Some of the best comments on the 700 Billion dollar bailout... If we took the bailout off the table the investment banks would do what they had to do to survive. The good manager would raise capital by selling stock, selling assets and cutting expenses. The bad manager would go broke. This is how the system is supposed to work. It is called free enterprise and competition. If banks need money, lend it to them. If capital stays frozen set up or enlist commercial banks to lend some portion of that seven hundred billion to deserving borrowers. Leave the junk on the shelf where it belongs. Some large portion of the junk will gain value over time. If the government tries to buy junk they will pay too much and fraud will be rampant. Smart bankers are probably buying junk for thirty cents now thinking they will sell it to Paulson for seventy cents.. C. Perry
It’s too bad Milton Friedman didn’t live a couple years longer to witness the fruition of his great economic theory. He and Alan Greenspan are two of the most over rated economists of all time–really more political hacks than anything else. Milton should have to posthumously return his Nobel Laureate since his misguided theory proved to be so in error……….. Edward Rasmussen Paulson’s words and solution are not credible. He was a wall street banker, so he is not a neutral player. He is, in fact, one of the creators of this mess. It appears that he is trying to bail out his buddies on the Wall street with this “cash for trash” plan. There are many ways for the government to pump money into the lending system, which have been floated by smart economists and ordinary people with common sense during the last week. Paulson’s plan is among the worst of those ideas. Let the government become a stake holder in these troubled banks in exchange for capital investment. Some will survive and make money; some will tank. That’s fine. But, let the government not get into the business of arbitrarily fixing the prices of junk securities. Such an exercise goes against the very idea of capitalism. — R. Jain Paulson says that moving toxic assets from Wall Street to Main Street will make both Wall Street and Main Street better off. I must have missed that chapter on “market magic” when I was at the Chicago School of Business. This proposal is itself toxic and should not be modified. Rather, it should be rejected outright. Wendell Gunn Gee, isn’t it a shame that we didn’t privatize Social Security when President Bush asked us to do so? We’d sure be rolling in it now. Gerard Schaefer I have been doing some quick number crunching on the ’supposed’ economic collapse that the problems on Wall Street threaten us with and the $700 billion price tag that the Bush administration wants to hit the American tax payers with. I don’t know all the specific numbers but I came up with the following figures on how a government bailout could be better spent. Let us suppose that there are 20 million homes that are either late or in complete default with the average homeowner being $10,000 behind on their payments. This amounts to a grand total of $200,000,000,000 to bring everyone in my ‘guesstimational scenario’ current on their mortgages. I am of the opinion that if everyone were able to get caught up on their mortgages, then it makes sense to me that the lending institutions out there shouldn’t have anything more to complain about because their balance sheets should look pretty rosy as a result. My point here is that it would take 70 million homes being behind on their payments at the rate of $10,000 per home to come to a figure of $700 billion, which I am fairly certain is NOT the case! Albert Dewey I enjoyed reading Mr. Egans article . It is clear and easy to understand . I would answer Senator Testers question thusly ; It has a deadline because that is how thugs of this ilk operate . Here in California Ken Lay told our governor on a Monday that if he didn`t sign a new rate agreement that day the power would go off Wednesday . It did and people died . A mother of five here in orange county was killed in a horrific crash when a young construction worker hit her and his legs were crushed . Nine seconds after the power went off that controlled the parkway signal lights . Thru out the state there was injury and chaos and death . By the end of that day our governor was begging Ken Lay to let him sign the agreement . The Bush administration let him savage us . When they say if this agreement they want now isn`t done this week there wont be any money in the ATMs next week they mean it . otie murdock Giving Paulson and Bernanke 700 Billion to Bailout Wall Street is like putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. I do believe something needs to be done, but trusting the very people that helped to create this mess to begin with, and who HAD to have known this crisis was coming but chose to say everything was fine for months before bailing one firm after another out (How many billions of the taxpayers dollars have already been spent ON NOTHING and will give nothing back to the American people in return???) over the last couple of months until dropping this bombshell on us as if the severity of the problem caught them by surprise. Giving Paulson and Bernanke 700 Billion to Bailout Wall Street is like putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. I do believe something needs to be done, but trusting the very people that helped to create this mess to begin with, and who HAD to have known this crisis was coming but chose to say everything was fine for months before bailing one firm after another out (How many billions of the taxpayers dollars have already been spent ON NOTHING and will give nothing back to the American people in return???) over the last couple of months until dropping this bombshell on us as if the severity of the problem caught them by surprise. NOT. So why aren't we following a financial rescue plan that already worked previously to save the taxpayers when corporate greed caused almost this same exact type of dire problems for the economy- not the United States economy, however- I'm referring to Sweden's response to the crisis that country faced after a real estate bubble burst, causing inflation to skyrocket 500%. Care to read about it? Go to this address: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/worldbusiness/23krona.html... That rescue plan worked, but it didn't bailout the greedy corporate criminals that created the crisis to begin with; THAT'S why Paulson and Bernanke have no intention of trying Sweden's plan or mentioning anything about it.... The Societal Retard --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
