I am OK with the bailout.

[renie408]

I am not OK that Wall Street needs to be bailed out in the first place, but I am resigned to the fact that it has to happen. I have been trying to understand what is going on and while I can't say with total confidence that I get it, I do understand the logic behind the bailout.

If the economy fails, it is bad for everybody. A rising tide lifts all boats...and it works equally going the other way. If the big banks and the people that insure the big banks fail, they will take the rest of us with them. Where do you work? Do they operate on a strictly cash basis or do you think there might be some credit involved? Because any business that operates using credit would be squeezed out of existence if the banking system collapses. Money is getting tighter and tighter. If AIG, WaMu, etc are allowed to go bankrupt, what do you think is going to happen? Positive growth may not trickle down, but negative growth certainly will.

The thing is to stop arguing whether we should do this NOW and strike while the iron is hot to insure that we don't have to do it AGAIN. This is an opportunity to get oversight into the system that has been lacking. This is a chance to get some control back over areas that have been deregulated.

[NNN0LHI]

1. The bailout is because so many people don't have money to pay their mortgages

Those same people who we have already concluded have no money are the ones who are going to pay for this bailout in the long run.

Does that make sense?

Don

[MH1]

2. Well it defers and (hopefully) dampens the catastrophe.

I have no problem with emergency measures to prevent immediate chaos. But my problem is all I hear talk of is 1) the bailout and 2) the Dems want to make sure there is a stimulus package for the little guy. Period. WTF? Where's the talk of how we got here and that there should be no bailout without proper regulation to prevent it ever happening again?

[renie408]

4. Exactly. Bailout, but bailout with safegaurds that prevent this from happening again. n/t

[renie408]

3. Yes, because of the phrase 'in the long run'.

This is a long way from ideal. A REALLY long way. But if these huge financial institutions go under, this whole country will be thrown into a depression which will make the Great Depression look, well, GREAT.

Honestly, all this bailout does is buy us time. But I think the alternative would be devastating. With this bailout, we are given the time to restructure and reorganize. If things crash now, credit will dry up completely. On a personal level, that might not be a big tragedy. But think of the MILLIONS of small to midsized companies that would be squeezed out of business. Small businesses rely on credit to buy inventory, supplies, etc. Without it, they disappear. And the jobs they supply go away. And the economy backs up even more.

Again, I am not Ok with WHY we have to bailout Wall Street and I am in no way HAPPY about this. But I am not arguing any more whether we should or not.

[KharmaTrain]

5. This Is A Band-Aid, Not A Cure...

I'm with you on most of what you've posted. The government was forced to step in or the banking system would collapse and totally paralize the economy. It's gonna be tough days ahead, but this stop-gap move kept the economy afloat for the short-term. Until there's a solution to the large credit mess that's out there...and not just real estate, but personal credit as well...as well as the re-institution of regulators ending the wild speculation that's taken place...then the economy can settle down, but it will be at a cost.

There needs to be an accountability...and I see many who want that ahead of the solution. First let's get some sort of solution and stability then go after those who gamed the system. The first step will be driving out the GOOP corporates and lobbyists who infest the government...bring home the troops who drain $10 billion a month and start to encourage a new economy similar to what we saw with the early dot com days of the 90's.

Millions of people's pensions and savings were saved by this move...including many elderly on fixed incomes. The pain ahead will be great...I expect inflation as well as a shrinking of jobs and services until the credit lines once again get in balance.

Cheers...

[renie408]

7. The problem is the 'spendspendspend' mentality that Washington has

been encouraging for the past thirty years. Your country is fucked up when it depends on its people to spend more than they make to keep the economy afloat. They talk about the housing bubble and the tech bubble...our WHOLE economy is a bubble and it just burst.

I think this country will have to readjust to less decadent lifestyles, less McMansions, more mulitgenerational homes, etc. Essentially, we go back to living the way we did before WWII for awhile.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Amen

My parents were of the "depression generation"...they taught me that if you don't have the money, you can't afford it. At one time I was forced to max out cards to keep food "on" my family and it took a long 10 years to pay it off. Yes...the credit game is the charade...one of many...that drove the market and economy since the 70's. When one income couldn't meet the bills, then two became the norm...and then a second job and so on. I know many who lived with the "I'll get it now and figure out how to pay for it later" types...close friends and family...many who now sit one fragile paycheck away from falling off the economic abyss.

This country's economic and social infrastructures will undergo tremendous change...while we won't be selling apple on street corners, there will be a need for government to invest in a new works program...toward energy independence and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure. The days of rampant greed are coming to an end.

Cheers...

[live love laugh]

12. You are lumping spending of normal government with the pillaging of BushCo

when you say they have been spending for the last thirty years.

There is a huge difference and Bushco's purposeful spending with simultaneous deregulation is what has resulted in this serious situation.

[RC]

10. Don't forget they were playing the stock market with other peoples money.

My understanding is that was a no-no only allowed because of deregulation.

[cali]

6. The bailout is unlikely to work

in the long run. Particularly if they let short selling start again in a couple of weeks.

[renie408]

8. Which is why we can't all just give a sigh of relief and think it is all over.

Everybody is waiting for us to be 'saved'. It isn't going to work that way. You are exactly right. This is NOT a long term solution. This is a stop gap measure designed to gain time. Which is what I said. This is only the BEGINNING of what needs to happen and I really think a lot of Americans are in for a rude awakening over the next few weeks.

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. The economy is still going to fail. Now we will just suffer more when it does.

This "bailout" bought us months, maybe weeks, of continued ignorance. It does nothing else.

[El Pinko]

13. The bailout will not save or even help the economy.

It will prolong the present economic model, but it won't prevent its collapse - in fact, it will exacerbate it because yet again we will be devaluing the currency by printing more of it, and yet again, we will be asking investors in PRODUCTIVE foreign countries to lend us even MORE money, which they can have little expectation of getting a return on - look how they got burned by the subprime/HELOC mess.

The bailout is the exact OPPOSITE of what's needed. If we are going to go in hock another trillion dollars, we should be spending that money to rebuild our DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES and create millions of DECENT-PAYING JOBS, and initiatives to get middle class wages moving up. The lack of such enough good-paying jobs is the very reason people were so enticed by flipping in the first place.

"The thing is to stop arguing whether we should do this NOW and strike while the iron is hot to insure that we don't have to do it AGAIN." Well, politically it's already a done deal, because the at the end of the day, the democrats and the filthpig republicans work for the rich and that is the ONLY group that will benefit from this.