Yesterday when I left work it seemed that a deal had reached, or was close to being reached, on the government’s $700 billion bailout plan. The details coming out of Washington were slim, but a tentative sense of relief was felt by many, while others were outraged. A short time later, the agreement apparently unraveled, although it’s possible that there was never really one in place at all.
While negotiations went into the night, no agreement could be reached among lawmakers and talks will continue today. The government is predicting chaos if a deal isn’t reached soon, but House Republicans are balking and there has been huge public outcry on both sides of the debate. Some people are just hoping to get this matter settled and see some relative calm come into the markets, while others are protesting the use of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street as many ordinary Americans are hurting from the credit crunch, weak housing and job markets and increase in the costs of goods.
This whole thing has thrown a wrench into the plans for tonight’s debate between the presidential nominees. John McCain had said he would suspend campaigning until the recovery deal was settled and that he would not attend the debate if he felt it necessary to be in Washington negotiating a compromise. Today should be interesting as we wait to see what unfolds with the bailout, the debate and how the market reacts.
Tell us, what do you think about the governent’s proposal?
Update: McCain has decided to attend tonight’s debate.
Bailouts of the banks is only treating the symptoms of the dis-ease and will lead only to higher infaltion, further damaging the economy. Same goes for any bailout of the people in the form of “stimulus packages”. We live in a country (the US) where 70% of GDP comes from consumer spending. To jump start the dying economy, consumers will have to start spending again. But the American consumer has run out of cash, and is $15,000 in debt on his/her credit cards, and therefore cannot spend, or borrow more to spend. The only way to fix the problem is to allow taxpayer consumers to keep more of their income, to reduce taxes, drastically. The only way to reduce taxes drastically is to downsize government drastically by eliminating non or under-performing departments of government that serve no or little benifit to the citizens. Until federal government is drastically downsized, there is no end in sight to the economic woes. Sure, there will be bandaides for temporary fixes, but financial debacle comes closer and closer.
As usual, the underlying cause/disease/problem is very simple to see if we aren’t spending all our time focusing on the symptoms. All of the various symptoms that can be identified regarding the bank crisis are simply symptoms of the disease. If every American taxpayer were allowed to keep 10% more of his/her total income, how many more foreclosures would there be? How many new cars could be purchased? How many more big screen tv’s? Boats? Vacations? College educations for children? Insurance policies? Restaurant dinners? Wardrobes? And on and on.
Or we could just sever ties from the Central Bankers/Federal Reserve system and go back to the system Jefferson envisioned and advised the People keep?
We should consider this a loan at the prevailing interest rates charged by banking companies. These financial institutions are in the business of lending money. Now we the USA a government of the people by the people for the people are in the business of lending money to them. We should be repaid just as they would expect us to repay them. Some debt may be forgiven under the law, just as it is for the average citizen. If say 70 million people lend $1000 each making it 700 billion dollars, then their return on that money should clearly be in the neighborhood of what a bank’s return would be. Right?
Sorry my math was off. 70 million people would have to lend $10,000 each! Forget that! I’m not lending $10,000 to anyone who just went broke because they don’t know how to handle money! What do I look like–a fool? I say track that money down and take it back from the greedy people who ended up with it. That money went somewhere. I say call in the FBI and the CIA and Homeland Security and tell them if they want to keep their jobs, they better find that money! One thousand is one thing, but TEN THOUSAND!!! NO WAY….unless we recalculate the amount each individual tax payer has to lend. That would be better. Make the rich people lend the most money to those stupid bankers who lost 700 billion dollars, and let the poor people like me just lend a hundred or so. That sounds fair. Better yet. The government should make the 700 billion dollars a stimulus package to the American people, who will spend it to stimulate the economy instead of trying to borrow it from a bank who isn’t going to be likely to lend any money to anyone for a couple years anyway. When they get that 700 billion, they will sit on it like Mother Goose! Give the average American $10,000 though and he or she will buy a new computer and tv and a used car, or they’ll make some home improvments and buy a fishing boat. The point is, give the money to the people who will put it to the best use. Even better still–take that 700 billion and prevent another 2 million people in Africa from starving to death! I don’t need a car, or computer or tv that badly! I would gladly give up the whole 700 billion for that, even if they were giving it all to me alone. I don’t know for sure whose side I’m on in this whole bailout thing yet. Now that I think about it, why doesn’t congress and our state legislatures put their heads together and figure out how to put this country in the right direction? To get straight to the point–first they got the savings and loans in the 80s; now they got the banks too. Whoever THEY are, nobody can stop them but Jesus! Everyone should start believing that God–IS–WAS–AND ALWAYS WILL BE RIGHT, EVERY TIME ALL THE TIME! Read your bible and you may come to that very conclusion, just as I did.
In my humble opinion, we should:
1. indight all of upper management for each of the banks that allowed the practices that got us in trouble. Fine them heavily — let’s say equivalent to their individual compensation packages for the past five years.
2. take all lobbyist donations to political parties and add it to #1 above.
3. Limit the terms of those “serving” in the Statesmen positions (Congress, Executive Branch, etc.).
4. Cut the incomes of those serving in our government by 28% (the more realistic inflation we’re experiencing) and add that to the “pot”.
5. Take all of the Wall Street fat daddy’s executive incentives and throw those into the “pot”.
6. Quit paying tax incentives to oil companies.
7. Quit paying farmers to NOT grow certain crops and instead, subsidize them for growing needed items.
8. Feed and house our poor, our hungry and our sick. . . charity begins at home. It is not charity to give to others (foreign nations) when you can’t take care of yourself.
9. Quit dragging your feet and step up to the plate when it comes to “greening up”. How about — all cars/SUVs must get 35mph CITY by 2012. How about special lanes for vehicles that don’t get that mileage and those lanes pay tolls. The tolls then go into the “pot.”
10. Completely redo the election system. Instead of spending hundreds of millions campaiging and having caucus after primary after caucus in order to have a convention — have all candidates (even if they only have 1% of the vote) answer the questions on National TV.
Use the “pot” to pay down the deficit.
Why is it when I lost my job and I was upside down, nobody wanted to bail me out. But everybody wants to bail out the banks.
we should not bail out these companies that are paying out of reason salaries to executives and the little taxpayer is so under payed, there is some thing wrong with our system when the $10.00 an hour. person is bailing out the $1 to $10 million executives and with all their fringes while the $10.00 person has no insurance or other fringes
NO BAIL OUTS FOR THE CEO’S AND COMPANY’S THAT MADE ALL THE WRONG DECISIONS, INCLUDINGALL OUR HEADS OF STATE. WE MUST NOT BECOME A SOCIALISTIC STATE..WE ARE AMERICA..THE HOME OF MAKING COMPANIES AND CEO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR SCREW UPS..LET THEM FALL! KEEP AMERICA CAPITOLISTIC..NOT SOCIALISTIC! WE MAKE OUR CHILDREN RESPONSIBLE, SO SHOULD WE MAKE THESE CEO’S RESPONSIBLE!