I have a nagging feeling that the "urgency" of this financial crisis is the election.

[Frustratedlady]

Why aren't we being told what "sucked the air out of the room" at that meeting regarding our dire circumstances? They didn't say how many days before the financial collapse. Was it 1, 3, 6 or 45?

Is this being rushed through because they are afraid the Dems will win and this is their last chance to get as much of our money as possible?

Remember the flood of "offshore drilling is a must" or all those "ANWR" pushes from the right? That has kind of quieted down, hasn't it? They were absolutely adamant that we couldn't get along without both.

Same with Georgia/Russia. My goodness! Cheney was getting his jollies over that one...probably even caused it to happen, but we didn't panic and that has faded away.

They are up to something. They think we are so busy fighting it out...then, they threw in Palin for good measure as a diversion.

Rove is going around criticizing McGoo...

I don't trust anything they say.

Something isn't right...mark my word.

[C_U_L8R]

1. The republicans know they are going to lose bigtime

they're just trying to empty the Treasury before they go

[mediaman007]

2. Our empty bank accounts are the October Surprise!

[AzDar]

3. Smells just like the faux-panic utilized so effectively in the run-up to the Iraq Disaster.

NOT THIS TIME!!!

[glinda]

7. RePubs hiding something

I think that the whole Anwar thing plus take ALL the recent environmental attacks that cost money to defend.... perhaps calculated to try to drain donations that would have otherwise gone to support Democratic races. Also an attempt to divert attention and energy during this crucial time. It is most likely that Dems give the most to environmental protection. And I think that the whole thing the RePubs have done to "not tap into" our Country's Oil Reserves tell me I smell a super super big rat. Has anyone actually checked the Oil Reserves lately????? I will bet they sold it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lonestarnot]

4. "Something isn't right."

OMG :rofl: If there is anything that is right, I would like for someone to please point to it. They are have been up to something for 8 years, why change now?

[eShirl]

5. yep

[Snotcicles]

6. I'm beginning to wonder about Chis Dodd. Why the urgency?

every time something is rammed through congress all the safety nets, switches, triggers, get left out.
And we are left with, would of, could of, should of.

[quartz]

11. Surprise!

Any politician who can stand up in front of taxpayers and say "I´m surprised or shocked about this development" should immediately clean out their desk and leave the building, and kiss their civil servant paycheck goodbye.

[LiberalHeart]

8. That "can't tell ya" moment was freakin' weird. Question...

If I can't pay my bills, the power gets turned off. But when the financial markets can't pay theirs, the power gets turned on. How come?

[Cogito ergo doleo]

9. Having the same thoughts this morning about Rove, and the

rush push this bailout through. There's a nauseating familiarity to all of it.

[Warpy]

10. You're partially right

but the real urgency comes from every institutional investor in the world (bank, brokerage, government) looking at its balance sheet and realizing it's full of exotic investment vehicles, "sure things" that turned out to be nothing but bad housing loans in Florida and California--and worse. In other words, they're finding out their assets are largely hot air and wishful thinking and that they're insolvent.

In 1929, Hoover just sat on his hands and didn't do anything to stop the crash of wealth built on nothing but debt that would never be collected. The Depression resulted. At least the economists realize this time that something must be done. They're GOP so they're doing the wrong thing, but at least they know what the crisis will produce if nothing is done.

Sanders is on the right track but he's not going far enough. He's also not likely to be listened to until it gets much, much worse.

The problem is that it will get much worse, I'm afraid.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. No, I',m afraid that this economic panic is all too real. There is nothing fake about it at all.

That is not to say that the Republican will not try to use it toward their advantage, if they can find away to convince the public that they really had nothing to do with the economic ideology that they have been relentlessly preaching for the last four decades.

I was arguing back in 1980 that real estate speculation was getting out of control and it was not sustainable and would cause the economy to implode.

The real estate market simply has to collapse. If it doesn't, housing will simply become completely un-affordable to the up and coming generations...and excessive real estate cost will make much of the economy nonviable - the same way excessive taxation stifles economy.

Unfortunately, most of the real estate bubble is rooted in rabid speculation spurred on by rabid borrowing and lending.

The real wonderment is, why this has not happened a long, long time ago.

[malaise]

13. Duh!!! n/t

[OHdem10]

14. The Democrats are supporting . this. Not one Democrat has

said anything against the idea. The Dems are in charge of House
and Senate. They could easily come out and speak as a group
against this. They therefore, must agree that this is the
right thing to do.

When it comes to Business Interests how different are the two
parties???? Many Democrats are Conservative on Fiscal Matters.

[halfstep]

15. It may be real but it didnt just happen thursday night!!

Its preposterous to think this just "blossomed into a critical emergency" thursday night and now must be fixed with an emergency bill immediately..get real people..thats how they shoved The Patriot Act down our throats and thats what they are trying to do now....Nothing that took a decade to develop has to be fixed in a week...if this bailout passes it is the end of our country....this is no more than a blantant attempt to steal as much as they can on the way out the door

[Gin]

17. Grand theft Treasury!................

g

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. It's real enough. The illusion is that the politicians can "fix" it.

It's panic response to cover their asses by pretending to be "doing something"...at our expense.

[Kip Humphrey]

18. The urgency is...my take

At the end of the 3rd QTR (Sept 30th, "a matter of days"), $11 trillion in derivatives resets. The potential impact to the financial industry's liquidity is -$1-1/2 to -$2 trillion. The $300 trillion to $500 trillion "equitized debt" derivatives market will likely survive for now (at least until the end of the 4th QTR when 6-10 times the volume of derivatives resets), but many, many banks won't.

The $700 billion bailout is smoke and mirrors. The aim is to prop up the derivatives market through the QTR changeover by leveraging the $700B to boost short-term market values and trends. As of Sept. 30th, if banks can state the value of their derivatives holdings as equal or near equal to their market values as of June 30th, all will be well (until 2009 that is). If this gamble does not work, expect either massive bank insolvencies or a 1st installment bill to the treasury of $1 trillion or more. For now, taxpayers will be holding $700B worth of 100% risk.

My expectation: 'managed' success followed by complete failure in January 2009. Taxpayers will be handed a $4-$5 trillion bill. An attempt will be made to raid Social Security's cash flow to buy (i.e., "invest in") debt. The Federal government will be left on life support and Social Security bankrupt.