Bailout on Trial: What Does Taxpayer Get Other than a $700B Bill?

Poo!

What Paulson, Bernanke & Cox are asking for is revolving account credit card with a $700B credit limit. The fact that they wanted absolutely no oversight by anyone is absolutely beyond the pale. We have a Homeland Security Czar already. Now, they're telling us we need a Finacial Czar??? Good grief...

I do not understand why 30yr fixed rates have not dropped to around 4.0%??? Maybe I am not understanding the "big picture"....or possibly looking through "rose colored glasses"....but can someone help me understand this. Banks can currently borrow $$$ at 2% from the FED...so they (the Banks) would still be making 2% on each of these loans if rates were at 4%. Now granted I still think there should be some adjustments based on FICO, DTI, BK history etc.....but why haven't base rates dropped to 4%? I think this would definitely help the housing/foreclosure crises and in result help the economy. Am I looking at this way to simply.....can someone please help me understand????

What the taxpayer will get, along with their kids and grandkids and great grandkids is a totally defunct capitalist system where risk takers will be even more "bold" knowing Uncle Sam will bail them out so they make millions and billions until things catch up with them which they always do and then the taxpayers will bear the burden they knowingly caused. What a country. Government, keep your hands out!

It's about time politicians started standing by the taxpayer. It's absurd to think that the Bush administration wants to give blank checks to the financial institutions with the taxpayers money. Just one more Bush administration "BLUNDER". Why is that man not in prison?????

A free market system is what these cavalier investment bankers always said they wanted; so... let them live and die in their free market system. No BAIL OUT!

paulson is not working for the taxpayer he is working for goldman sacs,

why not just putting all techticker videos on youtube? they've gotten so much better bandwidth to serve people around the world. i am seeing only breaking segments of videos....

Congress shouldn't just take a few days to talk about it but they should refuse it. The problem is most times congress grand stands and then they quietly approve controversial bills. Remember the Iraq war, how much real discussion and debate did take place ? Hardly ! Most were cowed into authorizing the war on the flimsiest evidence. The buying of the debt obligation through this 700B plan will simply in my view accelerate the demise of multiple players. It will force them to acknowledge the realized prices of their debt assets and consequently many will go into negative equity. I think rather than buying back these assets, the government should merely offer fractional guarantees on the debt obligations and thus allow the banks to keep the assets on their books knowing full well what the floor on their assets are, meanwhile the banks may still record their artificial prices for those assets on their books. Also keep the borrowing window open, something which they have done. The rest I believe will not work, especially buying them out at fractional prices is not the solution, it will accelerate the spiral. A second poin. Since Paulson ostensibly claims that banks will not subscribe to his plan if he puts in pay curbs and other pay related restrictions seems to indicate that either the banks are not that desperate, and possibly his plan is another attempt by this administration to rape and pillage this country's finances.

I don't want to create an historic financial disaster but my opinion can be summed up in this brief point: I lived within my means and socked away money for retirement since I entered the workforce after attending college. Meanwhile, many people accepted loan terms which they really couldn't afford unless their real estate kept appreciating or they managed to earn more income. Bankers and other financial professionals took home crazy money for perpetuating this and have probably enabled their heirs to live without a care. Where is this $700 billion going? It sure seems like it is rewarding bad behavior.

Paulson: Just PRINT the damn money and give me the check NOW !!! Both parties will ALWAYS push for more Government spending and control - there will always be a DIRE Emergency - Terrorism, Iran, Iraq, Medicare, etc.. The Government will continue to finance its expenses by printing money - follow the path of least resistance. As more and more money is printed, its value depreciates - INFLATION. Inflation is a regressive tax on the poor and the middle class - the Rich own assets which go up with inflation.

Paulson: Just PRINT the damn money and give me the check NOW !!! Both parties will ALWAYS push for more Government spending and control - there will always be a DIRE Emergency - Terrorism, Iran, Iraq, Medicare, etc.. The Government will continue to finance its expenses by printing money - follow the path of least resistance. As more and more money is printed, its value depreciates - INFLATION. Inflation is a regressive tax on the poor and the middle class - the Rich own assets which go up with inflation.

How can Paulson ensure that his reverse auction will work efficiently. What if the auctions are rigged by the banks and the gov winds up paying higher fractions say 95 cents on the dollar instead of 60 or 50 or 20 cents? Who is to determine that the price is a fair one without oversight ? Let's not forget that Paulson has a conflict of interest here, how much of his 500Mil$ wealth is tied to banks on WS?

It Stinks

Paulson said over and over: "We want oversight." What does that "mean" exactly? Does it mean we (the thugs) want the power to fix this or we want Congress to have the power? When asked if Congress could give less (I think around 150B was tossed around) and re-evaluate in December (presumably after a new administration), Paulson said, "that would be a grave mistake". I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY SHARING OVERSIGHT WITH CONGRESS WOULD BE A GRAVE MISTAKE! He's a salesman, and is trying to sell the American public their own right leg. Congress: For the first time ever, TELL THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION NO! THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS FOR TAXPAYERS

It won't matter if the bailout is $700 billion or $10 trillion, as there does not exist enough fiat money in the universe to save the counterparties in this debt bubble. The system has failed and for congress to prop-up this thing with newly created money will only cause prolonged pain and suffering. The answer is to simply let the cards fall where they may, get rid of the FED, outlaw reserve banking, and go to a new money backed by something real -- like our Constitution says we should have had all along. Congress should also look at passing some amendments to the Constitution that specifically forbids government from interferring with the newly created commodity based money in any way, and end the American Empire.

Instead of a bailout, we need to manipulate write off and forgiveness in the tax code. IF the banks write off bad loans, main street should be able to reset market price of properties.

Stop the madness. No responsible entity would loan such sums without collateral. The Chrysler bailout required a government cosigner, concessions from union and management, and the treasury got paid off 4 years later, with a 350 Million profit on a 1.5 Billion loan guarantee. http://uspolitics.about.com/od/economy/a/chryslerBailout.htm

It is morally wrong to force taxpayers that have been denied health insurance coverage, due to pre-existing conditions, and take away money they are saving for their health care and force them to pay to rescue failed insurance companies. I think we should just let the insurance companies fail, so that the government can takeover health care coverage for all Americans.

This whole drum beat of "act now or else" "trust us or else" reminds me of the Bush doctrine to invade Iraq as a preemptive measure, the scare tactics are the same "there are weopons of mass destruction" and when later challenged, no accountability! I hope that the congress has the guts to stand firm and ask all the relevant questions, scrutinize the plan with a fine tooth comb and not be bullyed into acting too quickly. It is extremely important that they get it right! Demand accountability, as well as serious consequences to the players that got us in this mess! If there is no punitive damages paid by these companies, then what is the lesson anyway? Risk America, risk the world and you will get bailed out, you may even get a position in the new organization that is created as a result of your mis-management!