I’m still not sold. Wall Street won’t learn their lesson if they do not hurt.

I could be wrong , but wasn’t the WSJ Ed page for the immigration plan last year?

These people/institutions aren’t infallible.

“We are not going ot take water out of your half of the bucket, we are going to take it from the other half.”

Yes, conservatives beleive in free markets. But it is also a Reagon who espoused the principles of trickle down economics and liberals who divide us into classes and espouse “finite pie” economics. As if getting mad and punishing the rich is an isolated action with no effect on the “water other half of the bucket”. Trying to sever Wall Street from Main Street is liberal classism. It is the antithesis of Reaganomics.

Anywy, this is a debate for post-election. The role of markets and regulations are beyond the scope of the average undecided voter.

We have four years to assort this mess. We have 33 days to win the election and make sure McCain is their to stop Pelosi and Reid handouts.

There’s no reason to sentence all of America to prison, just to punish a few people. Wall Street has screwed up, but being stubborn about that now hurts all of us.

Something must be done, and soon. While it would be nice for that thing to have a less socialist and a more free-market feel to it, the reality is that democrats control both houses of congress right now.

House Republicans need to get on board and push out a centrist bill. It won’t be perfect. But as congress stands today, we can’t get a perfect bill. These times are desperate, and an imperfect bill that passes is much better than an perfect bill that doesn’t.

There’s no reason to sentence all of America to prison, just to punish a few people. Wall Street has screwed up, but being stubborn about that now hurts all of us.

Something must be done, and soon. While it would be nice for that thing to have a less socialist and a more free-market feel to it, the reality is that democrats control both houses of congress right now.

House Republicans need to get on board and push out a centrist bill. It won’t be perfect. But as congress stands today, we can’t get a perfect bill. These times are desperate, and an imperfect bill that passes is much better than an perfect bill that doesn’t.

Rescuing the financial markets isn’t just about bailing out Wall St. If Wall St doesn’t do well, then your business doesn’t do well. If we had the time, every single person here could list their employer and we could find a way that their income would be directly affected by this crisis. Now, if everyone is ready to take a hit in the name of “letting the markets fail,” then let’s do it, but be careful what you wish for, because it will be a bumpy ride. There are a lot of smart people saying the markets need liquidity in the form of intervention from the Fed. Conversely, there are a lot of people who have no clue what the economic crisis means advocating against rescuing the markets. Sure, the Paulson Plan wasn’t/isn’t flawless, but neither will the next package to come down the pipe. The problem of our markets needing to be stabilized still won’t disappear though.

Erick, you can add Newt and Jim McCrery to the list.

Agree that this crisis does impact Main Street

Agree that government action is required

Agree that SOME people in opposition to the Paulson plan are using the Main Street vs. Wall Street populistic rhetoric in a way that is politically opportunistic

Disagree that the Paulson plan is the only viable approach to approaching this problem

Disagree that the core of the Paulson plan is a good diea

Disagree that urgency is so critical, that we need to do Paulson . . NOW without debating alternatives

There are several things the executive branch can do unilaterally that would help. If the problem is so critical, why not take those steps . . NOW?

If the timing is so critical, why has the Treasury department admitted that it would be several weeks before any securities actually get purchased under the Paulson plan?

Why is the mark-to-market rule so important that it cannot be suspended when the application of that rule results in prices that Paulson is unwilling to use for the Paulson Plan (e.g. mark-to-market rules would result in too low of a purchase price).

Lets focus on what is at stake. Beating up on straw men serves nobody, much less the country as a whole.

Something stinks to high heaven in this! I accept that “we the People” are going to have to do something to prop up the MBS’ value. I don’t know exactly what, maybe a revision of the accounting rules, maybe some direct purchase or guarantee; I don’t know what is best. But, I don’t want to throw a multi-billion dollar pot of money out there for the people who made this mess to get their paws in!

I’ve been through the end times of administrations, and everybody is looking to make their bed or feather their nest, and that isn’t an R or D thing, it is a thing that political appointee types do as an administration comes to an end, and in this case as an administration seems to be unravelling. That isn’t meant to be as critical as it sounds, it is awfully, awfully difficult to stay engaged even through one term, two is almost impossible. FDR’s administration shows you what three or more does; it kills people.

I’m just at a place where I really don’t trust anybody with this anymore. I called last week what the Ds would do; lard it up and try to force a fiat accompli and if it failed, blame the Rs. So far it has worked for them. I have no faith in the allegiances and alliances of the Treasury and Commerce types in the Administration, all of them are thinking mostly about what they’ll be doing in January, not about what is good for the Country. And, I have no illusions about what all the people who are busy ordering the furniture for their office in a new Obama or McCain Administration are thinking about. What a horrible time for something like this to be happening - if it is happening at all. How much of this is a manufactured crisis just to get some hands in the cookie jar? Clearly some of it is since the World hasn’t ended yet on each of the days that the end was predicted. Somethin’ ain’t right!

Well, I’m sold now. They do know what’s better for us all out here in Dumbf*ckistan.

Oh the horrors, all those people saying that the Government should take 6 Thousand Dollars from every person in America and give their money to Foreign Banks and Wall Street were clearly right, and we who opposed it were clearly wrong. I mean, clearly if prices on Wall Street goes down for a day or two that means the world as we know it is ending, right? So this horrible selloff for the second day in a row really proves that Socialism is cool and we who oppose it are just fuddy duddies. I mean, 4 hundred points down today, this is awful….oh, wait, thats a PLUS sign? That can’t be, the world is ending because the GOP didn’t vote for Socialism. Maybe I need to try a different TV channel, they’ll have the ‘real’ number, the one that says its DOWN 400 points…no, plus sign on that channel too. Darn, what’s going on? I thought the sky was falling! I mean, all those folks on TV talking down to Americans, saying how stupid they were to oppose Socialism and that Government taking 6 thousand dollars from everybody in America and giving it away to foreigners and Wall Street was the only way to solve this major crisis, weren’t they saying things were going to get WORSE if the Socialism wasn’t passed? Maybe they meant to say BETTER. Yeah, they just mis-spoke slightly. Now I understand. The reason we, the American people who oppose Socialism, only ‘thought’ they said things would get worse if that bailout didn’t pass is that we’re so stupid, just like they said we were. I stand corrected.

As my diary entry about the latest Rasmussen survey says, the more people know about this ‘bailout’ plan, the more they’re for it. Letting the credit market collapse would be like dropping a bomb on the economy. Sure, you might have a good fall-out shelter, but your neighbors don’t, and it takes a long time for radioactivity to go away.

We need to tie this problem to Barack Obama and ACORN pressuring banks to give loans to people that can’t repay them (Community Reinvestment Act), but we can’t do that without fixing the problem that they caused.

Unless Limbaugh, Hannity, Gingrich, and the rest of the base outreach machine is on board, they can kiss House Republican support for this plan goodbye. I don’t like the plan, who does? But I believe Paulson because I have been persuaded by his arguments. And all this talk about Administration not selling the plan rings hollow to me. Bush gave the best speech he has in years in defense of this plan. Paulson has been very forceful in his explanation. The reason it is not “selling” is because bad new never “sells”. The question is are we going to face the music of fiddle while the economy burns.

But now I’m wasting my time. Arguments will not persuade right wing radio, only ratings do that. And a fire makes a hell of a story.

As Rush said yesterday, “To hell with the markets.” That’s the down side of having entertainers as the main communication link between the party and its base.

if this is the best we can do so be it; with the understanding any benefit will be very short lived.

Every single industry organization I know has reached out and asked me to encourage my Representatives to vote aye. What I articulated to them was;

• There needs to be a termination of authority written into the bill or a reauthorization of authority
• Including the HOPE, et al other handouts (about 108 down?) will prolong and kick this issue down the road
• Not liquidating Fannie/Freddie is a guarantee for future failures
• Not reforming HUD, CRA and other lending mandates that encourage dilution of credit standards is another guarantee for repeat
• Reducing the US corporate tax rate, highest in the OECD should be the number one priority for bringing liquidity back into the US

For the past week or so I have heard the entire world kick us in the groin, led by fools like Peer Steinbrück. Now today, I see Merkel and other EU leaders imploring our Congress to act. I would love to return the bird and vote no, but guess the old adage “revenge is a dish best served cold” will have to be the operative principle.

Should we follow the points articulated above (especially taxation), add a review of remarking book at par value, and not only will we revive the market but the socialist cretins will be back to hating us again real soon.

There are plenty of economists saying the exact opposite.

Baker and Buffett? They’re not conservative. Buffett is practically like Biden, thinking that paying taxes is patriotic.

We had to have the bill by last Friday. And if we didn’t, we had to have it before opening bell Monday. And if we didn’t, we had to have it done during the day Monday.

And then we didn’t. Market fell. Already back 50%.

And even if everything crashes, this whole credit-based, inflationary country needs a good kick in the butt because Main Street is not exactly innocent in this matter either.

Citizens didn’t have to take loans they can’t pay back. I was encouraged to get a subprime loan. I just took a clue from Nancy Reagan and just said no.

Everywhere I turn, proponents of the bailout seem to be acting as organs of the Bush administration talking points.

As I said over and over in public and private communications, I’d be perfectly willing to consider this bailout IF:

1. A bailout proponent can actually make a decent argument supported by facts and evidence as to why they think these subprime mortgage-backed securities will actually pay taxpayers back in the long run, considering the fact that we’re in a severe and continuing market correction of housing prices fueling continuing mortgage defaults across the country, which are precisely the things that give mortgage-backed securities any value whatsoever.

All I get are “it’s really reasonable” or “sensible” to believe that these “distressed securities” are worth a lot more than the market actually values them at. But what if the market is rationally apprehending the fact that the housing prices will continue to decline because they were propped up for so many years?

1. Paulson is fired. I know we can’t fire Bernanke and the elected representatives, but someone has to take responsibility for this and NO ONE HAS, so the American people are RIGHTLY not trusting the government.

2. Someone can explain how re-inflating the credit bubble by injecting more credit into Bad banks is a good idea when those foolish banks should fail and better ones take their place and their profits for doing a better job extending credit.

pay off every mortgage in America under $75,000. Why not just do that instead of handing our money to those who screwed us in the first place. Then we’d all be on the hook to the federal government. Wait.. in Socialist countries don’t they call it “the State”

If we followed Obama’s plan it would be just as if we were trying to fill a hole in a sinking boat- Yes, he wants to go along with the staus quo, because otherwise he wouldn’t know what to do. Bush, McCain, and others warned of this happening, and because the Democrats have Ego’s as large as Texas they refuse to accept accountability. Shame, really, because if they ever grew up they might win someday. This started with the Clinton era and if ever people accepted the truth this country can actually start to make some real progress.

The money people involved in the bailout attempt are the same insiders who have never cared about main street unless they could use their vote.
No one is concerned about the moral breakdown and probably illegal actions on the part of the speculators who helped create this mess.
If really hard times are ahead then there is probably little we can do about it. If it comes old heads like me can reflect on the past depression we went through when we were boys.

The money people involved in the bailout attempt are the same insiders who have never cared about main street unless they could use their vote.
No one is concerned about the moral breakdown and probably illegal actions on the part of the speculators who helped create this mess.
If really hard times are ahead then there is probably little we can do about it. If it comes old heads like me can reflect on the past depression we went through when we were boys.

I mean about 200 million should do it. Wouldn’t wan’t the junkies to have to actually quit now would we?

I’m willing to be convinced but so far not a single person has tried to convince me. They’ve tried to worry me, to scare me with talk about “another Depression” but that’s just emotional rhetoric. Nobody has tried to convince me with logic, rather than emotion.

If there really is a crisis I wish someone would provide the step-by-step scenario that explains how a problem for a handful of big financial companies is a coming disaster for 300 million taxpayers. Show me how government inaction (usually a good thing) will cause A, which will cause B, which will cause C, which will cause Disaster.

The Washington Post and CNN-Money both report that smaller banks are thriving. My local banker is almost eager to lend me money on commercial real estate. I asked him about the credit crisis and he replied, “There is no crisis locally. [Name of bank] is alive and well with more than the required capital to be rated a well capitalized bank. We are here to lend and have money to do so.”

You cant aim at Wall St without hitting Main St so maybe if we put it in terms they can understand for example Obama’s tax increases is like Operation Iraqi freedom, we drop a 1000lb bombs in Bagdad to kill terrorist but there is going to be alot of collateral damage, thats what corporate taxes do.