I am beginning to think something is not right here.
TO many countries are not acting, and I keep hearing from some economist and politicians on both sides of the aisle that they are not buying it.

One economist mentioned on News Hour that AIG was waiting for the government bailout and had turned down offers from the private sector thinking they would get a better deal.

I Like the idea of letting them take loans, until they all pay off the debt they can’t make dividends or have bonus’s.

This way if they make it fine, if not we the tax payers do not lose a thing.

That sort of thinking is irresponsible and immoral.

The fact is that the vast majority of Americans still have a job, a roof over their heads, food on the table, etc.

In a depression there would be vastly greater suffering than today, which you would know if you’ve ever studied history. It’s immoral to wish greater suffering on people just so you MIGHT achieve some salubrious political change. History suggests that usually when people are hungry and desperate they do not choose positive change, but instead choose repressive and violent change such as the French Revolution, the Fascists or the Communists. Why gamble on that? Things are bad, but they could be a whole lot worse.

It’s not clear that we should.

I’m leaning more and more toward a bypass of the banks and some kind of direct aid to the individual mortgage holders. Mainly because it should be easier to tell exactly where we stand that way. There’s only a finite number of mortgages in the US and only a finite number of those are in trouble. Offer a refinancing deal to anyone whose outanding balance is > 90% of their house’s fair-market value. That would allow a 10% cushion against further price drops and would probably stop the prices from dropping any further.

Or alternatively, just buy up all the currently foreclosed properties and destroy them. This would take them off the housing market and reduce the glut of unsold property. It would also eliminate a major problem of blight faced by many communities.

Either one of these should cost less than $700 billion and avoid the problem of having to deal with the banks or buying up any of their toxic paper.

Finally we need to raise taxes to PAY for all this! neither Obama nor McCain have the guts to talk about this!

See, when money is taken from the middle classes and given to the upper classes by tax cuts, no-bid corporate contracts, war-profiteering, deregulation, highjacked energy costs, or just brazen fraud, it’s called the Invisible Hand of the Market.

After the Invisible Hand takes it, it sort of trickles down to you. That’s how this works.

Then if you want to take it and go build a bridge or a school or something, that’s your business.

Those of you questioning this plan. Let me ask you. Do you really believe that Bush and Paulson would ask for a trillion dollars if it wasn’t what was best for you?

I would like to debunk this notion.
1: Our government started the Iraq war, know one asked us to over through Saddam Hussan.
The conflict in Afghanistan is a joint effort with NATO.

2: We do give countries aid, however these are pretty poor countries. Our foreign aid policies have nothing to do with this anyway.

3: People who believe in this kind of jingoism should do a little homework as most of our national debt is financed by foreign countries. The mere fact that they are not calling dumping US treasury bonds is helping us right now.

4: This kind thinking is why the rest of the world dislikes us.

I don’t eat babies because they give me gas, but I have no idea what the rest of that poetry is supposed to mean. Human beings have never just bought or made things for simple pragmatic reasons and they never will. This is Earth, not Vulcan. My wife and I live in a large open concept contemporary house, surely bigger than what two people need to simply eat and sleep in. But it gives her a place to host a small chamber orchestra and it gives me a place to do dance photography. Since it’s almost paid-off who cares whether it’s an extravagance? And while my current car is just basic 4WD SUV transportation, my previous one was a sports car that I used to race at SCCA solo races. They were both bought for cash, so again, who cares?

The point is not to avoid extravagance; the point is to pay for it. I’d be perfectly happy with a $700 billion plan (maybe not this one) but I’d like to see taxes raised to pay for it.

Remember 9/11, how the towers came down, they it was the pancake effect, one floor falling on top of the other and the lower floor unable to bear the weight gave in also and so on, the whole thing crashed.

It all goes back to the question I asked Senator Richard Shelby, that “when the US government borrows money to function, in whose pockets that money ends up at“? of course the question is rhetorical since I at least already know the answer. It is still a good question, it made it on the evening news of my local station.

For Senator Shelby, and all others who may care, today I will give you the answer, but first, the United States government does not borrow the money form her self, NO!. The treasury issues debt obligations that are bought by other banks and financial institutions and foreign countries and institutions, then these are sold to the federal reserve, then federal reserve issues money against the debt, in other words, we owe the money to the federal reserve which is a private bank, in some instances the debt obligations may be held by the foreigners themselves.!!!!

The United States, or any other government is there to collect taxes for its operations, even at the threat and or use of force it must collect enough revenues to pay for the day to day operations and even may have reserves for unforeseen incidences. Since Reagan days, and “the deficits don’t matter” we have borrowed and borrowed and borrowed some more for a lifestyle that was not sustainable. All the while this “money”, “ the future tax revenues from the US population” have been used to support the global economic boom, hoarding of “wealth” by individuals and “bankers” who have devised more and more ingenious scams “financial instruments” to steal money from the government and each other.

Today as the pyramid scheme is collapsing, under the burden of its own crap load, the congress, the senate and the president are running out to shore up the system that is already doomed. A seven hundred billion dollar planned bailout will only the bring back the sharks out of hiding, again. Obviously there is a bottom to the housing market collapse, and there is “liquidity” since there is six trillion dollars (remember the United States deficit?) sitting on the sidelines.

As I have said before, no one creates a job to provide a living for another, jobs that are needed Will be created, houses that are needed will be built, houses that will be built Will be of reasonable size and price, to live in not to be used as a ATM card. Cars will be built for transportation and not as symbols of sexual expression. And we will have to stop eating our babies!

But then again, a people hooked on the “reality shows” may find it too much to “get real”.

But that doesn’t mean they had to. My credit card company keeps upping my credit limit – I think it’s $11,000 now. I’ve never put more than $2-3K on it, and I always pay it off in full every month so I pay no interest charges. The fact that the bank is WILLING to let me get into debt up to my ears doesn’t mean I’m obliged to.

Why do we only hear socialist voices on this tax-payer supported program?

You mean socialists like Bush and Bernanke and Paulson? Is this one of those secret cabal conspiracy theories? Tell us more.

The permanent guest is a die-hard socialist, and it seems the guests frequently tell him, “I totally agree with you,” as the guest today did.

Peter Nelson, you’re half-right. You leave out the part about how the husband and wife got the mortgage with almost no salary to pay for it. In the olden days, when banks actually held mortgages and were left holding the bag if they weren’t paid off, the bank would have advised Husband and Wife to take a long walk off a short pier. Nowadays (meaning, before August 2007), the mortgage underwriter would have said to Husband and Wife, “sign on the dotted line”, and then chopped the mortgage up into little pieces of Mortgage-Backed Securities and pushed them upstream to the next sucker.

Your math is wrong, unfortunately… $85 billion divided by about 200 million American adults gets each of us about $425. That may buy food and gas for a month, if we are discount shoppers, but that’s about it!

Now if we take Paulson’s “Mother of All Bailouts” amount of $700 billion, and divide it by 200 million, we do a bit better: about $3500 for every adult. That may buy us discount food and gas for perhaps an entire year, if we really pinch pennies!!

In Japan they have subsidized housing that is well built well maintained and is rented out based on your income.

The idea that all Americans should own a house is absurd.

If you can’t afford a standard mortgage you should not be buying a house.

I think what we can take from other countries such as Germany and Japan is how they deal with housing.

erm… you better check your math.

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It
Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S.
Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So
200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000
right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and
wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family? Pay off your
mortgage – housing crisis solved. Repay college loans – what a great boost to
new grads Put away money for college – it’ll be there Save in a bank – create
money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car – create jobs Invest in the market
– capital drives growth Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care
improves Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost
their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And
of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling
out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by
one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S
Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go back to
being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the private sector bargain
hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve
It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5
Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/22/marketturmoil.creditcrunch

I agree with everything she said and I don’t see why Germany (or any other country) should feel obligated to dig us out of a mess we created ourselves.

I also find it interesting that neither McCain nor Obama want to raise taxes to pay for this huge extra financial burden. It’s exactly that sort of irresponsibility – buying stuff without making provisions to pay for it – that got everyone into this mess in the first place. Instead we’re going to other countries hat-in-hand. Don’t Americans have any national pride at all? It’s pathetic!