For anyone unclear on what is happening right now from About.com

[minteckers]

Why the Bailout Is Necessary

Tuesday September 23, 2008

Congress is now debating whether the taxpayer should pay $700 billion to bail out investment banks who purchased mortgage-backed securities that are in danger of defaulting. The bailout was triggered by an event last week that shows just how close the global economy was (is?) to a catastrophic

Comments

[soniclibra]

ugh.. it's all a mess and it surely did not even begin to start with Bush like people love to believe. It will also NOT end with Obama. Some things will end with him but nothing good..

[minteckers]

This problem is wholly bipartisan. Watching people fall apart blaming Bush, Clinton, or proclaiming that Obama or McCain are at the root of these problems are wasting time and energy (although probably not brain cells).

The Washington blame game isn't going to get us anywhere. It is going to take a real bipartisan effort to sort throught this mess.

[lather2002]

Did you go by Sam's Club and purchase your head scarfs yet ? You better go now before he becomes President, for then there will be a run on them and the prices for same will shoot through the roof !

[minteckers]

Oh you :-P

[minteckers]

What exactly would you charge them with? They weren't breaking any laws.

[lather2002]

Except for living up to It's (the U S government) promise to insure savings under the FDIC and any other similar existing promises that are already law, I think a "Bailout" is total rip off on American Taxpayers and goes against the principles of Capitalism/Free Markets. The end of the world will not come about if government does not get involved. The sky is not falling. Yeah, there will be many business concerns that will fail, cease to exist, but hey, tough titty. Over 30 billion in the last few couple of years were paid out to Greedy CEO's, some of which are supporting the likes Obama. Hell the biggest beneficiary of received political donations in the US Senate of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac is Senator Dodd (Obama being the second), one of the Senators now deciding how much money is going to go to these same people. Anyway, whatever, what will be will be (a line from one of my favorite songs as sung by Doris Day, haha) and their ain't nothing the average American can do about it (including writing a long comment response to your above

[minteckers]

Normally I'd be right there with you in the tough titty crowd.

[lather2002]

Barney Frank and Chuck Schumer and their roles in the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

[minteckers]

Like I said, I don't know what *should* be done. I posted the above as reference for those that don't seem to understand what is even going on right now.

I am concerned about what would/will happen if nothing is done. Part of me wants everything to fail, part of me doesn't think that would happen, and the other part is terrified of what would happen if it did.

[minteckers]

I'm not with the President on this one. The banks were irresponsible to lend the money, the debtors were irresponsible to take out loans in excess than what they could afford, the government was irresponsible for encouraging the subprime lending, and we all were irresponsible for believing that we had "broken the business cycle," that the old rules of money supply no longer applied, and that we could spend ourselves into oblivion without consequence (this is a general "we" I'm speaking to).

I totally agree with this.

[kallistos]

I agree...

But I don't think financial panic has fully set in, though the situation is worsening on Wall Street...and no one is lending to anyone..which will only worsen things...and fairly fast.

I think we have some wiggle room...but not much. Having all sorts of people crater, and destroy the money supply and liquidity while doing so...and laying huge overhangs of worthless securities, and empty homes no one can buy...is bad.

We certainly overspent, created way too much money, lent to bad credit risks, and had overly greedy banks...but that doesn't change that thanks to all that, we're in a minefield with no nice solutions.

[kallistos]

There is the anarchist in me that would really like to see the government do nothing, the economy collapse, everyone lose their jobs, and have the country gripped in mass hysteria and panic while I sit back and eat popcorn from the safety of my well stocked, wall armed home.

I'd like that too...except I'm not in my own well-stocked, well-armed home far from the chaos. I'm in the middle of it, with gator filled swamps to my left, the ocean to the east and south...and sixty miles of heavily developed urbanity to my north. Escape? Where to?

I don't want to become someone's lunch...

A depression would be a disaster.