Posted on 10/10/2008 10:08:51 AM PDT by BGHater
For the past several weeks voters were told by the White House, the so-called leadership of the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and numerous pundits on the airwaves that America faced utter economic collapse unless a $700 billion bailout plan conceived by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was approved immediately.
Skeptics of both the ‘crisis’ and the purported ‘fix’ were denounced for not understanding the economic turmoil that would flow from delay.
Two weeks ago we were told that failure to pass the proposed legislative ‘blank check’ would cause a one-third decline in the stock market come Monday morning. Nothing passed. The market slipped down, but not nearly as much as the ‘experts’ predicted. And when the bailout plan was rejected by the House the stock market actually went UP!
In fact, once the legislation was finally forced through Congress later in the week the market reacted with an even more dramatic decline than met the rejection of the original planned bailout. I guess we now know not to rely on the geniuses in Washington when it comes to playing the market.
The bailout plan ultimately approved by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush is scant on details and doesn’t actually address the fact that the fiscal mess was created in large part by government rules and regulations that directed banks and lending institutions to loan huge sums of money to people who had no proven capacity to pay it back. Needless to say, the failure to deal with the problem while throwing tons of other people’s money into this bailout scheme has produced some outrage from those ‘other people’ — the taxpayers!
By failing to rein in the practices of lending to bad credit risks there is no guarantee that the same abuses will not be repeated. In fact, it is almost a sure bet. The only thing that Congress has done is clear the bar tab of an alcoholic who was being turned away from the bar for failing to pay his bills. He now has a fresh start to go on another drunken binge.
The ineptitude, the finger-pointing, the bickering and deceit that has run rampant in this entire debacle has caused voters to lose confidence in our leaders, and rightly so. But what has pushed the public past the tipping point of outrage to pure rage is the fact that pork-barrel ‘sweeteners’ like tax exemptions for ‘wooden arrows’ and funding for wool research were added to the package in order to secure the votes for passage.
Faced with what was described as the most serious financial crisis in perhaps a century, and with our elected representatives supposedly recognizing and believing that to be true, they wouldn’t act to avert the crisis unless they got a little something extra for their lobbyist buddies and special interest cronies. They would not fulfill their sworn duties without getting a little payoff.
Imagine your home catching on fire, with your children trapped inside the burning structure. As you watch in panic; the minutes tick by for what seems to be an eternity until finally the fire department arrives. Firefighters pour off of their trucks as the sirens blare and the lights flash. They grab their hoses and axes ready to rush into action to save your home and family. Then, they pause and ask you for a little extra cash from whatever you happen to have in your wallet before they are willing to do their job.
That is what Congress did last week. And it is why we should be disgusted with the whole bunch.
KILL THE BAILOUT. SIGN THE PETITION.
Folks, please forward teh petition to everyone you know.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Nobail1/petition.html
Let the banks do what banks do and close down Congress. They do more damage than all the banks put together.
is the fact that pork-barrel ‘sweeteners’ like tax exemptions for ‘wooden arrows’ and funding for wool research were added to the package in order to secure the votes for passage.
“hmm I’m not so sure I’ll vote yes but now I will thanks to that wooden arrow provision!”
AMEN!!!
Days after $87 billion dollar bailout, AIG execs spent $443,000 at spa resort. CEO walks away with $5 million bonus.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10089022&ch=4226720&src=news
Lehman Brothers Arranged Huge Bonuses For Execs While Crying For Bailout Help
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_27678.aspx
AIG Cancels Seaside Resort After Close Media Scrutiny
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10121640&ch=4226713&src=news
Whole new vocabulary has resulted from the fraud, waste and abuse by corporate America on top of the obscene salaries from the executive staff. See below:
NEW STOCK MARKET TERMS
CEO —Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO— Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to
mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no
allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.
VALUE INVESTING — The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO — The percentage of investors wetting their pants
as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER — What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST — Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT — When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your
assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER — A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION — The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW— The movement your money makes as it disappears
down the toilet.
YAHOO — What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker
for $240 per share.
WINDOWS — What you jump out of when you’re the sucker who
bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR — Past year investor who’s now locked
up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT — An archaic word no longer in use.
AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY THE TAXPAYERS ARE UPSET OVER THE BAILOUT? Sheesh!
“Faced with what was described as the most serious financial crisis in perhaps a century, and with our elected representatives supposedly recognizing and believing that to be true, they wouldn’t act to avert the crisis unless they got a little something extra for their lobbyist buddies and special interest cronies. They would not fulfill their sworn duties without getting a little payoff. “
I have to say that this is what made my mouth hang open.
When they didn’t vote in the 700billion plan, I thought “Finally, someone in office has some cajones and sees how ridiculous this is!”
Imagine my surprise when it goes through “fixed” by adding ONE HUNDRED FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS to it.
I felt sick to my stomach.
Killing the bailout (which it ISN’T) will cost your your job/house/401k...let the people do their work.
The world monetary markets need as much stablity as possible...they do not need the US to try a “do-over” in the midst of a crisis.
An economic problem?? My God! If the government moves fast it's just guaranteed to make the problem worse. I cannot accept the fact that hurriedly throwing $850B on an economic crisis (which no one can claim to truly understand) is a good idea.
This was snake oil from beginning to end.
Investigate, Indict, Prosecute and SEND TO PRISON all who are guilty involved in any aspect of this disaster, whether making the loans, benefiting from the loans, CEOs, politician or private citizen.
And in the end, it shall be totally ineffectual, more “throwing money at the problem”.
Who demanded “sub-prime” mortgages? Who protected the interests in these “sub-prime” mortgages? Who forced banks to underwrite these loans? Wh0 forced Freddie Mac-Fannie Mae to take and bundle these loans in the secondary market, creating the “bundles” with the poisoned and non-performing loans? Who ran to the Federal Government for a bailout, sending in people with their hair on fire, to plead for the government takeover and regulation?
Yeah, right. No pressure.
It has been a pretty cozy ride up to now.
Franklin Raines. Jim Johnson. Chris Dodd. Barney Frank. The litany of names is actually much longer, but these are the stars. Their names should be chanted over and over.
Two words: A CORN
Indeed! Prosecute the guilty to the full extent of the law!
>Two words: A CORN
A better two words: JAIL TIME
Can the states call the congressmen home?
Didn’t some states do that just before the war between the states?
You betcha we’re furious about the bailout. A neighbor of mine put it best:
“Those of us who’ve lived within our means, paid our mortgages even when difficult, saved for our children’s education and our retirement have done everything we, as responsible adults, were supposed to do. WE DIDN’T EAT THE APPLE, but we’re being punished for the excess of others.”
I fit that profile. I vote. And I AM LIVID.
Thank you for the link!
Thank you!
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