US Congress is set to sell out the country
IN A FEW HOURS the US House of Representatives might tip that country into a decade long economic depression that will begin the fall of the American Empire and reverberate around the world. While the American Empire's fall won't be lamented, the depression will be painful.
It might do that by voting to grant US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson the authority to bail out and line the pockets of the wealthiest and most favoured of that reckless class of greed-blinded crooks and swindlers who have financially ruined much of the US populace.
In the process they've driven many large US banks, hedge funds and insurance companies straight off the cliff of financial insolvency and into undeclared bankruptcy.
The so-called representatives of the people might do that because they've been bought and paid-for long ago with incremental bribes of political campaign contributions doled out by that same elite and long entrenched class of financial players. Many US congress people have been paid about $1 million each over the years, give or take a few hundred thousand dollars.
What the House of Representatives is about to vote on and possibly approve is a daft bill already passed by the Senate that would give Secretary Paulson virtually unlimited carte blanche to loot the US Treasury of, and indebt the country for generations by borrowing from the Federal Reserve, and through it the rest of the world, literally trillions of dollars.
The initial authorisation is nominally for $350 billion, but that's automatically extendable to $700 billion under the bill, and that spending authorisation may be renewed, $700 billion at a whack, indefinitely and limitlessly.
Under the bill, Secretary Paulson's authority to pay out taxpayer money to whomever he pleases, for whatever assets or purposes he wishes, at whatever prices, is not constrained in any meaningful way. It is not subject to any binding guidance or close oversight and is not reviewable or reversible by any legislative body or any court of law.
The bill is simply a breathtakingly brazen prescription for total financial dictatorship over the US Treasury and future US tax liabilities, as far as the eye can see.
This incredible financial coup d'etat is being justified as somehow imperatively necessary by the supposedly impending collapse of world's financial system.
The promoters of this scheme -- US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, principally, plus US Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke and US President George Bush -- claim that this unprecendented abrogation of US Congressional power over the national purse is needed because some large banks and insurance companies are in a severe financial bind.
The spot they're in has resulted from their wild abandon in devising, making, packaging, insuring, selling and trading home mortgage loans and equity loans, made in all too many cases to people who couldn't afford them.
Many people, who were induced to sign up for variable interest rate Subprime and Alt-A mortgage loans on overvalued houses -- often with no money down, verification of income, assets to back them up, or even paying jobs in many instances -- have been falling behind in their payments and losing their homes to foreclosures in droves for over a year now.
As borrowers, they're trapped by ongoing collapse of the US housing market bubble. The houses that they bought at inflated prices aren't worth nearly as much as they still owe on their mortgages, so they can't sell their homes. And their adjustable rate mortgages are starting to ratchet upwards, making them struggle to make their mortgage payments and forcing many of them into bankruptcy and foreclosure.
The US housing bubble at the root of the current US financial ills was caused by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's inflationary policy of low interest rates that he pursued for several years, which fueled rampant real estate speculation resulting in an unsustainable rise in US housing prices. In mid-2007, the music stopped and house prices started falling. They still have quite a ways to fall to get back down to the levels ordinary American wage-earners can historically afford, and the US housing market won't begin to recover until they do.
Those institutions are holding stacks of home mortgages and secondary mortgage market bonds and derivatives that are of dubious value. Recent imposition of a rule that they must mark these securities to market prices has made a number of those institutions technically insolvent, because those securities are of unknown value so therefore no banks are willing to buy them at any price, thus they are technically worthless.
Secretary Paulson is proposing to buy up swathes of mortgage bonds, derivatives based upon them, credit default swaps, and whatever else he feels like buying, from whatever financial institutions drag their tattered castoffs into his high-class pawnshop, and he will apparently be willing to pay whatever they ask for them.
Mortgages valued at a trillion dollars or so have already gone bad, that is, either they are non-performing because borrowers have stopped making payments or they've been placed into foreclosure. A Swiss bank estimates that as much as $5 trillion in US mortgages will eventually become worth little or nothing. That's the potential liability facing Mr Paulson.
That amount, $5 trillion, is approximately the value of all US mortgages that are held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two US secondary market mortgage holders taken into "conservatorship," that is, nationalised, by the US government just a couple of weeks ago, to put the number in perspective.
The bailout or "rescue" bill proposed, however, won't really place most of the beneficiary financial institutions on firm footing. It will only buy up their worst investments, providing their insiders and major stockholders with large windfalls of cash with which to make fast getaways to sunnier climes. It will merely reward the principal crooks for their larcenies.
That's because the US financial system is awash with arcane derivatives that are called credit default swaps, which Warren Buffet has astutely called " weapons of financial mass destruction." There are presently about $55 trillion in credit default swaps outstanding in the US financial system. There's not enough money in the entire world to buy all those up.
Therefore, some banks, hedge funds and insurance companies are going to fail, dragged down by their former greed in pursuit of ever higher quarterly profits without regard to downside risks. Some large financial institutions will be among those that eventually fail.
The bill won't stave off an economic depression either. In fact, it'll likely both hasten and worsen the depression that's coming, as well as delay the onset of US economic recovery.
That bright light in the American economy's tunnel isn't the sun but rather an onrushing train. Ignoring it will only make the inevitable crash more violent and the damage worse.
But handing the crew that got the US economy into this mess, along with their henchmen and cronies, a free hand to loot the national treasury, enslave taxpayers for generations, and shower the crooked, corrupt and swindling financial elite with cash is simply insane.
It should be interesting to see whether the US Congress actually pulls the trigger on America today. µ
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The same people who let this disaster happen because they are part of the pyramid scheme, the Congress of the United States of America, are now threatening education, innovation and freedom in the entire world through ACTA, just to please their other masters known as MAFIAA. I really hope the world tells these corrupt parasites to go elsewhere.
If you go to a professional football game and try to sit in a box seat you cannot afford then someone comes to escort you out. Predator lending should be investigated but I suspect most cases were simply folks attempting the American Dream without considering the risks. They got caught, banks got caught, and congress is letting many of them, primarily the later group, off the hook.
Amen. 

Well written.
I agree 100%! The democrats and republicans are bought and paid for by corporate America and have sold out the American people. The elections in November will tell if the American people will throw these bastards out of office or give them four more years to loot the rest of the country's wealth.
An amateur stock trader, I have forseen since 1999 the path we are now taking. The handwriting was on the wall in 1996. The 2000 stock boom/bust. The stupid relaxing of credit. Failure of lending institutions. Recession.

But, the worst is yet to come. Over the next 9 years -- failure of the retirement system, Depression. The bottom will be somewhere in the 2017 time frame.

So, for the politicians et al to claim wonderment that all this has happened is bull. They knew it would and let it happen. The worst is yet to come.

Representative Brad Sherman says scaremongering is being used to get this bad bill passed. If not, martial law for america http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8
Whatever bill is passed can always be repealed, if they want to, no matter if it says in this bill that it can't, the politicians make the rules and can change them.
But of course as you say they are both on the take and stupid so that's not helping much, I just think you are mistaking in saying it can't be changed afterwards, they can even change the constitution with enough votes after all.

FxxK.
If they do not buy out the companies they will go bankrupt and the country will go into a recession.... If they do they have "fixed" a capitalistic market....and made a huge investment that could either pay back big or lose big.

It is NOT an open ended price the top is 700B ...they would have to pass another bill to make it more and no one would do that and expect to be in office next time around... after all the entire house is up for re election this fall.

And the world Would hurt if America fell...and yes we have allies that would indeed be lamented...UK...(those who can think at least) Australia...Israel, Georgia....etc...

The US is holding the middle east at bay right now and if we fall a rapid destabilization of the middle east would occur....Terrorist attacks would come to all of our allies and they would come quickly....

Perhaps you should take off you blinders and look at the big picture before you write your article.
I am watching the vote in the House of Representatives live as I am writing this. The speeches preceding the vote were both disheartening and disgusting. Plenty of platitudes about getting the job done quickly and looking for the crooks later. P.S. Much later. Like never. Oh yeah. The Speaker of the House talked about how Henry Waxman and Barney Frank will find those bad guys and make them pay. What a joke.

I can't help but feel that the Congress has finally taken away the last illusion of working for the benefit of the people. Clearly the entire government are simply pawns of the rich and dishonest. From President Bush giving no-bid contracts to Haliburton and Blackwater to the numerous tax code exceptions for the rich, our country has finally stopped pretending to stand for truth, justice, and the "American way".

Shall I cry or puke?
It was inevitable. Over 3,000 years, no promise by Politicians to "make housing more affordable" has ever had any success - like perpetual motion, it is impossible to force prices to an unnatural level.

In this latest go at putting lipstick on a pig, Congressional Democrats drafted an "easy credit" bill.

The result in the short term was more money chasing the same houses, forcing the artificial housing bubble (house prices unnaturally inflated). This seemed great to homeowners, and like a Ponzi scheme everyone wanted to buy into this great new "invedstment."

Naturally, the bottom had to fall out.

The only thing remarkable about this incarnation of a really bad idea is that politicians managed to tank not just the housing market, but the global market.

Good goin' Karl Marx!
This is the New Deal of the 1930's, all tarted up for 2008. Ever since the 1930's when Uncle Sam opened his arms to the poor and the elderly, the rich have bemoaned the encroachment of socialism on the "American way."

Today, when abject, unregulated capitalism has finally bitten these people on their asses, they reach out to Washington and whine "where's OUR love?"

Politicians who would rather have a cerebral haemorrhage than underwrite a new multibillion dollar program that helps the majority of US citizens didn't even lose an eyelash to a blink before they were ready to hand these "makers and shakers" a carte blanche bailout.

Maybe this has finally woken up Americans. As it is, I personally feel that Barak Obama will be hearing two words very frequently in his near future:

"Mister" and "President."

Unfortunately, Saint Barak and the rest of the crew in DC still don't get it. When the dust has settled, corporations will still continue to control the American agenda.

I miss what my country used to be. I'm also saddened knowing what it may never become, because we still have a lot of positive potential. 

"He's such a bright boy, if only he would apply himself." Indeed.

-Joe
It's about time to have another revolution (wicked grin).

The criminal politicians and bureaucrats will burn in Hell for eternity!
QFT
Notice to all Americans:

Austrian School of Economics and present Congressman Ron Paul predicted this collapse. The Austrian School also predicted the Great Depression. Ron Paul has been the only politician to get up there and hammer Bernanke and Greenspan for their financial policies. He's been doing it for years. He knew what it would lead to.

Here we are...

If you want to break the two party (one party) rule of our nation; If you want a recession, instead of a depression (either one is coming so choose your poison); If you want a president that realizes that his role is supposed to be no more than that of the Queen of England, to be a figurehead and diplomat, and that the power is supposed to reside with the Senate and Congress, as representatives of the people...

Please write in Ron Paul.

www.campaignforliberty.com
The Price of Tea in China. To do with. What has it?

Flummoxedly yours,
Grunchy L. Arkansaw
Your ignorance of the monetary system is only overshadowed by your partisan silliness. 

If people want to read politics, they go to NYTimes or WSJ. Stick with your knitting. 
This country is dumb, simply because of this dumbed-down population that don't think for themselves. They would rather these "so-called" experts to come on television and give their views, which they simply go along with b/c, hey, 'he sounds alot smarter than me'. BS. The news and media control everything you hear and control basically what you believe, because what alternative views CAN you have? Oh, and BTW, it isn't 700 billion, it's really more than 5 trillion. Laugh all you want and say it's not true, while these elite groups laugh all the way to the bank.
Armageddon discounts
Bad investiturements
Plastic importers with looking glass meltdowns
Taxes of beer on the pour
Maria don't lick it
Resident is feudal warts more
We all know we out there
Winds are crossing
But you won't get who for
Wee wad let you harum-scarum
Blood from turnip and shell peas
Repudiation in a twilight's last twinkle
Hegemonarchy or scratcing fleas
Open swan song de la paix
Terratic Frigidair
Rocking chair people fly fried-in-sky pies
Now here Captin Barker
The world is at your arm charity
I used to dread McBush winning the next election. Now I am hoping that he will. That way we will see and end to the Evil Empire as it tail-spins into a cesspool of corruption and bankruptcy and the rest of the world can be thankful that their chances of being attacked by the World's Biggest Cowardly Bomber are much reduced.

So long, big-shots, you won't be missed :-)))
A pretty good rant, but you have to clean one part up:
"As borrowers, they're trapped by ongoing collapse of the US housing market bubble."

As borrowers, MANY of these folks trapped themselves with their own greed, lack of homework on the loan terms, and lying on applications. There is also no mention of how many of these mortgage foreclosures are on 2nd homes (cry me a river!), and by people who don't use the home as a primary residence (flippers or investors). Now the financial firms, have just as much responsibility as they chose to ignore the obvious and not verify the applications.

But alas personal accountability is now out the window - unless a homeowner was swindled into a loan they have just as much, if not more, accountability for any foreclosure. People chose to take the risk for the variable loans when they also could have bought a slight lower value home with a GUARANTEED FIX RATE - ultimately the homeowner took the risk and needs to own it. This is really no different then buying a stock.

And you hit the nail on the head about Greenspan - how this guy continues to skirt any responsibility for the housing bubble is beyond me. Both he ans the Congress turned homeownership from an opportunity into an entitlement - and drove these risk loans thru pseudo private/pseudo publicly run entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Someone needs to explain to me why someone spending $1000/month on a home gets a taxbreak while someone who spends $1000/month on an apartment gets none. Is home ownership morally better then renting?

Again, overall good rant! When Obama gets elected in November, the US will further complete the move toward socialism and a re-distribution of wealth as determined by a few select people.
For the sake of not going crazy, I'll limit myself to a few points here.

1) Try reading the text of the bill again. I think you'll find that the clause that would have granted the Treasury Secretary freedom from judicial review has been removed, replaced by this:

"Actions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act shall be subject to chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code, including that such final actions shall be held unlawful and set aside if found to be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or not in accordance with law."

Furthermore, Section 125 clearly lays out the responsibilities of the Congressional Oversight Panel to be created; it's not nearly as much of a carte blanche situation as you say it is.

2) Nobody wants to do this, but how else are you going to restore some confidence to the credit markets?

Though I do wish they'd do something about the underlying mortgages to help prevent so many of them from going into default -- then the riskier of the mortgage-backed securities wouldn't be worth so little and people might want to start trading them again.
One executive (Just one) alone is known to have pocketed a total salary of around $457 million during the last decade. Half a billion, or 1/1400 approximately of the bailout cost. There have been tens of thousands of such overpaid modern robber barons/executives. How do you justify such a salary? You can't. If you added the total salaries of all those thieves together it would be much greater than 700 billion. Of course, they get to keep THEIR houses/cars/stuff -- they're rich! And the companies they plundered with a nation-wide ponzi scheme are going to be saved by the government - whose taxes are paid by the poor. (The rich have tax avoidance schemes aplenty). As someone else put it, the rich have plundered America, and now the poor are going to pay for it. (Though to be fair the middle class also greedily jumped on the housing bandwagon).

I have to agree that they're not going to be missed much. Whatever good will the US had was squandered over the last decade thanks to Guantanamo, "renditions", and various other terrorist acts not by a terrorist group but by a country that regards itself as the greatest in the world.

When even your own national anthem lauds yourselves as "The home of the brave and the land of the free", it's a foregone conclusion that you see everyone else as the home of the cowardly and the land of the enslaved. No wonder you never respected or regarded anything but yourselves.
... and by stupid I mean the handling of the US economy.

Nicely written article, although a tad bit alarmist.

If you really want some alarmist reading, how about the $6bn Taiwan arms deal the US is going ahead with.

Talk about going out with a bang!
re: comment: "...abject, unregulated capitalism has finally bitten these people..."
-------
nothing more than a loon would tag today's regulated, politically inspired economy as a failing free-market...
.
.
re: "...borrowing from the Federal Reserve..." and "...reward the principal crooks..."
-------
the author has many good points, but misses on the root cause of this entire mess - propounded for 3 1/2 decades by dr. paul: it's the fiat money stupid.

news flash there is no borrowing against reserves. that would imply an asset backed currency. you socialist, fascist fools, the paper money is backed by the "faith" in a central bank (i.e., the principal crook) that is outside of any audit or scrutiny.

the bottom-line is that the u.s.a. citizen deserves it's doom because even at this very moment, one of the 2-party fascists will surely be elected to preside over its fall. it's always: vote the bums out... but not my guy...

greed begins at home...
.

Then you might want to go and read for yourself, kid. This bill can't be changed. It is stated. When it was signed earlier today, it pretty much read the entire future of this country.

And for the idiot who commented on what I said, it really is more than 5 trillion. You need to do your research (and I'm sure the rest of you too, because the way things look, none of you knew either). It's about that time you all grow up and realize that things are NEVER what they seem [in this country], particulaly.

Some mildly bright woman came on CNN a while ago and atleast admitted that there is a HIGH chance of a depression. You might want to hold out on getting that ATI graphics card you were saving up for, bud. This country has long been brought out (I believe early 20th century). 

At this point, it doesn't matter WHO makes it into office b/c they are both (McCain & Obama) mere puppets, controlled by far more powerful people; a bunch of white old greedy men. You will get pretty much the same thing - just different toppings on the ice cream.
You can start that research here, Mr. Rhetoric:

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.europe/browse_thread/thread/ae1e0ec97966dc0f
so i see you've lightly breezed over the bill put to vote today, and because you feel like flaming america, you've decided to omit the balances built into the bill. 

well, the rest of your readers will be happy to note a few things: 1) the treasury will be able to renegociate the terms of the morgages they aquire, keeping people in their houses and making the gov't some money. 2) the treasury will be able to buy comtrolling stock of certian companies giving them the ability to punish the ceo's respnsible for this. 3) the house and senate will have oversite comitties to regulate the process. 4) without wall street, we all lose our jobs. no matter what contry you live in.

the bottom line is this: the door has been opened to increase regulation and oversite of wall street. this should keep future institutions from becoming "too big to fail".
No matter, global warming will devastate the world and no amount of bailouts will save us. Or an asteroid will take us out... doom and gloom no matter what, enjoy your time while you can! (j/k)
Someone I know recently pointed this out to me. It's from Thomas Jefferson, one of Americas former presidents. It looks as if he were right on--and the world is in for a wild ride. 

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson
Restore some confidence in the markets by: 

1) get the people who can't afford their homes out of those homes.
2) get the bankers who bet on the markets and lost, out of their banks.

In Vegas you don't get do-overs, neither should these people who've gambled, lived beyond their means, and lost. Now we all lose, where we shouldn't be. Everything is going to cost more, from food to insurance premiums. We're screwed, and it doesn't matter where we are, unless we live in caves in Afghanistan,
Standard fees of 40% (280 billion USD) - same as for my famous "junk bond crash" con upon which this was based - were earmarked for propaganda. You just lost your chunk of that. 

We won anyway, and that's just more for the New York Times, FOX, CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC and even the BBC.

- Mike
(on the world's wealthiest felon list)
The Democratically controlled (by a razor thin majority) Congress voted for it. Blaming this on the Demos, who for all intents and purposes have been completely dominated by the Republicans for the last 30 years is ridiculous.

What this bill does is put the last nail in the coffin concerning the hallowed Republican idea of "trickle down economics". Where you increase spending, cut taxes for the wealthy, and then somehow the wealthy will take a moment to piss down on everyone else and we'll all be prosperous.

Not sayin the Democrats don't deserve blame for not having enough backbone to stand up to the Republicans. Just saying this has been in the workings ever since Bush senior called out Reagan for "voodoo economics".

So true.
Fortunately my Congressman was one of the 108 Republicans that voted against this disgusting and extremely dangerous setting of precedent. Unfortunately he was in the minority as it passed anyway.

The days of capitalism (and any arguments for laissez-faire in American business) are effectively over folks. Our Congress today ended any semblance of capitalism by providing proof positive that there is in fact a "safety-net" of tax-payer dollars ready to protect investments a mere vote away in a body of politicians bought and paid for by banks and corporations.

Just scream and yell hard enough that the sky is falling and Congress will throw half of our entire yearly Federal budget at you within 2 weeks with not even a full day of open debate. All without any consideration whatsoever given to several other proposals out there that would have cost about one-third or less and most importantly would not have effectively ended American Capitalism as this bill has in fact done.

With this precedent we will now have a future where our Congress will use our nation's taxes to protect financial investments and world markets. So, if say the State of California were to invest their state-employee's pensions in a particular business and that business were to face imminent failure, now the rest of the country can bail-out one state's bad decisions. Don't anyone think for a second that this is the end. It is only the beginning.
It seems odd to me that the American people should be so distracted as to not notice the erosion of their freedoms. I see the downfall of my homeland coming, or at least a second civil war.

Also, to those who rejoice at the mention of America's fall - what will you do when the Russians own you?
Good to know that we live in a democracy and that our representatives in this world are put in place by us, for us to do as the majority populace decides, wait a sec....

Its America! you have no say at all, you vote for someone who turns in to a walking god because they are all funded in someway by the private sector, it might be a good time for the population to stop things and say "hang on a sec, your taking the pee so stop this or bugger off because you aint doing what WE want"

course that will never happen because we are all to lazy,
I see Oliver Stone already plotting one.
Most importantly, it is the strongest case yet to prove that Socialism is the only way to ensure rabid commercial greed does not ruin a nation. Nationalising banks is an important first step.
A situation like this was expected, my point is simple though. New York has lost its power now that is has lost its big financial institutions, and then Washington with the blessing of the Bush administration is going to toss all of its money into this black hole for nothing, leaving both New York, and the Federal Government weak. No money = no power.

The part of the country that isn't being as hard hit by this is Texas with all their $$ from the oil industry. Over the next 5 years as we deal with this recession, we will watch as more and more power shifts to where the money, and the population is, away from the more liberal north eastern states, which are more in favour of the right to abortion, gay marriage, taxing carbon, keeping the Great Lakes ecosystem as it is instead of piping all the water down south, etc... Having McCain in office will keep this power shift moving at the current quick pace, and I don`t think Obama could stop it if he wanted to.

Now all Texas has to do is do something about those pesky liberals in California, and maybe a couple other west coast states, and its dominance over the continent will be complete. All that is needed right now is a good earth quake...
It's the only thing that's kept you free since your own Empire fell.

I do agree that the bailout is unnecessary. I'd rather see a Great Depression style public works and employment program enacted after letting the robber barons of high finance fail.

As an old fashioned liberal with family values, I hate it that the Left wants us to all be libertines and the right wants us all to be libertarians, while the politicians want us all to be sheep for the lobbyists.

But you need America more than you can ever admit. The best thing Britain could do is leave the EU and be truly an independent and free nation once again, rather than lackeys of a Belgium bureaucracy.
exactly

Are these people that needs confidence in a corrupt and broken financial market?

Let them burn.
The same happened in Finland early 1990 and promised 7 million FIM for one bank went to 100 M FIM for all banks then 200 M then like close to 100M euros, but nobody knows how much at the end. People still lost their homes to the banks, small companies where closed and the unemployment rate rose 5 times and is now permanent. Our social security is below average (2nd best before), healthcare one of weakest in EU (was right after Sweden) AND the rich kept the money saying thank you very very much.

US middle class will certainly pay - you have been too rich and now it's time to shake the tree in the US. Kiss goodbye to your money - forever.
The inly punishment anyone will see is in the afterlife.
You may pray for Jesus...that's about all you can do.
Seems to me the smartestest and brightest amongst us . Are nothing more than theives. and government leaders. 

If the problem is bad home loans . and peoples inabilitiy to make payments. The ans. is rather straight forward. Don't give the money to the bad lenders. But give it to the people who need to make those payments so they can hold there lifetime of saving or at least have property to show for their efforts. 

I seen this coming alongtime ago . But this is more than just a housing issue . Its away for those who have purpose in living high off off others labor to steal our pension funds and its happening right befor our eyes. 

But what does it matter . When we left the Gold standard we were doomed. Paper Money ? Good for ass wipe is about all its worth. Government backed paper. LOL. What government in the world do you trust . AMERICA. LOL The Britts . Who live on an island that has few natural resources and has raped the world for years. (THE EMPIRE STIKES BACK) LOL. My freinds you have choosen the devil as your bed partner. Now sleep with it. OH! Mighty Dragon . Prince of deceit.
The whole thing is messed up. The biggest problems is the CEOs that sit back and collect their big bucks and watch the company fail are still going to collect their big bucks and sit back and let the US tax payers cover their mistakes. They need to hold these money hogs accountable. When you hide your failures to drag more money out of your customers then cry to congress that you just made half the money mysteriously go away because you are incompetent. Fide out who is to blame truly. Pull their million dollar bonuses away. Fire a few. Throw some in jail even. I just read one article saying one of these idiots was hired as the company failed and only worked 3 weeks, but got something like 17 million dollars.
One thing that I was - foolishly - amazed to find was who a principal author of the excesses of the current meltdown is:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020618-1.html
President Reiterates Goal on Homeownership - Remarks by the President on Homeownership 

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=62687
President's remarks at St. Paul AME Church in Atlanta, Georgia, June 17, 2002

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021015-7.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/campaign072499.htm
Quotes conservative Heritage Foundation, Carl Rove, and so on.

A lot of that is usual Washington rattling on but many sentences sound like an LBJ on meth. This is all too real, there's no way for partisans to talk around it. Of course there are other players including the idiot savants who thought of themselves as Masters of the Wall Street Universe and were part of the Ivy League MBA monoculture. But then many leave set up for life, so they could reply "who's the idiot?".

The incumbents can no more deal with the economic Katrina than they could deal with the hurricane.

Their real "innovation" was to run amok using their parent's and grandparent's credit rating to borrow and simply expend their kid's and grandkid's money. Now they leave the latter in debt and indenture with diminished means to pay off or to cope with the payback Bush has accumulated in the world. An odd thing is that they said they would do that going in, but we didn't listen any more than we ever listen to politicians. Brand Wall Street is also irrevocably damaged goods.

The Pork added to the bailout bill isn't insult added to injury, it's injury added to injury and evidence of an utter lack of statesmanship and integrity. Congress apparently doesn't get it - why the voters are so alienated.
Fear merchants all have some agenda whether its selling a book, a president, a new bill, a 'safe' investment. Never before has the use of apocalyptic, end of the world as you know it rhetoric been so pervasive except during the LAST end of world BS after 9/11 and then again by Al Gore and then of course by the creationist fundamentalist religious nuts whome have been calling for the end since... oh maybe 2000 yrs.

Stuff it. Never bet against America. You will lose. We mucked up and now after all other possible avenues have been exhausted we will now do the right thing. So good luck wit dat! Hope everything works out for ya!
The time to take our government back is running out. When will America wake up and see that this isn't a crisis but a scam! Our so called leaders are all crooks and will be sunning themselves on a beach while we wait in bread lines. This is just another swindle and the American people are the marks once again.

THE SECOND AMENDMENT:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a FREE STATE, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

Quit watching Dancing With The Stars and ER and do something!
Renegotiating their loans is impossible for many. They didn't have valid social security numbers. Or a job that paid enough even if the price of the house was half of what they paid. They flat out lied on their applications. So how can you fix that. And for the rest they will slowly loose their jobs as the recession deepens into a depression. They will also loose everything they own. Infusing money into the system will not work as it is to late to fix this problem.
What’s the difference between a thief and its victim? When the middleman tells them who is who and what happens if the middleman is a lying manipulative so-and-so? That’s the time when the victim needs to wake-up to the fact that he’s also the thief. Who voted those jokers into “office”? Vested interests, whose interests happen to be their desires and greed. The small guy might not be the mother of all vested interests, but he’s the starting point. Bailing out the Feds through the Feds? They are the foreigners ruling Uncle Sammy’s mermerised hordes through rights & wrongs. One reason why democracy is merely abandoment during a prison riot.

How can any human be so dumb and stupid as to believe that his kin can be more honest than he is and the joke here is that when a human finally becomes more honest than another, he becomes the source. Love is unidirectional, it does not flow both ways. When a person has Love, he can ONLY give it away for enjoyment cannot surface unless Love starts flowing. As such, we cannot be a saviour or help others. We can only be an example and the fact that most are not means that they merely become the props on the stage for Love. The love which expects/flows-both-ways, is not love. It is a vested interest. 

There is NO solution other than Love and not the “love” of a vested interest whilst not forgetting that love cannot flow inwards [selfishness], throughput can only flow outwards from that storehouse of Love. A real human being. When irrationality is on-the-stage, it is merely a sideshow to distract the saviours and the sympathisers. The solution to that is not to play their game of pros/victim and cons/thief. Show them true Love and most humans will respond which is also the way to uncover those who are not real humans. As we all know too well, you cannot talk to a principle. They merely are who/what they are.
I live here in america and from what I see our day to day isnt going to change. People still work and people still eat. Sure we cant afford the nice things in life but Im still on the internet right? So it must not be that bad if we can afford the extras?

I think everyone is missing the point here. The market isnt suppose to be bailed out. The idea is a free open market that allows people to fail. Just because its the big places failing doesnt mean its time to bail them out. Let them fail like old growth oak trees. new little oaks will come up and replace them over time.

Main street bailing out Wall street is total crap because it will effect our day to day. The bailout should be so our failing companies dont take the world down with them. They should be allowed to fail. Is our government going to bail out AMD or Intel if they go belly up? how about NVidia or VIA?

Its not about a new world order its about changing our people. vote out everyone thats been in office. I wise man once said politicians should be changed like diapers. We should have fresh blood in every office every time someone goes to vote. Limit the office to a single term. I dont want some 30 year senator. I want a 4 year so we get new ideas and someone with a finger on the pulse of the common man. We need change and Im sure going to vote for it.

I suppose my point here is just VOTE. It doesnt matter who you vote for just go vote. Think about changing the blood in all offices when you do it or expect the same. vote vote vote.
The article mentioned that bilions of dollars of mortgages will become worthless. That is not an honest statement.

Regardless of how bad the mortgage terms might have or how stupid the buyers may have been there is no way that mortgage can become worthless.

Yes, an overvalued $200K home that the corrupt lender and the stupid buyer ended up mortgaging for $300K may be a really bad deal.

But that home is still worth $200K.
So all along everyone thought they were the Third Reich, when actually they're setting up a Weimar Republic for some future Third Reich takeover.

Wheelbarrows to carry your worthless banknotes and credit cards in anyone?
If the Mafia or Hell's Angels or the Crips or the Bloods or any street gang in the USA stole $10 Million dollars from a Wall Street firm the outrage in Washington and in the media would lead to the apprehension of the criminals and the jailing of the gang's leaders.

But the azzholes on Wall Street have stolen THOUSANDS of times that much of OUR money and their pals in Washington are mostly protecting them. 

Two points:
1. Our government has sent around $100 Billion of our taxpayer dollars to Israel since 1950. We have never received anything in return nor has Israel ever done anything for our nation except cause us trouble. Even the USS Liberty attack could not get our politicians to take their heads out of their collective asses. 
2. Many of the Wall Street firms are Jewish operated or owned. I'm guessing that these guys will be prosecuted just as vigorously as was Israel after the attack on the Liberty.

And yes, I know that to some dopes that automatically means I'm an anti-semite Nazi nut case but stop and think...have you EVER heard a single US Senator (from either party) criticize or say anything bad about Israel? Go figure.

Now let's watch and see how many of the white collar criminals go to jail. Stay tuned.
and it's not a rescue. It's a shakedown. Who's saying there will be a financial meltdown if the USG doesn't come through? It's Wall Street! Their threats and promises are repeated by the bought and paid for in the halls of Congress and those whose interests lie with them. No sooner had the bill passed in the House of Reprehensitives and the Down Jones InDustTrial 30 fell over 150 points with Wall Streeters explaining that a 100 basis point interest rate cut by the Fed is now required in addition to the paltry $700B not counting the $150-160B in pork barrel spending. It will never be enough. All that was required in the short term was forbearance on FASB 157 so that many institutions would not be technically insolvent in reporting for the most recent quarter after they spent much of the last year quietly buying back much of the toxic waste they previously sold to many of their best customers. They need a quick injection of capital to pursue new lines of business in order to continue the multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, and stock option plans to save Wall Street and NYC from being degraded to the status of most of the rest of the nation: They will now dump their mistakes on the taxpayers and eventually buy it back at 10 to 20 cents on the dollar in order to make up some of their earlier losses. Jr. Bush, Burnhankie, Hankie Pankie Paulsen, et al will get their just rewards, not in the afterlife, but after they are out of office as is traditional in the U.S., to wit, Reagan, Old Bush, and Mr. and Mrs. Clintoon to name just a few. The real reason this has happened is a populace dumbed down by three generations of liberal/socialist control of education and far too many demands and distractions to pay attention to what is really real.
Athought some of the details of the Bail-out plan have changed, the overall purpose and the extent to which the author has described the problem and it's effects (as well as those effects of the "Bail out") are pretty much accurate. Thanks for the symapthy, I look forward to the looming collapse as swaths of unhappy (and unemployed/poor) citizens will descend upon Washington D.C. wanting answers. This bailout basically ammounts to putting a band-aid on a cut femoral artery. As for myself, I'll be moving my investments into precious metals and hot lead... a sizeable investment in Smith & Wesson may yield surprising results! Also the market for torches as pitchforks is looking pretty good at the moment as well...
We've had all this in good word for about 3000 years:

He [the king] will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.

He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers. He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.

He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.

He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.

He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.

He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.
here's the bill... 451 pages
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/essabill.pdf

I read a bunch of it but there's too much to go over and have too much crap due tomorrow(school). 

There seems to be some oversight control but i have yet to find direct limits to spending other than a country debt max-cap increase. The secretary does however have to report to the oversight commitees for ever 50billion spent. If anyone finds a direct $ amount limit please post the section/page. There are also a number of other bills tacked on...

I am totally for the 1 term limit.. the system was never designed to have politician be a career... it was meant for normal people to serve their term then return to their normal jobs... best way to ensure the governing body is "for the people" is to make and keep it "of the people"... no more of this political family dynasty (emphasize nasty) shit... corporations should not be allowed to donate to parties or individual politicians... 
Look if america is poor then it'll be weak enough not to pick fights in the name of whatever, only to kill off women and children in foreign country claiming all manor of bull.

Also maybe the planet will have a chance to stay a little cooler instead of them fat dopes and their massive hummers destroying the enviroment.

I heard all them rich gits with their private jets can't aford the fuel...good, they deserve it.

Well it seems their temperory fun is comming to an end... good. now maybe they'll treat average people better.

hmmm... 600billion for the wars and now 700billion for the economy.... it'll keep em busy for a while.... just hope russia don't kill em while they are injered otherwise russia will try and take over the world... you need one to keep the other one at bay with their nukes.

bye
jon.
see this kind of mentality, ur sick mate see when the us army is kicking in ppls doors in the middle east what do you think is going to happen your going to make them mad (how would you feel).
the war on terrorism breads more terrorism or is that to simpele for you to understand




"And the world Would hurt if America fell...and yes we have allies that would indeed be lamented...UK...(those who can think at least) Australia...Israel, Georgia....etc...

The US is holding the middle east at bay right now and if we fall a rapid destabilization of the middle east would occur....Terrorist attacks would come to all of our allies and they would come quickly....

Perhaps you should take off you blinders and look at the big picture before you write your article."
would like to contact Merrily Ding-dong
got to spread the love , like where your coming from, are you no the forum
For years we have all seen,no matter where in the world we live, the corrupt getting away with being corrupt. This time however, if we go into a great depression, the corrupt will be caught in their own web and they very well, may suffer more than us in the end.
As I read the new Budget of the United States of America, I am amazed how many people do not realize, nor do they want to admit that the Power of the Purse in accordance with our constitution resides in the House of Representatives of the US Congress. For the last two years, this body has been controlled by the Democratic Party. They were not interested in doing anything to help the United States or President Bush. Instead, they were in the halls of Congress, writing a "Stimulus Bill" of over 1000 pages, followed by the big bailout bills, and now a new Era of Responsibility Budget. All of these bills, together with the taxation bill, which could not be released due to their impact on the economy, shows how orgcanstrated this session of Congress has been. The Democrats could not work on our society because they were in the back rooms writing all these new laws. This is how so much paper got released in so short a period of time. Now tell me how the current problem is the responsibility of the Bush Administration and not the responsibility of the US House of Representatives (and by control, the Democratic Party)???????