Bernanke: Approve bailout or risk recession

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown


WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures unless they act on the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry.<snip>


Bernanke's remarks about the risk of recession came in response to a question from Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who seemed eager to hear a strong rationale for lawmakers to act swiftly on the administration's unprecedented request.

"The financial markets are in quite fragile condition and I think absent a plan they will get worse," Bernanke said.

Ominously, he added, "I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, that our credit rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way."


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I like the suggestion made by another DU'er - have Boosh go on TV and explain to us why we have to fund this. Explain what the big emergerncy is and why we can't wait until 1/20/09.

[Junkdrawer]

1. And the dog gets it, too.

[WCGreen]

14. National Lampoon.....

I love it..

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Poor goggie!

[NashVegas]

2. I'll Take Recession for 200, Alex

We've gotten through a few of those.

[donco6]

3. It'd be worth it.

And I don't think the plan will hold it off, anyway.

[Hugabear]

4. Fuck it. Let's just have this Great Depression.

Many of our parents and grandparents made it through the first Great Depression. It won't be pretty at all, but I suspect that most of us could make it through another one.

[guitar man]

17. and the Republicans

were out of power for 50 years after the last one. Seems like some kind of pain is the only thing that gets this country thinking straight again.

[Mojorabbit]

18. It is the one thing I don't get

You know he means a depression and not recession. Being that most of us of a certain age have lived thru many recessions it does not sound so dire. Why doesn't he just come out and say it?

[ReadTomPaine]

5. "PUT THE MONEY IN THE BAG!" Benny shouted, as he fingered the pistol's trigger.. n/t

[Venceremos]

6. I'll take recession, too

It should only last a couple years. This bailout is buying us at least a couple decades of trouble.

[marmar]

7. Like we're not already in a recession.....

n/t

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Seriously. Why don't we take 700 billion and do something bottom up with it?

Like say national healthcare? Fuck you Paulson.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

9. Screw you Bernanke

I don't know what planet you're on, but we're already in a fucking recession.

And Paulson's bailout? It does NOTHING for troubled mortgages, nor does it address the continuing foreclosure rate.

It's a scam, people. When I read section 8 (the part that suspends our checks and balances) I couldn't believe they'd even ask for that . . . and then I remembered that this is coming straight from BushCo., who have been asking for AND RECEIVING all sorts of harebrained shit.

Time to wake up, people. Your bed's been stolen right out from under you.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. "smoking gun=mushroom cloud. That was pure bullshit too.

[TexasObserver]

11. He is singularly responsible for infusing banks with liquidity the past 13 months.

Old Ben the Bush lackey has been throwing gasoline on this fire since last year.

He and Poulson should both be fired publicly and made to walk the plank. Neither one has enough sense to run a lemonade stand.

[gravity]

12. He just explained it, the credit markets will freeze

If people and businesses stop borrowing money, the economy will collapse. You've turned this recession into the Great Depression 2.

Some version of this bill will be passed because the consequences are that huge.

[ShortnFiery]

13. That's fine, I'll share my ration with the ultra wealthy but I won't give them my last dime.

Dammit, this is just WRONG. We're giving our hard earned tax dollars to the upper .1 % who has squandered their funds.

This bailout is insane.

Don't do it!

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. With him and Paulson still at large, how could it be otherwise?The US was placed in peril in

precisely this way, the moment they won the deregulation they had always wanted. Anything that's necessary for the common weal - taxation is another example - is anathema to them. Taxation is another of their bug-bears, though not, of course, on others.

[AzDar]

19. 700 Billion (!) would make a helluva safety net!

Just say NO!!

[calimary]

20. Hey ben - we're in one ALREADY. Where've you been?

(Besides looking over prospective getaway property purchases in Dubai?)

[curious one]

21. I am tired of this threatening mentality.

[ThomWV]

22. Risk a "recession"? Shit, we've been in a recession for the last 6 years.

[northernlights]

23. um, from "days away from complete financial meltdown" to

risk recession?

From "credit will shut down" to "interest rates will rise?"

Wow. Let's just keep saying no to those assholes. How long before it's "pwetty, pwetty, pwetty please give us $700big ones? or we'll be willy, willy unhappy?"