Posted on 10/03/2008 2:52:33 PM PDT by mojito
To bankers and politicians who insist that the world will come to an end if the US Congress does not approve the proposed US$700 billion bailout package, I wish to say: "It is not the end of the world. It is just the end of you." Sadly, it won't be. America's financier caste will live to fleece another day.
There are no atheists in the trenches, and no free-marketeers in Congress after a nearly 10% fall in stock prices. A chorus of erstwhile conservative voices led by the likes of Newt Gingrich, the Republican firebrand of the 1990s, now argues that the proposed $700 billion bailout package is flawed, but it is better to enact it than to do nothing. This simply is not true.
In the event of bank failures, the government will not "do nothing". Two of America's largest banks, Washington Mutual of Seattle, Washington, and Wachovia Bank of Charlotte, North Carolina, were forcibly merged or taken over by regulators during the past several days, without a ripple of disruption to depositors or borrowers.
When a bank runs into trouble, the American government takes it over via the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an entity created during the Great Depression. Why doesn't Congress vote authority for the FDIC to add capital to stricken banks in order to continue their lending operations - after the existing shareholders have been wiped out?
The trouble is that the banking system is insolvent; that is, it lacks sufficient capital to hold its existing portfolio of assets, let alone to make new loans. Its capital is dissolving as loan losses mount. Banks have written off nearly $600 billion of mortgages or securities backed by mortgages during the past year.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Did you notice the “Earmarks”? Now I ask you......there were somewhere between 5 & 8 earmarks? If you know how many, please feel free to correct me. The Bill passed with over 50 votes than were required. If the President would have vetoed the Bill and told the House to take out the “Earmarks”, the Bill would have still passed by a large margin. Even if they lost the votes of the Congressmen requesting the “Earmarks”. Is our Congress a bunch of fools?
I'm assuming that was a rhetorical question.
Ultimately, it is the Americans who lack the guts to oppose it. As I argued on September 23, they are like gamblers who pass a tax to bail out the town casino, after unpaid gambling debts threaten to sink it. Americans will not easily give up the illusion that ever-expanding wealth is their birthright.
He's not talking about many common Americans, though. We were content to save and invest. The people holding our money were gambling addicts. We should have known, because a man should know what risks he's set himself up for, but it's hot because we weren't interested in saving.
The citizens shouldn't bail out the gamblers. They should fire the gamblers from responsible positions, and they should close the casino....at a minimum make it illegal to give loans to gamblers.
Where should we put our money?
Who knows? The government won't allow us access to our retirement accounts. Those who can borrow against it for houses/property might want to consider that. It might be nothing more than dirt, but it's your dirt, and it won't burn up until God's ready for it to.
You have money?
I have two funds that survived, one that died a bad death.
And after Pizza Hut for dinner, I still have $2.53 cents. I was feeling big-hearted so the waitress got a $3. tip. :>)
“You have money?”
Is that the same thing as an allowance? What I have found out over the years is that an allowance gets its name from the ability of the one who gives it to allow you to use it to buy the milk, bread and anything else she forgot to buy at the supermarket.
K-Mart, no doubt. :>)
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