If we the taxpayers bail out every moron financial house that needs it,

[cliffordu]

What will the federal deficit be????

Infinity???

[NightWatcher]

1. my student loans are past due. how about a bailout for me?

[cliffordu]

2. I hear ya....They kept my tax refunds for 5 years....

[midnight]

7. How? Or should I say why?

[cliffordu]

17. I turned into a street level drug addict and part time dish washer/cook/etc...

They just kept the tax refunds until I was paid up.

They'd call every time I get a phone and I'd tell them they couldn't get blood from a turnup, or carrot, or something.

I was a deadbeat.

Just like Lehmann Brothers, as it turns out.

[Orrex]

3. Ain't that the fucking truth.

If Bush really wants to help the economy, how about declaring a blanket student loan amnesty up to, say $20,000 per borrower. Can you imagine the jumpstart that would give the economy? If I suddenly didn't have to decide each month whether to buy food or to pay Sallie Mae, you can be sure that I'd be a mite more vigorous in my overall spending, as would countless others.

Nope--bailouts only work for well-placed assholes who profit hugely from multi-billion dollar "errors" and "restatements."

[billyoc]

4. Yeah, infinity. There isn't that much money in the world, never mind in the US Treasury.

[cliffordu]

5. I'm wondering if I can still live in the bush. Belize looks better all the time.

[billyoc]

11. It's like riding a bike.

I'm sure it will come right back to you. ;)

[cliffordu]

12. lol. I bet it will....

[Wapsie B]

6. Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn't be better off if we didn't bail out the banks.

Let the money changers get their own house in order without taxpayer's help or else any bank that is taking a bailout is no longer privately owned. It now becomes property of the taxpayers of this country.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I just heard somebody on NPR estimate that cost at

$400 billion.

That's a bargain compared to an illegal, unnecessary colonial war, isn't it?

[roamer65]

9. Mark my words.

The Fed and Treasury will have to monetize trillions of all this bad paper to recapitalize the banks. I am now with Bill Gross of PIMCO on this issue. A full scale banking failure is something we do not want to see. I would rather see 20%-30% inflation than a 50% unemployment rate.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Lehman brothers was not bailed out

get your facts straight

THough it HAS failed.... and the reason... the same for 1929

Welcome to that AGAIN

[Lars39]

13. At a certain point, won't the other banks left standing be unable to buy

the others, or be unwilling to risk it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Why do you think Lehman failed?

read the post, NOBODY was willing to take on the bad debt they had

The reason... why you don't mix real estate with other forms of investing

[Lars39]

16. It sounds like a pyramid scheme starting to unravel.

:(

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Not quite a pyramid scheme

what happened is that all the regulations put in place under FDR due to 1929... were removed starting in the 1990s

There was a reason why they were in place

The same thing that happened in 1929... 30-33 is happening all over again... for the same fundamental reasons

[Lyric]

20. No, but they were begging for it.

Somebody with the feds actually had the guts to tell them NO--can you believe it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Given the consequences to the world economy I am actually surprised

they were not bailed out

Look... not tomorrow but in the next few months the full effects of this will start to come to us

[leeroysphitz]

14. If we the taxpayers bail out every moron financial house that needs it we just might survive

this crises and live to see our children prosper again some day in the distant future. The government is us and the government has a purpose.

I hate subsidizing the foolish risk of these greed heads as much as you do but working families have been left in the lurch and are counting on some help!

None of this could have happened without the republican revolution of the early 90s and this is a democracy so guess what? WE are the government so WE are all in this together and WE will have to pull together to fix it.

The first best start would be to elect a Dem President and a congress with a large majority. Then we can finally get to work.

[cliffordu]

19. Fock. Love the photo.

:rofl:

[VOX]

22. Freepers still chafe at "welfare moms." But meanwhile, taxpayers are bailing these big-money firms.

While freepers chafe at the quaint cliche of "welfare moms," it doesn't appear to bother them that their beloved right-wing govt. is asking taxpayers to foot the bills for this chronic malfeasance. :grr: