U$ Fed Bailout of Financial Institutions is a Joke!

[laughingwillow]

The MSM is reporting some interesting posturing by republican members of congress in regard to the proposed financial bail out. Not sure of their motivation at this time. Old-school republicans would be expected to take free market approach and let the chips fall where they may. But the neocons have proved to be a special breed. Corporate socialism is their specialty.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cdfbdcb6-89a3 ... fd18c.html

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
Republican anger at ‘financial socialism’
By James Politi and Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: September 23 2008 21:45 | Last updated: September 24 2008
00:36

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday voiced their strongest objections to date about the Bush administration’s $700bn financial rescue plans, dealing a blow to White House ambitions for them to be quickly approved.

As Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, predicted grim consequences if the plan were rejected, the Republicans’ Senate leadership called for new provisions on executive pay, which the administration opposes, while others cast doubt on the whole package.

“We are going to advance taxpayers’ dollars, and government ends up in effect taking an equity position in businesses,” Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, said. “I think the taxpayers should expect no less than strict limits on the type of executive compensation that might be possible for those involved in these partially government-controlled enterprises.”

Growing Republican doubts will make it harder for momentum to build in favour of the proposal. Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, on Tuesday said the Republicans needed to “start producing some votes for us”. Although the Democratic leadership supports the need for a rescue package, many rank-and-file members are wary of pushing through what could be an unpopular $700bn (â,¬480bn, £380bn) intervention in an election year.

The political unrest surrounding the bail-out plan was on display throughout Tuesday’s tense hearing before the Senate banking committee â€" the first since the new authorities were demanded by the administration over the weekend.

Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate banking committee, warned “we could very well spend $700bn and not resolve the crisis”. He called on the US to exhaust “all reasonable alternatives” before committing itself to the plan.

Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina said: “I am very sceptical of this proposal and am extremely frustrated that we find ourselves in this position.” Jim Bunning of Kentucky added: “This massive bail-out is not the solution, it is financial socialism, it is un-American.”

Meanwhile, Democrats pressed the administration to agree that the government should automatically take stakes in the companies it acquires, as well as curbs on executives’ pay and bankruptcy reform that would allow judges to modify the terms of mortgage loans.

Chuck Schumer, the New York senator and chairman of the joint economic committee, suggested the bail-out could be smaller and its effect evaluated in January.

After the hearing Chris Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the banking committee, said the Treasury proposal was “not acceptable”. “A lot of reservations have been expressed this morning by Democrats and Republicans on this matter ... This is not going to work.”

Mr Paulson had argued during the hearing that the full amount was needed to stabilise markets and that limits on executive pay and mandatory government stakes in participating firms could undermine the plan’s effects. “The best protection for the taxpayer, and the first protection for the taxpayer, is to have this work,” he said.

The administration aims for approval of its bail-out plan this week. On Tuesday, Dick Cheney, US vice-president, sought to win over the conservative Republican Study Committee after 31 of its members signed a letter last week decrying the “the increasing propensity, size and frequency of government interventions”.

A second hearing on the plan is scheduled for Wednesday.

[laughingwillow]

This piece pretty much hits the nail on the head, imo.

Quote from below: The only funny part of this whole mess is that Bernanke and Paulsonuvabitch worry that limiting some of the investment officers' and directors' bonuses and income might prevent them from signing on to this contemptible mess of a bailout....

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/11350

 
ARE YOU SHITTING ME? (again?) Paulson and Bernanke deserve 20 to life.
September 23, 2008 - 2:48pm.
By Robert A. Kezelis

This one's short, not very sweet, and based on a cold rage that Pastor Ag has seldom felt before.

DATELINE Washington DC: Last week, Hank Paulsonuvabitch appears in a double secret probationary meeting before select Congress-critters, and claims that the entire financial system of the USA will collapse unless he gets emergency powers, unfettered, unsupervised, and without accountability to the courts, congress, or the American taxpayer . . . oh yeah, and a $700,000,000,000 loan. AND he gets to play with the money for 4 months without oversight until he retires. Whereupon he probably joins one of the recipients of his princely financial gifts and dole-outs. Congress was left speechless. Which may be the only good thing in this whole mess.

(HYSTERICAL HISTORICAL NOTE: For the past 2 yrs, Paulsonuvabitch, The Loan Stranger, and his sidekick "Tonto" Bernanke have repeatedly assured Congress-critters that no new regulation was needed and that the economy was robust, strong, and stable.)

DATELINE White House: Today, the assistant press corpse handler for the President admitted that, despite their denials of trouble for the past several months, in reality the White House, Treasury, and the Fed, were aware of this growing financial abyss, lied to congress, lied to the American public, and had worked out this solution during those months.

(HYSTERICAL HISTORICAL NOTE: Bite me in the ass once, shame on you; Bite me in the ass twice, thrice, etc., with the Patriot Act, IraqNam, AND FISA, and I should be really ashamed of mself; Bite me in the ass with this Mother of all Bailouts, and the only possible honorable reaction from Congress can be to commit group Hari Kiri, unless and until our Congress-critters can find their missing spines and stand up to this illegal, immoral, cheating, unconstitutional collection of political thugs and thieves. You know them as the Bush Administration.)

We now know that that the economy's not "robust", but a bust. The only way it is "strong" is when you compare it to the lovely aroma given off by a mega-farm that concentrates its pig offal directly upwind of you. Stable? only if you compare it to a mountain of jello during an Category 7 earthquake as measured on Sir Richter's magnitude scale.

I don't know which is worse, the fact that today's US economy would look at 1929-1930 with envy, or that our Administration leaders repeatedly, constantly, and deliberately lied to Congress and the American people about the state of the state, or lastly, that I have absolutely zero confidence in our Congress, either party, to stand up, be brave, investigate the hell out of this quagmire, and rationally work to fix ALL problems, not just the liquidity problems of Tonto's and the Loan Stranger's best friends.

The only funny part of this whole mess is that Bernanke and Paulsonuvabitch worry that limiting some of the investment officers' and directors' bonuses and income might prevent them from signing on to this contemptible mess of a bailout. The irony is so rich, that it would set off metal detectors in your local airport.

Technorati Tags: Rob Kezelis Hank Paulson Ben Bernanke George Bush US Congress Mother of all bailouts treason
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Wow, wow, wowser is all I

Submitted by Carl Nemo on September 23, 2008 - 4:09pm.
Wow, wow, wowser is all I can say Rob Kezelis...!

This magnum opus is the finest give'em hell rant I've ever read anywhere ever, regardless of the crisis!

I whole-heartedly concur with you sir!

I've contacted both my Dem Senators and rep's office yesterday along with blistering emails to all three of them, but based on my discussions with their aides I get the impression these, spineless, traitorous "republicrats" are going to rollover for the Bushista's like they've done on everything else during the past 7.5 plus years.

The aides said they've received "billions" of calls! Due to the shear volume, I'm sure folks weren't calling in to encourage the handout. The aides confirmed to me they were not, but since my Congressman supported the war in spite of the same volume of opposition, I'm going to use contrarian analysis and assume that my Congressman will giv'em the money!

The MSM is spinning some more lies by saying if the congresscritters don't pass this legislation they'll be blamed by their constituents for not handing over the money thus preventing their engineered "scare depression", when in reality it's the other way around. I've polled all my friends even people in my local Starbucks and Safeway and everyone has a let's get a rope and hang'em high attitude! I haven't run across a single citizen that's whined to me that our Congressmen should go along with this criminally inspired shakedown of the U.S. taxpayer.

Again, great stuff and you've made my day with your smokin', spot-on rant!

Carl Nemo **==

[laughingwillow]

I'm surprised the house and senate are even talking the big game they appear to be below. My guess is that they blow hot air for a few days and then quickly give in and fund the bail out before calling it a session and leaving DC. That way they look tough now and have a bit of time out of the public eye while the peoples forget.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Congress balks at huge US financial bailout   

Sep 24 06:56 AM US/Eastern
   
US lawmakers were digging their heels in Wednesday against the government's 700-billion-dollar financial rescue package, setting the scene for a fierce showdown on Capitol Hill watched anxiously by markets around the globe.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were facing another day of testimony, after Tuesday's cold-shoulder reception by senators balking at a swift passage of the bailout.

The duo argued that failure to pass the emergency measure quickly would put the entire US economy at risk, but lawmakers appeared unwilling to let Wall Street off the hook at the massive expense of US taxpayers, while the FBI reportedly launched a probe of failed banks and mortgage giants.

"What they have sent to us -- this is not acceptable," Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters after Bernanke and Paulson testified.

"A lot of reservations have been expressed this morning by Democrats and Republicans on this matter," said Dodd, a Democrat. "This is not going to work."

"They're going to have to come back and work with us," he said.

The two finance chiefs were to face a second round of grilling Wednesday at a hearing of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee amid rising opposition to what would be the largest government financial intervention since the 1930s Great Depression.

The debate over the proposed bailout was sure to heat up further on news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing allegations of fraud by 26 Wall Street firms, including several investment giants whose collapse sent world markets reeling.

CNN said the FBI has set its sights on investment titan Lehman Brothers, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer AIG, in order to determine whether company executives had any responsibility for the institutions' financial woes.

Democratic congressional leaders and some Republican colleagues have insisted the bailout crafted by Paulson, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs, should include sweeping safeguards and oversight to protect US taxpayers.

Bernanke told the Senate banking panel that despite unprecedented steps already taken by the Republican administration to confront the crisis, global financial markets "remain under extraordinary stress" and that action was "urgently required to stabilize the situation."

"I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, the unemployment rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP (gross domestic product) will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way, no matter what other policies are taken," he testified.

Paulson warned that if Congress did not act quickly, a credit crisis could threaten "all parts of our economy."

The warnings came as President George W. Bush vowed before world leaders at the United Nations that US lawmakers would approve the bailout and avert a financial meltdown.

"I can assure you that my administration and our Congress are working together," he said in his farewell address to the UN General Assembly in New York. "I'm confident we will act in the urgent time frame required."

But the proposal to give the Treasury unprecedented authority to borrow 700 billion dollars to buy toxic mortgage-related assets from struggling financial institutions faced stiff opposition in Congress.

"This massive bailout is not a solution. It is financial socialism and it's un-American," said Republican Senator Jim Bunning.

Another Republican, Representative Jeb Hensarling, said other options must be explored: "We are concerned that the plan will put the taxpayer on the hook for a trillion dollars and still might not solve the problem."

The ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, Richard Shelby, seemed to agree with Dodd.

"I have a lot of concern with the proposal," said Shelby. "Seven hundred billion dollars is a lot of money to me; it's a lot of money for taxpayers."

New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer told CNBC television during a break in the hearing: "There are a whole lot of questions and a good deal of skepticism, certainly about a blank check, on both sides of the aisle."

In opening remarks at the Senate hearing, Dodd called the government plan "stunning and unprecedented" in its scale and sweeping powers.

"Before I sign off on something of this magnitude, I would want to know that we have exhausted all reasonable alternatives," he said.

World stocks were mostly higher Wednesday, after a vote of confidence in Wall Street from tycoon Warren Buffett, whose company Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy five billion dollars of stock in Goldman Sachs.

[caulfield]

Hey LW, I read all your posts in The World forum but I wanted to make a tiny suggestion. I think in order to reduce the clutter in a hot thread topic, like this one and the one on global warming, it might be best to omit including the entire article in a post when a link to the source in included.

When there are certain portions in an article I light to highlight for emphasis, I usually just include them below the link in quotes (with personal commentary after).

I am by no means criticizing the validity of the material you present for reference, and only bring this up to keep these important threads presentable in an efficient and streamlined manner.

Peace and keep it up

[senorsalvia]

Just as an aside,  I was wondering if you good folks here could send me a few tens of thousands of USD?  Ya see, I have inversted in some questionable ventures in the past that did not pan out right.. That, and I have blatantly mis managed what liquid funds have passed through my hands in the last several quarters...  I'd send a financial disclosure statement for your purview, but alas, my recordkeping system recently got corrupted and there is no paper trail.  I really do promise I'll become financially astute the next go 'round.....  How's about it, huh, from one by gum citizen to another eh?---  Oh, and uh, how's about just sending cash in small denominations instead of checks, hmmmm....Thanks, I just knew I could count on you good peoples fiscal responsibility and probity...  Don'cha jess luv livin in 'da land of all dat dere milk-n-honey!!!

[caulfield]

Dear Sir,

Your loan application for "a few tens of thousands" has been pre-approved. We apologize for the delayed response, but prior to recent government intervention our unscrupulous lending practices were in jeopardy. Please pay no heed to your lack of liquid equity, your less than stellar track record for investments, or your long list of current liabilities. Without any structural oversight in regards to how we utilize this new found equity from the noble and generous taxpayers of America, we find it quite simple to go about business as usual and fill in in numbers for your income, credit, and collateral as we see fit.

The loan will be migrated into tradable securities in the form of bonds anyway, which will be insured by AIG which despite being a private company is backed by the government (not sure how that happened). Financial companies will then buy them from us and use them as leverage to make even more risky investments (just like you did! what a coincidence). If they end up putting their customers' deposits in danger, there is always the FDIC to back them up with Uncle Sam at the helm constantly printing out treasuries and passing the debt on to the wonderfully ignorant citizenry of this fine fine Country!

We thank you for your business.

Sincerely,
Greedie McFatty-Pants
CEO - Supremo Subprimo Savings

[laughingwillow]

Hey, caul.

No problem, mon.

But I'm not sure I agree. Personally, I'll read what's posted in a thread but seldom cilck on links. Maybe I'm in the minority. (It wouldn't be the first time.)

However, if proper netetiquette  is to provide a link sans supporting material, I can easily comply with that.  

lw

[laughingwillow]

Btw, caul...

After having some time to think about it, I don't agree that posting only links in a thread is the way to go. Links become corrupt and information is then not available on the topic at hand. While it might keep the thread more neat and tidy, after a certain period of time, the thread becomes nothing more than a bunch of broken links. By posting the pertinent material a thread maintains its historic significance no matter what happens to materials off-site.

Looks like a bail out has been approved. Hello fascism, good by free market risk to the oligarchy at top. Deregulation allowed these crooks to gut the system from the inside out. And now they want to be in charge of fixing the mess and it has to be done NOW!. A mess that took years to develop. A mess that wasn't even acknowledged by the gubmit or MSM until the walls were coming down around their ears a couple of weeks back.

"The market fundamentals are strong." McLame 2008 campaign slogan uttered for the last time only a few weeks back. What has changed in that time? Nothing.

This current crisis is only a symptom of the real problem. Trickle down economics is a farce.

lw

[caulfield]

After having some time to think about it, I don't agree that posting only links in a thread is the way to go. Links become corrupt and information is then not available on the topic at hand.

Sorry LW, mentioning links was just a suggestion for a larger argument I held in regard to posting an entire article as opposed to referencing particular points of interest. In order to prevent threadjacking I have moved my response to The Site forum.

they want to be in charge of fixing the mess and it has to be done NOW!. A mess that took years to develop. A mess that wasn't even acknowledged by the gubmit or MSM until the walls were coming down around their ears a couple of weeks back.

Indeed... Home prices have been falling for over a year with people foreclosing at record breaking rates month over month, but only NOW with Wall Street, the big financials, and our system of purchasing national growth on debt and extended credit, is Washington finally concerned. It's really sad.

"The market fundamentals are strong." McLame 2008 campaign slogan uttered for the last time only a few weeks back. What has changed in that time? Nothing.

His favorite US President is professed to be Reagan; A man who arguably gave birth to the current cancer that is our growing public debt with his shortsighted Reaganomics... A man who saw the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (and could have done something) but did not even mention it in the news (despite pleas from the CDC and WHO) until people close to him were infected... A man who sent hundreds of Marines to their death to fight a civil war that was not ours...

A man who is the exact opposite of what we currently need in this our most critical hour while the country barely clings to life support.

Another Reagan? God help us all...

[laughingwillow]

This just in....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080929/ap_ ... l_meltdown

WASHINGTON - In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.......

.......Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. Not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election.

"No" votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.

"The legislation may have failed; the crisis is still with us," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a news conference after the defeat.

"What happened today cannot stand," Pelosi said. "We must move forward, and I hope that the markets will take that message."

.....................Pelosi seems to believe that this proposed bailout is going to fix the current economic crisis. Sounds like a true neocon trickle down economist to me rather  than a democratic party leader.

At least WE the people seem to be getting it right. I'm guessing Washington has been flooded with calls by ordinary citizens to scrap the plans for corporate welfare. Heck, I'd rather see the bailout money go directly to those with faltering mortgages rather than the fat cats on top. But I really don't think either should happen. At least not on the taxpayers dime.

lw

[laughingwillow]

Michael Moore's take on the situation at hand... I think his view on why the dems have backed bush and this plan is interesting, indeed.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/messa ... php?id=235

The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

[Syd]

Seems The House of Representatives who voted 228-205 against, agree this is a joke.

[laughingwillow]

This morning the morning newspaper ran a headline to the effect that "We may now be plunged into recession due to the failure of congress to pass bailout bill." Where do we find these leaders of industry?

Greed and reckless fiscal policies have gotten us where are today. I see the local newspaper as an advocate for more reckless, trickle down  fiscal maneuvers while attempting to pin the blame for the current crisis on congress for not  acting swiftly enough to stop the bleeding. Based on P/E performance, the markets have been long overdue for a correction.

Are these people really that stupid?

lw

[laughingwillow]

Dude from Harvard spells the current mess out out plain and simple like in the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/ ... pstoryview

quote from above: ..... The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.

Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

In contrast, a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This "moral hazard" generates enormous distortions in an economy's allocation of its financial resources.

Thoughtful advocates of the bailout might concede this perspective, but they argue that a bailout is necessary to prevent economic collapse. According to this view, lenders are not making loans, even for worthy projects, because they cannot get capital. This view has a grain of truth; if the bailout does not occur, more bankruptcies are possible and credit conditions may worsen for a time.

Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering. If financial institutions cannot make productive loans, a profit opportunity exists for someone else. This might not happen instantly, but it will happen.

Further, the current credit freeze is likely due to Wall Street's hope of a bailout; bankers will not sell their lousy assets for 20 cents on the dollar if the government might pay 30, 50, or 80 cents.

[caulfield]

I agree with Mr. Harvard.

The notion that market indices across the globe will simultaneously collapse if we do not address this NOW before the upcoming election is petty scare tactics. While it is true that something must be done, this bullying of congress for the sake of the S&P 500 is kind of drastic. For the most part, the banks seem to be sorting this mess out pretty well on their own.

True, credit is frozen and lending has stalled...

But we had that coming. Prior to this proposed $700 billion package, we had already committed billions to assist with Bear Stearns, Indymac, Fannie & Freddie. That was enough to get me pretty pissed off, but then we decided to back up AIG and let Lehman fall... And for a MOMENT I thought we were on the right track.

This debacle is starting to resemble our ugly history of meddling in the politics of the Middle East. Everything we do to prevent future catastrophe only ends up costing more because we did not consider the repercussions. From Countrywide to AIG, everything we have committed billions of dollars into saving was to protect the market from (the current) collapse.

But none of that worked, so why should we think THIS will?

The only institution we really need to back is AIG, and Wall Street should be able to sort out the rest on its own. The whole reason the financials got so carried away and regulation became so lax is that capitalism has instructed us to let market forces work themselves out. If we did that on the way up, then we must follow through on the way down. Market forces will see us through this storm, we simply need to bite the bullet and allow them to.

Back when the Dot-Com bubble burst and the NASDAQ fell 75%, Greenspan panicked and set rates to historic lows and left them there for too long , planting the seeds for the current housing crisis.

Why should this turn out any differently?

I would rather suffer now through the pain of a correction than throw fistfulls of money at a looming beast in the shadows hoping that OPTIMISTICALLY, we will have calmed financial instability enough that we may live comfortable lives into old age when we will need to explain to our grandchildren why their taxes are so high and their dollar so weak (and why they need to care for us because Uncle Sam cannot afford it).

Unfortunately, it looks as if the package will pass before the election.