setting up money as both the commodity (to be “made”, bought and sold at a [huge] profit) AND the means to exchange the commodity we’ve set up a circularity that is at the heart of chaotic systems primed to spiral out of control. And yet, if I understand it correctly, many economists steadfastly refuse to accept that the system is mathematically chaotic, instead using the math of linear systems to try (and apparently fail) to explain it.

Perhaps the current crisis shows us in graphic detail that there really is such a thing as usury and that perhaps we should reopen the possibility that there’s some ancient wisdom we’ve ignored there even if we’re not ready to mathematically prove it.

I am happy the bailout package failed and very proud of those who voted against it.

The fact remains that WE CANNOT AFFORD TO INCREASE OUR NATIONAL DEBT BUY THIS AMOUNT.

1.The money will have to be borrowed. This will drive down the value of the dollar, causing inflation.
2. A bailout will confirm to the world that we are financially irresponsible and over-extended as a nation. They may decide not to buy any more of our debt.

IF we must inject cash to loosen the credit market, lets get our money’s worth and actually own something of value that will LET THE TAXPAYERS HAVE A CASH RETURN ON INVESTMENT:

BUY EQUITY in the banks themselves; later we can sell the stock OR we can receive dividends.

IF we must buy bad assets that are on the books of these private companies, we must PAY ONLY FAIR MARKET VALUE; there will be buyers for anything that has actual worth; if there is no actual worth, we don’t need to buy it.

Make RULES AGAINST USARY and ENFORCE them.

NO GOLDEN PARACHUTES at participating institutions.

I agree with the calls for regulation of compensation on Wall Street. The image that comes to mind is that of blood sucking ticks that have found a major artery on the body of our economy. Attaching themselves to the vast supply of money that is the life blood of our economy, they are slowly killing us all while getting far more than they deserve. Thanks.

I’m a young wage earner whose financial goals have been savings-oriented. I own no property. While my employer 401(k) is certainly depressed right now, I’m not terribly concerned, because by the time I need it in 40 years the market will have recovered and my investments will have shifted towards more conservative options.

I am very much inclined to “wait it out” – what we’re seeing is, in my sense, primarily a market correction from an overinflated bubble (everyone, both lenders and lendees, was gambling on real estate prices continuing to increase at an insane rate). Opening up a $700B line of credit under a “FIX IT NOW NOW NOW” rush, with little oversight or introspection, seems like it will set my generation of taxpayers up to be saddled under this additional debt for decades.

If there really are more looming bank failures, than I think we can do some kind of bailout, but of an entirely different sort. Have Congress approve large, short-term loans to the banks that need it. That will balance out their ledgers, restoring liquidity, and since most of the banks lended to will remain solvent, most of them will pay back their loan with interest, thus costing the taxpayers nothing in the long-term.

Why do you waste time by having Ben Stein on your show? He knows nothing.
Last year if you pay attention to his commentaries and interviews on youtube, he was a total pollyanna on the real estate and financial sector. He is no expert. He got everything wrong all the time. Please get better guests next time.

When reporters say there is a “credit crunch” or a “credit freeze” between banks, what exactly are they basing this on? Is there an “credit index” (like the Dow or NASDAQ) or is the evidence of a credit freeze just anecdotal?

Please explain why it is better to give money to the banks who own distressed mortgages instead of giving it to the people in those houses or even buying the houses themselves.

I am so sick and tired of hearing that we the “American Working Class” do not understand what is at stake, and if politicians had “spun” this better that we would have swallowed it whole.
No Way No How!
I get that the freezing of lending will melt the economy but I don’t believe them.
How many times have they been wrong?
I will put it to the working class Americans that we are tougher than that!
I challenge the big money big spenders to live the way we the working class has been living for the last decade.
I know that “we the people” can survive!
I don’t think that the fat cats can!
The working class can survive!

Thanks for reading my rant!
Good Luck!

Why not pump the money into the economy by having massive public works like FDR did? This bailout is a handout for the rich bankers on wall street. I can just see the lobbyists standing in the halls of congress telling the members, vote this way or you will not get one penny for your next campaign.
thank you
elizabeth shipley

If I were one of those guys with the fat purses, I’d wait until 4:45 today and then scoop up a nice collection of “falling” stocks. Boy I’d be laughing on the phone with my broker! That would “excite the market” and tomorrow would be a new day.

We the people are not the ones playing this game. We are the kitty on the table – our homes, our educations, our children’s futures. The ones playing have plenty of money to keep playing their absurd game of chance and too many in our government are stakeholders. Thank fully, this time around, more of them paid attention to us, the ones who voted them in.

STOP pretending the public does not understand what is going on and what the inplications are !! We want a better answer thatn the one being discussed.

STOP

I am angry that we now have to bail out Wall St. to ensure market liquidity, and ensure that the retirement investments of millions of people do not go down the drain.

Our country needs to address the issue of fatcats, but I also don’t want the goverment to get too involved with individual compensation decisions.

We should look at the role that BOARDS OF DIRECTORS played in this mess. Boards abdicated their responsibilities of internal monitoring. They ignored their legal duties to shareholders. Company leaders sit in multiple boards, and instead of monitoring, they go along to get along and vote for increases in each others salaries. While we can’t touch salaries that were “fairly” awarded, we can look at the failure of boards to live up to their duties.

It’s interesting how On Point and much of the media have been “selling” the bail out as absolutely necessary. It’s insulting to present public opinion as “wrong” for opposing what is essentially the theft of public funds. And Congress the gap between and the public is dangerously broad. Broad enough to undermine the sometimes fictional belief in democracy. To WBUR’s credit, there have been guests on recently who have had views that oppose the Bush administration’s lies and the “shock” politics of creating a panic to force the transfer of public funds into the hands of corporate America. But it’s clear that there is now a campaign to sell this bailout to the American public against their best interests. This is so similar to how the invasion of Iraq was sold.

STOP speaking in terms of “THE ALTERNATIVE”. There are MANY alternatives — some of them much better thatn the one being discussed.

This is as much a crisis of integrity and failure of creativity, as a “crisis” of liquidity.

Right now the taxpayer is in the driver’s seat. If I believed that Paulson was driving as hard a bargain for us as he would have for Goldman Sachs, then I’d be for the bailout. I just haven’t seen any indication of that.

Let’s see if I have this right. You want us to borrow $700,000,000,000 more from the Chinese, on which we will pay interest, so we can give it to Wall Street, so they can charge us usury (aka, predatory) rates to borrow back.

Then, in 5-8 years Wall Street may, or may not, pay some of it back, but we definitely must pay back the Chinese. Right?

If the Federal Government is to trade cash for such dubious mortgage-backed securities (and this is by no means the only way to restore confidence in Wall Street), this is what I’d vote for:

Want to buy a house? The bank requires an engineer’s inspection to confirm that the physical goods are free of fatal defects (rotten sills, under-code wiring, etc.).

Any investment bank seeking government back-up should be prepared to open up all securities, each down to the level of the individual mortgage. Each mortgage should be assessed for viability (whether or not the mortgagee can make payments). Non-viable mortgages should be removed from these securities and dealt with separately. The securities would then contain only viable mortgages, dispelling the uncertainty restoring the investor security. Part of this post-mortem would be listing all original bond-raters and and insurance underwriters for each security.

Yes, this would mean the kind of invasive surgery which investment banks never intended for these securities. It would probably require a court order. But which investment bank, which investor would be in a position to protest? Especially considering that if these necrotic mortgages are not trimmed from the original securities, the collapse of this house of cards would be not just national but global.

This is a moment of shame for our nation, but it can be one of honor. Imagine it as an engineer’s report on a property. For me it would resemble more the Truth and Reconciliation, experienced by South Africa among others. The world will respect us for this honesty.

First of all Bush was not fairly elected. This was the beginning of all of this mess, and let know one forget it. He used his usual sneek and cheat philosophy in both 2000 and 2004. How differently things would have gone if we would have honored our democracy and counted every vote. In a sense, Americans through ignorance, distraction and apathy, have asked for this mess.
This bailout should in no way exclude home owners. There should be an immediate moratorium of foreclosures of family owned and occupied homes. Mortgage contracts should be reworked at the new low values.
Why should bankers be flying around in their own private jets, while families are driven to the streets.
I hope the democrats take over and draft a new bill for the people.

I just heard the guest say that lawmakers don’t like the bail-out because its the slippery slope to socialism.

The way capitalists can avoid the slippery slope is not to go wild with greed as in the 90s.

Maybe Americans should say, if capitalism doesn’t work, is it time to look at some alternatives? Why is this country so intent that capitalism is the only way?

I propose that the reason it is unacceptable to criticize capitalism is that the capitalists worked hard starting early in the 20th century to make sure that communism and even socialism are shockingly bad, anti-American taboo words. This is especially obvious when we look back at the rhetoric in the McCarthy era and Cold War era.

But ideologies always need to use propaganda to eliminate dissent. Will the massive Wall St failing finally wake up Americans or are the decades of anti-socialism indoctrination too strong>

Isn’t it ironic that the same people who advised all of us to view investments in the stock market should be viewed as LONG TERM investments are now asking for a bailout NOW. This strikes me as part of the manipulation of public opinion based on appealing to ill-defined fears that has been typical of the Republican right since Reagan.

Please let’s not be held hostage any more! This time the ransom they want is our very livelihoods. Let’s expect more out of our government than this. After all, that’s what’s supposed to happen in a democracy, isn’t it?

Let’s be clear here, the impacts on “main street” are primarily a tightening of credit and a lack of “growth” in the values of certain investments (stocks and real estate). The real cost of living – basic housing, energy, food, health care – is not directly connected to the machinations of Wall Street. And more to the point, these costs can be addressed by any number of government initiatives that ARE NOT being addressed while “main street” (as encouraged by the media) focuses on this drama that is just that, drama.

It is the hubris of Wall Street, and unfortunately many of our politicians, to think that what happens to these wasteful, abusive, and greedy institutions SHOULD have any impact on the rest of us. They’ve sold us on the idea that our futures hang on their fortunes…and that is only as true as we wish to believe it.

Let’s get back to real issues, that impact real people, and that involve ALL of us working for mutual solutions and benefits. And let Wall Street go cry somewhere else. I’ll bet they’ll be just fine.

If we`re gonna bail out the banks and wall street, among other concessions, let`s reverse the bankruptcy laws pushed by the banks and credit issuers and passed by the finest congress money can buy.

I believe much of the present problems stem from the 24 hour news cycle. Over a year ago, all the media was talking about the looming recession. I don’t think it still has occurred. There was much talk about how the home foreclosure rate had doubled but little mention that it was still less than one percent. Even a couple of weeks ago, there was much said about how the unemployment rate was the highest in five years. Wait a minute; five years is not a lifetime, not a generation, it’s only since 2003 and the unemployment rate has traditionally gone up every few years!

What happens when the general public hears all this? They stop buying and companies stop producing and people DO get laid off. Our economy is 2/3 consumer driven and the news reporting becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How do we prevent this when the general public doesn’t understand any of this? (They have a run on the bank when their accounts are FDIC insured!) I don’t know but the opposite points of view have to be presented right up front and the present administration has not done this.

We have been hearing that the economy is based on credit, but I say the economy is based on Work. People are nervous about there jobs and are therefor not buying. If the recovery plan included a work creation element, like the one that helped us out of the Depression, people might be more willing to spend. If people are spending, guess what, the “economy” will be just fine.

It seems like such a short time ago that bankruptcy rules for individuals were tightened, making it somewhat impossible for individuals to declare bankruptcy. Then the price of gas and heating oil rose unbelievably.

Then, all this trouble in banking and wall street…we didn’t, but still could, let them go bankrupt any time.

Doesn’t this sequence of events look like our government has stacked the cards against the individual, in favor of big business?

I like hearing the suggestions that the government give us back our tax money to bail out the bankrupt individuals, let them have and heat their homes and even get to work; and not give that money to the rotten-core businesses . Big business does not suffer as individuals do.

What no one in Washington or in the media talks about is solving the underlying problem – the non-performing mortgages that back (or fail to back) the mortgage securities.

The inflation adjusted price of housing was flat from 1947-1997 and then nearly doubled from 1997-2007. The price of housing got away from what people can afford, and it will drop back eventually. We can wait 17 years, like the Japanese in the 90’s, or the government could force a 40% markdown of all the bundled mortgages. That, plus a renegotiation of the “time bomb” mortgages to long-term, fixed rate loans would solve much of the problem.

And not a dime of taxpayers money down Wall Street’s gold-plated rat hole.

Great comment by Elizabeth Shipley:
Why not pump the money into the economy by having massive public works like FDR did?

Think what we could do with a public works program and a couple 100 billion $$: Give meaningful jobs to the kids who aren’t headed for college, like helping clean up the environment; repair the nations’ crumbling roads and bridges; train healthcare workers…

Campaign Finance. Everybody agrees this crisis arises from lack of or inadequate regulation. But why? Because our election system requires continuous fund-raising, and the guys with money effectively buy off Congress and the Administration to keep them from looking too closely at their business. This is the systemic rot we aren’t willing to confront. Follow the money, as some wise guy said.

Failure to regulate was not the problem; the problem was that a major asset class, housing, was inflating at a rate higher than prevailing interest rates. Speculation was rewarded, saving was discouraged. I lay the blame at the doorstep of the federal reserve system (Greenspan) and the economists who have been chronically understating the true rate of inflation in this country for over a decade. If speculation rather than saving is rewarded, borrowers and lenders will figure out a way to leverage themselves; no amount of regulation can prevent it.

In the eighty years since stringent market regulation was put in place, we have not had a single depression. We have yet to find out if that amazing record has ended. It’s amazing because, in the eighty years prior to FDR’s institution of market regulations, there were five depressions and a severe recession. Going back earlier than that, depressions happened at least once per generation, back to the 1700s. We visit and marvel at Jefferson’s Monticello. Clearly a titan of his day, few today realize that a depression caused Jefferson to die in poverty.

Are we learning from history yet?

I, a young sparkle-eyed college graduate, am fearful about my future! Not only do I have to pay off the War Debt ecrued by the Bush Administration, but now I have to bail out some suits who tried to pull a quick one on all of us who don’t even understand how an investment bank works! Will I even get social security? Can I have a job please?

Ben Stein asked where are the hundreds of economists in government? Didn’t they see this?

It is no different than how foreign policy is conducted (i.e., “Mission Accomplished”…”Slam Dunk”): It is not about the information. It is about how that information moves up the food chain. And whether it is heeded or buried.

Since what the banks need is more equity, let’s apply a bailout to adding bank capital. We could create a (self liquidating) fund to buy newly issued bank stock. Unlike the Paulsen plan to buy junk, this could have long upside potential. The fund could also vote the stock, if it thinks a bank is being mismanaged or oveercompensating its executives. We could even require banks, which participated to grant the fund a sean on a bank’s compensation committee.

I find it hard to believe that no one saw this coming. When I became aware that the mortgage lending was opening up to marginally qualified borrowers, I saw it as a disaster waiting to happen and warned friend and family to beware. My judgment was based on my 3 years of low level experience in the mortgage banking industry over 20 years ago.

One corrosive effect of bubbles, tech, real estate, tulip bulbs, hedge funds, etc., is to distort markets so that other investments, manufacturing better automobiles, in modernizing manufacturing plants, etc. are ignored. As an engineer and entrepreneur I can tell you that ever since the tech bubble it is very difficult to get people interested in investments in fundamentally sound businesses as they want there capital to go where the return is the highest. When I despaired of trying to make money by building better factories and tools I was forced to go where the money seemed to be, real estate and construction. So if anyone wants to know where their good manufacturing job went just go to Fresno, Miami or any other place like it, and look at the forests of empty homes that were built with money that Wall Street could have invested in the factory that you used to work in.

In the immortal words of Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy and he is us”.

Why not pump the money into the economy by having massive public works like FDR did?

Because it wont work. We need to fix our infrastructure that is a given, but how many people will it employ and how many will want to do manual labor.

If you want to see what a potential disaster huge public works projects can be, read up on Boston’s big dig.

This thing is killing the state of Massachusetts and it’s transportation authority is going bankrupt.

We are not good a doing large public works projects anymore. To many people look at them as cash cows and the other issue is that it seems to me that the evidence shows that money outweighed quality control.

In Japan if what happened in the Big Dig project went down you have seen the CEO’s of the construction and engineering companies resigning and in some cases committing suicide. This is an extreme, but what did the heads of the Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff do when confronted with the problems they caused, they hired lawyers and refused to take any ownership of the faulty construction until forced by the state through legal action.

You see anything wrong with this picture?

These are terrible times we live in right now. Wall Street CEO’s have had their glory days of raping the markets to line their own pockets and now it’s all come tumbling down around them. Wall Street is to blame for the state of the market right now
As a homeowner and taxpayer, I’m outraged at all these GOLDEN PARACHUTES these CEO’s obtain as they run their companies into the financial ruin from their bad judgements and now they expect the taxpayer to bail them out.
What is the Government doing to ease the burden of the taxpayer/homeowner on Main Street?
Even if we do bail out Wall Street this is not going to ease the burden on the homeowner, our bills still need to be paid. With the rising expenditure that homeowners now have to cope with there is no help for us.
I would like the government to spend this bail out money wisely, why are they not considering paying down homeowners mortgages by 10% – 15%, which would inject capital back into the banks and mortgages, ease homeowners financial burdens. Possibly reduce the home being repossessed, as the housing market is flooded with homes that no one wants or can afford. This would allow homeowners to have more monthly cash in their pockets to spend on Main Street keeping small and large businesses a float. This American Economy relies on the public spending cash to keep the market moving, right now most people are not spending as they are unsure of the future.
My financial future right now is wondering where I’m going to get the money to pay my heating bill this winter, my car payments the mortgage and the rising cost of food.
Ultimately the taxpayer is getting the blunt of the stick again and this is why so many people are outraged at this bail out package…Where is the help for the taxpayer?
Where is our bail out package so we can continue to live our lives as responsible taxpayers.

Jeff,
Very good point about “We are not good at doing large public works projects anymore.” I agree its a tough problem. Maybe work on small public works projects.

On a lighter note, I got this in my inbox today.

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.

THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER

YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.

YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

Ok, maybe this has been asked by the previous comments.

Excuse my ignorance on the financial issues, but why not the government just lend the money to banks and other financial institutes, charge them the interests, which comes from the profits those organizations make in the future. I am sure if the profits can distribute to the interest and principal from the loan, instead of going to all the top executives, this might work better than putting the pressure on taxpayer. As a taxpayer, I don’t mind to bail out this crisis at this very moment, as long as I will be “guaranteed” to get my money back with interest, then I consider it’s a fair deal. But again this could be a naive approach. But the thought of this approach really makes sense to me.

By the way, are we able to see the details of this bailout bill anywhere on the internet, if anyone knows, please let me know, thank you very much.

It’s mind boggling that how can congress vote “nay” based on the votes of their people when most people don’t know the details of this proposal bill?

Shouldn’t this bill be published and transparent to general taxpayers since we are part of the ones pay for this too. That way we may not oppose so much if this bill makes sense to general taxpayer.

If you are the payer, shouldn’t you see the contract before your approval?

I want to know why I’m not hearing anyone say that perhaps the voters would be more approving and trusting of the actions of Congress during this crisis if we already had some respect for its members. The approval rating of Congress before this crisis was somewhere below 20% I believe, so why should Congress not expect us to be angry? The next Congress needs to consider its actions and try to regain our respect so that they may do their job more effectively.

Necessity and practicality shape ideology, not the other way around.

If we use our ideology to steer our practicality, then we will become the victims of our very own ideology.

A true practice in life should be flexible, otherwise America’s capitalism, which is so overly glorified, would fail like one of the empires in human history.

If one person is willing to go down with one’s principal and ideology, go ahead, but don’t drag others to go down with you.

It is abundantly clear that both left and right are mistaken on the issue of the bailout. The left is wrong in demonizing finance and wall street as inherently evil; thus, they are blinded to the harm that a failing wall street would cause mian street, blind to the connections. On the right, there is a worship of the unregulated market, and they too fail to see a need for the a bailout. What the week shows is the common ideological failures of conservatism and “progressivism”

“Now, my concern is how Congress will address and control the pricing of the mortgage derivatives it’s proposing to buy, insure, or whatever. There is a 100% difference between 20 cents on the dollar and 40 cents on the dollar.

Politicians are babbling the easy talking points: “Main Street, Wall Street, Credit Crunch, Market Drop.” There’s a lot more to consider than these four buzz words when crafting new laws.”

Yes, yes, and yes!

And THAT’s why there is so much opposition to this bailout plan. You’ve put your finger on a handful of the MANY unanswered questions about this!

This plan is huge and complex and whether it will work at all, and what it will REALLY cost and what the consequences, including the unintended ones, will be need to be carefully and soberly evaluated. That will take time and many detailed answers and the President and the Congressional leadership want us to vote for this NOW before that process has been done.

As an engineer I think it’s insane to adopt such a complex plan before understanding it better.

It is abundantly clear that both left and right are mistaken on the issue of the bailout.

You are wrong. It’s the “center” that is mistaken. The Left and Right oppose this plan for different reasons, but opposition is the right course of action.

I’m an engineer. My opposition to the plan is not ideological WRT to EITHER end of the spectrum! My opposition to the plan is based on the simple fact that no evidence has been presented that this plan will work, that the cost has been estimated correctly, or that the consequences, intended and otherwise, have been assesed.

justanother says…

Shouldn’t this bill be published and transparent to general taxpayers since we are part of the ones pay for this too. That way we may not oppose so much if this bill makes sense to general taxpayer.

If you are the payer, shouldn’t you see the contract before your approval?
What makes you think it’s not published?

ALL legislation is published! Here’s a link to the version that got voted down yesterday . . .

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/20080928bailout_text.pdf

. . . it doesn’t answer most important questions because so much us left up to the discretion of the Treasury Dept., but I’m really surprised that anyone doesn’t understand that all bills are published.

This is in response to Dave’s inquiry (posted at 8:52 AM on 9/30/08). I find your question to be quite disrespectful and offensive. The Jewish holy days are used for personal introspection and prayer. They are not mental health days! Government offices close down every Christmas, Easter and New Years Day and it is only right that Jewish holy days (and for that matter other religious holidays) are treated with the same importance.

Why is it that Congress is taking the Jewish holy days off, if this is the largest crisis since the Depression? I think they should work straight through, whether it’s a Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Druid holiday.

Given how far they are from having a sensible solution to this problem I think we should consider a gift from God that Rosh Hashanah came along exactly when it did. Both the Congress and, evidently, Dave, are in WAY too emotional a state to deal with this problem with the detached, un-panicked perspective needed to make good decisions.

This break will allow people to get some perspective, catch their breath, and maybe be more clear-headed on Thursday.

BTW, did anyone notice that when Bush gave his little speech this AM that he paused before saying “the Jewish holiday”? Presumable his text said “Rosh Hashanah” and for ONCE IN HIS LIFE, a little voice in his head told him he would never pronounce it right, so he decided not to attempt it. It might be the only good decision he’s made in his Presidency.

L’Shana Tova!

I loved Ben Stein’s term for Paulson: kleptocrat. I also strongly agree with his argument that you don’t give more power to the people who screwed things up (and power unencumbered by oversight, at that). That follows as well for golden parachutes to the financial executives who drove things into the ground.

The idea that the financial markets should be unregulated and left to control themselves is completely outrageous. That is a fine academic concept in the rational world, but then it meets human behavior, and rationality goes out the window. In a lax regulatory environment, people will become corrupted by the enormous amounts at play, or the corrupt will move in to take advantage, and then they will start engaging in sociopathic behavior. They focus on their own short term self interests, to the detriment of everyone else’s interests, and even to their own long term interests. Such people have turned our economy into a giant Ponzi scheme, and we are all left holding the bill.

One way to put homeowners’ interests into the bailout package is to allow homeowners a one-time opportunity to withdraw retirement savings (IRAs, etc) without penalty or cap gains tax to paydown (or pay off) their mortgage and thus be able to keep their home which otherwise would not be affordable for them.

On a higher plane. I am an individual who many years ago felt and seen a dying system, and realized the futulity of ‘Panting’ ‘after’ that, which, did not bring life or satisfaction to the human race. I have always lived simply being. Happy with very little. When will humanity in its stupidity and negative ignorance remember an important feature of our existance. Money is not real.It was not a tree in the garden of Eden. It was an idea, a concept of control and power over those who had no need of it. But in time through the egotistic imaginings and greed of those who had chosen to live by reason of distaughtion and happy to distaught, whereby creating a ‘vortex’ system where the innocent who wished to be no part of the ‘invisible fences’(lies)were forcebly sucked into a system that, they had lived peacfully, lived freely, without. I feel those who created the trap called the ‘monetry system’ who force others to have to live in the lie of their trap are to be most pitied, for they are not human, but simply walking Egos, that know nothing of what it means to be a human being. They have created a twisted world whos’ dealings can only have one future. Its only these people who refuse to recognize that ALL control of what they had control of, disappeared a long time ago. Pity their end? No! Freedom and peace for the innocent, for our home, Planet Earth…This world reminds me a lot of Buddha. Revered for his wisdom and spiritual insight, but, he died of gluttony. Cheers…

[...] Why $700 billion for the bailout? It’s a big number The View from Main Street | WBUR and NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook I’ll post this here instead of starting another thread that gets ignored. I did hear another [...]

I’m an engineer. My opposition to the plan is not ideological WRT to EITHER end of the spectrum! My opposition to the plan is based on the simple fact that no evidence has been presented that this plan will work, that the cost has been estimated correctly, or that the consequences, intended and otherwise, have been assesed.

Exactly! I agree with that analysis and conclusion too.