If my half of the boat ain’t sinking, why whould I have to pitch in to bail out your half?

Jack, if the government bails out the economy, it should be so that the citizens can keep their jobs, their savings, and their homes. It should not be directed at saving those individuals and those companiies whose questionable methods brought on the crisis.

I think the bigwigs should give back some of the millions they’ve made from this fiasco and bail themselves out.

Honestly,

Let the markets correct themselves. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you learn your lesson and those greedy folks on Wall Street and in Washington, need to learn a few lessons. If anyone should be bailed out it is us American, not the corupt folks on the hill.

Rachel, Atlanta

let them free fall like they do the american people. let them eat cake as the peasants in france during the revolution did and like most of us americans are already doing

Jack,
I want to say no to a government bailout, but I’m terrified for my loved ones who have so much invested in the stock market. If the government doesn’t help solve this mess, I’m afraid it going to get worse.

The government didn’t bail us out when a company we invested in lost $30,000 of our money the year we were due to retire so why would we not let them “make the correction” as we had to do?? Sounds like a REAL plan to me!!

Kathy in
Virginia

Jack,

This is bad the government is bailing out wall street , but when I ask the bank to bail me out of my hard times I get nothing ! I’m going to lose my house in 1 month and have no where to go and the governmant doesn’t seem to think I need to be bailed out.

Govt should bail out the economy- the survival of our way of life and national security are at risk here; would you ike National Security to be handled by “the market”? The same market that caused this huge mess?? Remember, Govt= People (us- you and me!).

Let the markets correct themselves. If we keep bailing out these companies, what’s the incentive down the line for other companies to do the right thing and manage themselves correctly if they know they’ll be bailed out as well? Enough is enough now.

Jack, our government has allowed the markets to police themselves for sometime now, and we’ve seen how much “correcting” that has brought about. As bad as it is to have to spend this much of our money to fix the problem, we have to do something before the whole economy collapses. I think the compromise plan announced by congress before McCain mucked things up is much better than any of the alternatives that have been offered, though it is still far from perfect. I way pass it and try to head this thing off before it gets any uglier. Once that’s done, re-regulate the industry to the point that this sort of thing can’t happen again.

Doesn’t matter, either way the taxpayers will foot the bill but a free market correction insures that the wealthy on Wall Street will suffer too.

There are 2 points of view . One is free markets are best to clean up wrontendancies of investors. The problem is when the government fail to see the treds or worse esaperated those thend it can have a spill over effect and hurt innocent people.
the second view is the government should act as a care taker and watch for negative tendancies. The government also should have a plan as what to encourage and discourage. This has the effect if dont right to insulate small investors and indivduals from the worst of this finincail storm.

Clearwater, FL
Since the market obviously cannot correct themselves, there is no choice except to fall into a deep recession and maybe a depression. Those younger than me may not remember the last depression. Their grandparents may not even be alive to tell them about it. If only someone would write about it or do a TV special so they could understand the consequences. Back in the 30’s and 40’s I doubt it would have had the international effect it would have today.

Seems the only thing the markets can correct is how much the CEO’S are getting. Unfortunately Jack, the Bush administration has bankrupt our country, if the banks keep collapsing and stocks keep going down it doesn’t only affect the investors and people with 401 K’s it also affects employees, that means more unemployment, more people without healthcare, you name it. Bush created a swamp, for the wealthy they have pleanty of money to survive, for the rest of us it’s swim or drown, plain and simple.

I trust Ali Velshi and he says we must act and act quick. I think most of us belive there needs to be drastic measures, we just don’t want to hand over a blank check to the same idiots that got us in this position. There is a chance that taxpayers could make money on this deal…we just don’t know. We can thank John McCain for politicizing the whole event and slowing up the process. He obviously did not help move the processes forward.

it’s hard to make a call on that the way the president has everyone so scared..what will really happen if we don’t???
arlene in iowa

Normally I would say let the markets correct themselves. But this is not normal market action. This problem developed because of the removal of Oversight Regulations. The same type that the House Republicans want to remove and allow the private sector to solve the problem with less oversite and regulations. Isn’t that what got us into this situation to begin with?

All I know is that when the Democrats were in the White House back in the good ole days of the 1990s the economy and everything else was fine…. Since the Republicans have been in for the past eight years….Americans have lost value in their homes as Wall Street literally plays five-stud poker with everyone’s 401Ks…. Foreclosures are threatening the very fabric of our economic structure… Americans pay checks have shrunk and are not going very far….Banks, investment firms and companies have gone belly up…. American jobs have gone overseas…. Unemployment has increased at an alarming rate…. Airlines can’t fly without merging and charging you for everything…. Food prices and energy prices are going through the roof….We still have not caught Osama Bin Ladin….We are fighting two wars and have soldiers completely around the world….We are facing a Trillion Dollar deficit of which we don’t know how it will get paid….College!! Who said anything about College!! Has the sky fallen yet? Man wake me up from this bad dream and get the Dems back in the White House!! Before its too late!

Usually I would prefer free market corrections. But the last time we left a situation like this to free market corrections we got The Great Depression.

Joe in Missouri

The government should bail out the economy but not the Wall Street executives. We should also rewrite the bad loans to keep cash flowing consistently into the lending institutions. For those who say otherwise, please ask your employers if they ever need loans to meet the payroll or to pay the bills. And ask yourselves why all of those credit card and personal loan applications abruptly stopped coming in the mail to you five months ago. If there is no money to loan to your employer one day soon, how will you pay your mortgage?

The markets should be FORCED to correct the situation themselves. If they were, I’ll bet that 700 billion figure would suddenly become more like 1 or 2 billion. The difference being that they wouldn’t get their outrageous golden parachutes or bonuses.

Those markets don’t correct themselves! Not, that is, without taking all the rest of us down with them in the process. And while the fatcats have a lot of lifeboats and can survive that sinking ship, we can’t. We don’t have lifeboats and nobody is going to bail us out during the flood.
So we have to have a bailout for Wall Street, even if it’s unfair because we’re all in this together now.

Haven’t we waited long enough for the markets to correct themselves? Government correction vs Market self-correction? Either way the rich will become richer and the average American will struggle to keep a roof over their heads, gas in their vehicles and hope for their children.

NO NO NO BAIL OUT!!! Let the markets correct themselves.

The executives who made disastrous financial decisions need to learn from them and you can only learn from your mistakes if you suffer the consequences of them.

It’s tough love but congress has got to become more frugal with the people’s hard earned tax dollars. Listen to the people. Read the blogs, Emails, polls and listen to the phone messages – WE DON’T WANT THIS BAIL OUT. NO NO NO.

I’m not an economist so this is from the gut. If we want to fix the problem, which appears to be the mortgage ripoff, why not fix the mortgages. Step in and renegotiate them down to affordable payments. Bailing out the fat cats and stuffing their pockets some more doesn’t seem sound. But what do I know.

I don’t think the taxpayers should bail out Wall Street, financial institutions, or whatever. I am sick of all the corrupt CEO’s getting millions of $$$ for leading a company into bankrupcy. Last year when things began to look scarry, we moved a lot of assets to fixed accounts. You don’t make much money, but you sure don’t lose it either. They have made their beds so let them lie in them!

I think the government should have figured out a way to bail out people losing their homes a year ago and then we wouldn’t even be discussing a wall street bailout.

The government has to bail out the economy at this point because the alternative would make a bad situation even worse. The sad thing about all of this is that no matter which candidate is elected, their plans for our futures will have to be dramatically different than they have proposed.

Crown Point, Indiana

The Republicans are surely worried. They were already in a bad positron with voters, and now it appears that about 1/2 of the voters would not like to see a bail out of Wall Street. If and when they approve the proposition from the Treasury department they will have to face all of those angry voters.

The Great Depression proved that markets cannot correct themselves without great pain and suffering by the people and I thought we should have learned that if the taxpayer has to pay for the train wreck, then the taxpayer has paid for the right to monitor and regulate the railroad.

Ed Reed
Port Aransas, TX

Its a question should we bail all of us out or let everybody sink together? CEOs will not sink down, only we keep sinking last 8 years and now there is a good chance we will hit bottom if its to believe Bush again. Can somebody reign in those 3 corporate risk rating agencies that start every Wall Street company crash? Should company’s stock portfolio be considered as leveraging asset?

Bail ‘em out…or else we all go down together. Perhaps most people aren’t hurting enough yet to understand the problem. Trust me, the majority of us have yet to feel the effects of this market and if the bail out fails, it won’t be too much longer.

I.m not an economist , and just plain don’t know like most Americans if this is a true issue, or just a political manuever to make the Democrats look weak. Anyways if so, it backfired from the very beginning. When the Democrats looked at the plan, and said that in no way would it pass in its present form, then went to work, but insteadf of putting WallStreet first, it put the American people first to assure them that they would not lose in this bailout. Now the republicans don’t want this, they wanted the Democrats to give the Fed Chairman, and Treasury Secretary a blank check, and that didn’t happen.

Jack
The markets should be allowed to correct themselves.
I think we should treat everyone the same big, small and in between. Sink or swim. Let the chips fall where they may. The American people will be forced to live within their means. Maybe this will be a lesson well learned. Maybe we will learn to be responsible for our actions. Or will we let the powers that be enable us to keep spending more than we have? Time will tell.
Judie
St. Augustine, Fl

Jack,

The “front door” republican plan…Paulsons, or the “back door” House Conservative Republican plan…..We, the tax payers, will be paying either way. This I do know..we DO NOT need more deregularation and more tax loopholes ( McCain) for the very rich.

Sue
Emporium, PA

I don’t have a clue. Unfortunately, no one else seems to either, although I do hear a multitude of opinions. No one has been able to cogently walk-through either scenario.

We allegedly live in a free market republic. The government has no business bailing out the crooks who mis-managed these companies. Let them fail so only the strong will survive. If we support the weak,this will only happen again. The savings and loan debacle should have taught us something.

Jack, I don’t think it is an either/or solution. I think you let it out a bit at a time, and then see if it is helping. It is quite abundant that no one understands the problem fully and no one really understands how much money is really needed (the amount seems quite arbitrary). The market seems stable when it seems like we are doing something.

Should they? NO!! Is it necessary? Probably, due to the potential loss that may occur to the general economy/ retirement accounts, etc. They should not give the money, it should be in the form of a massive series of loans with collateral (at todays market prices) to be taken by the gov’t for security, and to be resold as the economy improves, with the profit to be used to pay off bush/McCains massive war debt!

We can make it easier on everyone by using George W. Bush and his family personal finances to take the Bill. The bushes are quite loaded with oil money from the Iraq war.

Foreclosed or delinquent homes are sitting empty and rotting all over Florida. The government or the banks needs to get people into those homes FAST before they all need to be condemned.

Bailing out the banks is great for the banks, but the value of these mortgaged properties is sinking fast then the mold is growing on them, not just from falling property values, but from neglect.

If they government buys up these mortgages, they will save the banks, and invest taxpayer money in a buch of almost valueless real estate.

What would happen if we were to scrap the bailout and put the $700 billion toward an economic stimulus package for small business and low and middle-income citizens? Sounds just as good as the other plan to me!

Jack,

From where I sit , we’re screwed either way! Atleast with the bailout, the taxpayers have a miniscule chance of recovering some losses. For all those who aren;t the decision makers and work in this industry – my prayers go out to you and your families – I hope you’ll be able to find employment soon.

I think this government assisted bailout is a step closer towards Socialism.

Hell NO! I bet any American a shiny nickel. These fat cat executives still have pockets lined with Gold. Dry out their pockets before the backbone of our citizens.

Where is the consequence of accountability so many of us are to abide by?

No bailout. George W. Bush said during his speech Wednesday that once this matter is taken care of the US will once again show the world that free market capitalism is the best system. This reminds me of Soviet leaders coming to us for loans, saying all the while that their system is better and eventually would replace ours. If the free market is better than a regulated market then if’s Wall Street’s problem to solve, if we step in with taxpayer dollars then Wall Street should be nationalized. The world is watching this scratching their heads in amazement. The German Finance Minister said yesterday that we are watching the beginning of the end of American economic dominance. I am more concerned every day that the American voters will choose Geriatric Ken and Caribou Barbie come Nov 4.

If we approve a bailout, we only keep the very wealth people’s shirt out of the fire. At Middle America’s level, it won’t change much if anything. They made the mess. Let them take the bankruptcy.

It’s going to take a bit of both and I hope that is being negotiated.
I’m afraid however that just as they always do, Washington is playing politics with yet another major issue facing America.

I don’t think we can survive free market corrections. No one knows what may happen, but I would side on the worst possible scenario . . . bail them out this time and then place extra regulation on the situation.

this is pitiful over a million americans have lost their home and they didnt get bailed out,give me a they need to loose it all like we did. “JERKS”

To speed up the recovery of the economic crisis, it is important that the government bail out the economy. However the bail out should include the conditions that Obama or the democrats have put forward – for example protecting the tax payers and recouping the $700B as soon as the economy recovers. If the government leaves the economy as is, while uncertain, we may face a great depression.

Pullman Washington State

I don’t know the details for either but
Come On! Why do the regular/majority of the Americans have to pay/bail out anyone. Where was the bayout for the people who were Encouraged and Given the permission for a home mortgage?
If Washington and our elected officials were thinking beyond this election, why don’t they go after the crooks that did this in the first place. I am sure they could get back all the money that was lost and more. Oh, and put these same crooks in jail. People get jailed for much less of a crime every 5 minutes in this country.
Betsy Minneapolis

JACK;
Yes government should bail out the economy but not without some laid down strigent conditions.Government the world over is the last hope of the citizens.Allowing the market to coreect itself may turn out to be an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

They should be allowed to correct themselves. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

Come on Jack, no one really cares what the Ameican people think, they are going to do what they want anyway, but thanks for asking the question!!!

The goverment should bail out the economy, and any individual who has been hurt by the coroporate mismanagement and greed.

The government should not bail out any individual or company who tried to benefit from the mismanagement and greed.

Let the economy live, and the greedmongers die.

I know that if something isn’t done, we will all pay a price. I can’t help feeling that failing banks are a symptom of the problem, not the cause. The cause is over valued homes, under qualified borrowers, higher unemployment, and low wage jobs.

Appying the solution to wall street is like trickle down economics, give the top of the pyramid more money and we will all reap the benefits…its not working so well so far.

I’d rather see a 700 billion dollar solution appled to the root causes, a healthy economy may not make wall street as rich in free money, but it will make it healthier.

The government should provide assistance to the home owners who will lose their primary residences because of the actions of a few on wall street. If that helps the markets great.

If I knew Jack, I would be running for office.

All this talk about allowing the market to correct itself is just posturing. So what if they relax tax polcies, does that mean investors will actually put up their cash when they could get someones else to? Wall Street has learned that you are safest if you get so big that you can hold the economy hostage. Government oversight or regulation could have prevented individual banks from getting so powerful. Regulations might have slowed down growth and profits, but since that growth and profit was based on hot-air and fudged numbers, we probably would have been better off without.

Let the free market correct itself. If this administration gets its hands on more taxpayers money to distribute to wallstreet it will be like giving a wine-o the keys to a distillery. Happy days are here again! but only to the cannibals of Wall Street.

Free market correction has ALWAYS worked before, Jack. Why not now? ‘Specially in 1929. Did you see that correction work? Wow! And again and again and again when thousands of people lost their shirts to the richest few – TRUST ME.

Absolutely not! Senator Richard Shelby has a list of 100 economists that urge caution before approving such a Bailout. We should listen to the “Economists”, not the Bureaucrats or Congressman who brought us this mess. I think we all remember what happened the last time this Country rushed to action based on faulty intelligence. I would suggest that what we are getting from Paulson and Bernanke is the equivalent of “Faulty Intelligence”. The scare tactics that we are hearing today are eerily familiar to our build up to war. And why the rush? The Greatest Mind on Wall Street (Secretary Paulson), has not even admitted we are in a recession. Let’s have the recession first.

Doesn’t matter, one’s as bad as the other…corportate America wins on both counts! …and we sad sacks in between get screwed again!

Jack, doesn’t the present monetary debacle resonate with that of the “gold rush” of a few years back, when it was going for around $800/oz? The end result being to humble Russia. My take on all of this presently unsecured mortgage debt, and oil price orchestration, is that the “big money boys” are manipulating the markets to bring China to its knees, re: the U.S. $3+ trillion debt load. And it is an indirect warning to India and Russia, not to get their hopes up. In a post-apocolyptic world, big money will win. In the commercial world, it’s called bait and switch. No rocket science here! Point being, get China, specifically, and the Middle Eastern oil producers, to “believe” that they have the U.S. by the short and curlies, and then pull the rug out from under them! Classic big business behaviour.

They ought to skip over the wealthy people and divide the 700 billion among the rest of us. That’ll give the economy the boost it needs! Why – I might be able to afford a few months of health insurance!

As a senior citizen recently retired, I have watched my funds decimated and fear I may need to go back to work. Today my mortgage company has been taken over by Chase. I hate to see these idiots and money grabbers bailed out, but frankly I can’t afford to lose any more money.

The market should correct itself.

The government should look for ways to keep the flow of credit.

Keeping the flow of credit and the criminal bailout of wall street are two different things. Right?

I believe in free markets! Government causes the uncertainty in our markets.

Bail them out. At first I did not have an opinion about whether we should bail the companies out or if we should leave them to be bought out by a few rich folk and other countries who would try to control the Government and Americans. But now I believe the bail out is very necessary to protect our Democracy. The bailout that includes the condition of tax payers receiving their share when the companies recover basically allows the tax payer to become shareholders. The reason why certain Republicans are opposing it is not because they care about the tax payer, it’s because they don’t want the tax payer to benefit from the profits that will eventually come back to them when these companies become profitable again. Bail them out so we the people can control the big companies and make them accountable to the Government and the American People.

A government bailout sets an uncomfortable precedent. A commentator on another network suggested it was unconstitutional. I don’t know enough to predict what would happen if the markets were allowed to correct themselves. Chances are we would all pay a price. If the correction would get our citizens and our government to live within their means, the price, in the long run, might be worth it. There is just something about a government bailout that doesn’t smell right. Why should I save those living in a bigger, nicer house than I do, a house they cannot afford, be allowed to keep that house? Why should those who got us into this mess get off with no consequences? I’d go for the bailout if those responsible for this meltdown were going to jail.

I say, Let the chips fall where it may and let the market correct itself.

Jack: If banks had nothing to do with Wall Street I would say no bailout, but banks and Wall Street perform a function of capital. The flow of money either by liquid assets, or setting up credit for goods and services to be used and purchased. It is very important function of this nation, but government needs to oversee these markets and banks. The people who scream for free markets and deregulate all things are very rich, and do not own mom and pop businesses. Its these free market types like Phil Gramm who have caused this mess.

John
Blue Pond, Alabama

We had a free market correction in 1929, it was called the Great Depression. As a reult of that, we enacated regulations & oversight for Banking & Finance which worked very well until we started deregulation with Regan anmd most Adminitrations since. When will they ever learn?

The free market option is always best, but we haven’t had a free market economy since 1913.

I’m not sure which program is best in total, but I do know that something must be done. Although, I rarely agree with John McCain, I too believe that no organization requesting bailout assistance should have anyone within that organization earning more than the U.S. President, until they again become solvent.

I don’t think we should bail out wall street at all period. What the Democratic congress should do is get 400 billion for mainstreet for healthcare, education, and the poor/homeless. Once they have that agreed on by the republicans then and only then should we throw them a 300 billion $$$ bone to save them.
Its the people’s money lets put the people first. Its give and take. They took, took, and took so now its time for them to give something, if they want something from us that we are going to flip the bill for!

Jack – History shows us (and tells us) that the markets have always corrected themselves, and there were always times of uncertainty /
with the ups & downs with the markets,& so on. If we allow the Government to Bail out the economy, then we will no longer live in a free society, as we have in the past. That is why people from other countries would give their right arm to come to live and be a citizen of the United States of America.

Respectfully Submitted -
Larry Coury, Houston Texas

Rock and a hard place…that’s where we are. If the economy is permitted to fail, it will again be the poor and middleclass who will suffer the most. The bigger issue is …Republicans do not know how to govern in a way that does not bankrupt the country every time.

Let the markets find their own level. The people that loose money should take legal action against the board. No matter what they do credit will go back to the old standard where what you are buying and who is doing the buying determines the amount of credit extended.

Jack,
I really don’t think of it as a Bailout of the economy as much as a Bailout of a pack of White Collar thieves and their ignorant and sometimes stupid victims.

This was criminal from the highest lender to the lowest borrower.

Let the market correct itself.
We always have the option of jumping in w/ taxpayer dollars sometime in the future.

This smells like a last gimme by GW Bush for the only corporate entities he didn’t send some sugar to during his tenure.

The phones in Washington have been ablaze with concerned voters who DO NOT want to proceed with this bail out. I’m glad at least some of the representatives are at least giving the appearance of listening to the voters.

Well Jack
I would go for free market corrections. I think government bailouts will put the economy in a far worse quagmire than it is now. The latter in your question is far more feasible than the former.

Thanks Jack

Markets should correct themselves, by all means! If companies aren’t held accountable for their actions, why should they care at all about the consequences now and in the future? If I made the right decision and went with a company I could trust to handle my money, why should I eventually have to dish out big bucks just to slap the wrists of the guys in charge? What ever happened to reprimanding people for not doing their jobs?

Maybe what this country needs is a good old depression! Tough, yes, but a bail out gets us deeper in this whole mess. I just pray that my grandchildren aren’t still paying for it in 20 years!!

Like many Americans I’m not knowlegeable enough to know the correct answer. For a while all the so-called “experts” seemed to be saying, they didn’t like the idea of a bailout but still felt it was needed…however, now all of a sudden many of those same people are saying they don’t think we should use tax payers money for this. I can’t believe we don’t have qualified economists (not politicians) who can’t give us a better insight on how to handle this.
In addition, just a few days ago John McCain talked how he was going to suspend his campaigning to go work with BOTH PARTIES to help solve this problem…then out of the blue he comes up (along with some house republicans) a completely new solution. One he never discussed with any democrats,or in fact, even with some of his fellow republicans. He completely blindsided the committee and I feel only to gain a “poltical edge”..so much for working together. He is worried about one thing and one thing only John McCain!!!

Goodness NO NO NO NO NO!!!
There is an old saying in the South about “opening your mouth and letting the world see how big of a fool you really are.” I think that Palin has passed the test on that at least. with an A+.

The seizure and auction of WaMu is a perfect example of how government can intervene and make sure the markets continue to work. They (the Wall Street ding dongs) made some seriously bad mistakes. Just like the rest of us, they need to learn from them and start over. If anything, we should start looking at ways to protect the American consumer from this debacle instead of corporate big-wigs.

hi jack
the Republicans always beleived the market should let it run its course,now they call themselves the GOP and now their money is on the line now they want the tax payers to help wall street when they dont want to help main street. we need a new President now,the country needs a bellout from Bush and Chenny.

Honestly Jack without the numbers in front of us out here in the real world we just can’t make that decision. All I know is we;re in a pinch. The free market cause the last depression. Congress had better come up with a plan, and spell it out to the American people complete with charts, graphs, actual numbers.

Let’s see…

The roots of terrorism are in Afghanistan/Pakistan, yet the US invaded Iraq.

The roots of the financial crisis are based upon greed allowed to spiral without proper regulation, yet the original 3 page Bush Administration’s initiative for a bailout did not include any new policies that included regulation (it was the Dems who have been insisting on oversight, regulation, and addressing the home mortgage crisis for average Americans).

Why not address the root cause of the problem instead of the symptoms?

As much as I am opposed to the Gov’t bailout, it’s going to be passed due to the fact that we’re so close to elections. This unfortunately is going to set the stage for the next President to be a 1-term President because the Government will be digging itself into such a deep hole !

JNO, we should not “bailout” anyone. This country has spent billions on bailing out everyone, to include foreign countries, welfare people, auto companies, banks, savings & loans, & on & on!!!! If the money is not there, do not spend it or lend it!!!

Take a look at Ireland, they are a model for economic recovery. They invested in the people & paid down the debt. Anyone with a high school education knows you have to have a budget & “live” within it.

THank you

At first I thought that if President Bush was for it, it must be a hoax. I can’t make up my mind if he’s a sociopath or just a serial liar. I was concerned too about the not-so-subtle attempt to grap more executive power as outlined in their first 3 page plan. (memo?) I also understand how lots of folks are hung up on the fairness issue. This will not be fair, and neither would a sever recession or depression. There are no good options here. So lets learn our lesson. Next time someone like Mitt Romney starts blathering on about cutting corporate tax rates and getting rid of that pesky regulation thing, lets just say no.

No bail out, no way. Let them fall. So what if it makes it more difficult to qualify for a loan, if that had been the case it the first place we wouldn’t have gotten in this mess to begin with. There should be criminal charges brought against these CEO’s and exec’s for predatory lending. If anyone should be bailed out it should be the homeowners that have lost or are losing everything they worked thier whole life for. Any politician that votes for this should not return for another term.

No, the government should bail out Main St. and not Wall St. for once. How many times will we watch the trickle-down theory fail to reach those who are actually suffering? I say we shore up the housing market by issuing direct mortgage assistance in the form of increased tax deductions and credits to every homeowner in America, and let the market fend for itself. Prepostorous? How about the current plan on the table- handing $700 billion to the very crooks that got us into this mess. From down here on Main St. that notion is not only prepostorous, but a crime of unparalleled proportion.

My thought is that they should revert the interest rate back to initial promotional level, since these high risk loanees could afford it then, and then fix it to that point with all accrued intrest nullified. We need to stop blaming the victims for this. Come on, a person offers you the chance at a home and you’re NOT going to take it? If you say that you’re lying. Hell, if McCain “I own 7 houses” said that he’d be lying, and he already has 6 too many.

The institutions got themselves into this, they can live up to their end of the bargain.

The wealthy bailing out the wealthy using the average income earners money!

America the beautiful! Every American should be proud today!

You have just learned a very good lesson SOME types of so called democracy ARE FOR THE WEALTHY run by the wealthy for the wealthy!!!

It took the massive wealth of Oprah Winfrey to get a half black American put on the Democratic ticket!!!

Oxford, MS

To answer your question, the markets should be allowed to correct themselves. Ron Paul told us this would happen all of last year when he was running for president and no one listened to him. In the long run it is the best thing for us. There will be some hard times while the markets correct themselves but we’ll be better off for it. This is just one of those times when we need to act like americans. We’ll help each other get through this mess just like we’ve helped each other get through other messes.

A recent email fixed everything by taking the 85B for AIG bailout and parceling it out to 200M legal citizens over the age of 18 ($425,000) who then paid taxes of 30% (25.5B back into the treasury) leaving every citizen with $276,000 in their pockets. What do you think that would do for the economy, housing, jobs, start up business,etc. Why, oh why, should any of our money be used to bail out financial businesses that are poorly managed when no one in this world will bail out me or my husband and our businesses if we get into trouble. I’m tired of the political posturing and the lack of creative ideas and solutions that are out there and not being recognized. Throw everyone of them out, the bums!!!

After eight years of this country being run by a party that fundamentally opposes more government and supports deregulation, we can’t afford to continue the same old stuff and expect a different result. The greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street cannot be trusted to turn itself around. It is evermore apparent that Washington must act to curtail the financial crisis, whether or not the GOP hardliners agree.

Chris from NC

Jack, who is this scary man that stands before the American public and ask for 700 Billion dollars? No strings attached we need YOUR $700B now. Let’s take our money and help middle and poor American’s who need the help, not the FAT Cats ON WALL STREET. Trickle down economics dosen;t work, the only thing that is trickling down for me is the sweat on my forehead when I’m trying to pay my bills. Oh yeah, I tried PULLING MYSELF UP BY MY BOOT-STRAPS AND LANDED ON MY A–!!!

No Taxpayer money should be spent on Wall Street greed unless it is all paid back in interest.

That’s a miserable bastardization of what the free market system should be. The government is there to intervene when markets have failed; clearly, this one has. Failed markets don’t self-correct, period.

Let’s listen to the uniformed though and not bailout these financial institutions. We’ll see how great the middle class is doing then…

a bailout’s fine for now! when barack is president, he can launch full investigations and jail the crooks and confiscate their assets! then the bush administration needs to be investigated ,thoroughly! THIS ENTIRE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE REORGANIZED, BASED ON OUR CONSTITUTION! we want our rights back,and justice to be done.

I think companies who’s behavior was above reproach should receive help (not sure it should be a bailout). However companies who ripped off consumers and provided excessive payouts to CEOs should yield to market pressures.

Geez JAck,

Its no wonder why Obama appeals to you, you both censor the opinions of the public to serve your own good.

Any comments contrary to Obama or Biden are promtly removed, but no worries im sure those people have posted their comments on other national venues so they don’t go unheard despite the Democrat method of free speech controls.

The economy is the Flagship of what it means to be American. The pursuit of happiness rides on the back of the economy. That ends when we bail it out. America will have morphed into something else. Same Constitution, same people, but a new way of doing business. We should treat Wall Street the same way Republicans treat welfare mothers. Just enough to stay alive, no dignity, and no hope.

Hell, let them correct themselves. The A**es that got us here said no government bailouts, The Republican Mantra.

Don’t do it. We can handle the bursting or the bubble, let the air out. Lets stop Riding in a patched up Hot Air Balloon that is still going to burst if not now, it will be just a matter of time.

Let me get this straight, Jack:

The Repubs want the same free market correction that got us into this mess, to fix it?

I have a better idea… Let’s give all alcoholics a case of Jack Daniels to help cure their illness.

I am wondering If Neil Bush shared his thoughts of the Silverado incident with his brother, George W. Bush, because this bailout looks an awful lot like the savings and loan disaster. Let the taxpayers pick up the fallout of the banks and subprime loan fiasco. Let teh fleecing of the middle class continue!

Wall Street should NOT be bailed out. Greed got us where we are…..and a bail-out would be a mistake,because it will just happen again. There should be accountability here also,throw em all in jail, and dont bail em out of there either! They should have to pay for what they’ve done.

There is a good argument for the bailout to prevent huge losses for investors and maintain a modified structure for fiscal accountability so this will not happen again. Obama is impressive for his cool-headed response and is wisely utilizing the opportunity to set boundaries for what huge corporations can and cannot do.

First reaction is that we should not bail out any of these Wall Street criminals- First put them in jail, recover all they have looted. That would probably cut about a couple of billion from what may be needed. Then have a plan that protects “Main Street”, Then let “market forces”, whatever they are, take up most of the ones failing. Noticed that WaMu is going down but, is being bought up by another company without using tax payers money.

No bailout. The Feds could do ten times as much good by spending only a tenth of that obscene amount on the everyday people that are in desperate situations by this whole mess. People first, banks somewhere after last.

Part of me is scared to see what will happen if we do nothing and the other half of me is Mad as hell over having to bite this one. I know my husband and I are responsible for our bills, morgages, etc etc. and if we ever got into financial trouble they would just say “too bad for you” So why in hell should we give them a free pass, work our tails to the bone to bail these incompatent people out and let them go about there mary way. They got greedy took peoples hard earned money and then did nothing to help when they struggled. Maybe they should just be left to fail and we ALL take the brunt! Economist have been warning us of this for years and no one has listened, so maybe its just time to let it play its course.

The market should take care of itself. Let those corperations that are “too big to fail”, fail. They need to be restructured to a managable size. I would like to know who in gov’t decides which companies can be allowed to fail and which companies need to be saved. How is WaMu different from those that have already been bailed out?

If 57%% want to bail them out it surely must be the wrong thing to do…
I would rather struggle in a recession than live through a depression.
The 57% nead to study a bit of history.

Where did this failing economy start? Thats as plain and clear as lies the Republican Party can make it. They need their Homeland security to hide them. When their Hero and crooked Ronald Reagan took controls off of oil and allowed banks to make uncrolled loans that almost took us where we are now. The Keating Gang took us for over $6,000,000,000. Neil Bush even borrowed $3,000,000 from the Small Business association, and left us the people pay for it. These Big Oil Pigs are robbing us right under our ignorant noses. Looi at Enron and Halliburton for a couple of them.The Bushes and their Dick Cheney.Clinton had to give us an outstanding economy under an attack from Cheney, Starr, linda Tripp and the rest of the Republican Crime Party. They fooled you twice now and you put Buss back in office with lies. If you do it a 3rd time we really are fools and deserve what we get.. Their animal the elephant should be turned in for one of a Greedy Fat PIG,,,,,,, jt

Jack,

Our so-called Free-market is designed to socialise all the risk and privatize all the profit, without a public say. It’s “risk-reward”: we take all the risks, they take all the rewards.

If we bail these morons out today, I want it in writing that we get a share of any future profits.

Dave
Ottawa

Jack,

We should go ahead with the Administration’s Plan with Barack Obama’s modifications – what Congress seems to be working toward. This will just be the first step on a very long road.

The real story is going to be the New President and New Congress. The voters need to get serious and elect smart people who are interested in governing, Voter imposed Term Limits is not a bad idea either.

Carl from Pahrump, Nv

I think we should bail them out, but only because the companies are ruining innocent people’s lives. These companies were handing out bad loans and making terrible financial and business decisions, and now the regular “Joe” has to pay for it. Punish these companies like you would punish a teenager who steals the parents credit card. Take their money and privileges away, and make them pay for cooking the books and making themselves more money at the “Joe’s” expense. The one’s in charge should be ousted with no golden parachute, and possibly a nice room at the Federal Prison.

Bailout them! Impeach Bush! Arrest all crooks! Have them pay back with interest! Regulate the Wall Street like they did about 6 years ago and before!

No, our government should not do a bailout and whoever suggested it should be thoroughly investigated. If investigations are done we might uncover stolen and/or untaxed revenue hidden in Washington.

This economic mess is the result of years of republican control. Unfortunatly, too many Americans did not get out and vote the last two elections. America is now having to pay the price for allowing ignorance to fester in the White House the last eight years.

I say NO BAIL OUT, but if all the problems arise that are talked about, we had better do something.

If the market is allowed to correct itself, the economy could collapse while we are waiting. It’s too much of a chance to take.

Remember, markets will almost always find some equilibrium, but it won’t necessarily be an efficient equilibrium. What that means in English, is that things will eventually work out, but that outcome might be a very undesirable one and one that is basically unfair to many of those persons and companies involved. If government can help to shape a better outcome, then most economists will go with that, even if it’s with great reluctance.

Bush rushed to Iraq, and now this! Sounds familiar! This administration has given us nothing but lies, corruptions and are on the wrong track.

I think some kind of bailout plan is necessary if the economy is going to get moving again. However, unless the program changes the way business has worked for the last 10 years, it won’t be enough. All the financial incentives for the senior executives of these firms are to continue doing exactly what they have been doing up to now.

And it’s the tax payers who will continue to pay the price.

Oh my God, thank you for being able to expose Sarah Palin. Tell Mr. Wolfe it doesn’t make him look good to cover up the obvious…she’s an idiot! Thank you Jack for flipping on him. Sometimes in this political game we at least want a little truth!..As for Sarah “the idiot-hideous”, I can see why the Republicans want to gag her. This whole Republican issue is ridiculous! We will see tonight what this is all about. I am still a Democrat! Jack my heart goes out to your beloved, stay strong, we love you!

Pay attention to McCain. A bailout is useless if we elect a dedicated deregulator.

Also, John McCain is guaranteed to attempt self-aggrandizing over saving us from financial disaster. What would it do to the McCain campaign if Obama were to comment in response; “You took nearly 24 hours to get to Washington for a national emergency? That’s just like your mentor George Bush reading ‘My Pet Goat,’ John. If it was real you should have been much faster. If not, you shouldn’t have lied.”

Brad Mahoney
Memphis, TN

In the last few days, ordinary Americans have shown they have suspicions about the bailout. Most investors who have their own money in the market are not running scared. Seems only those who stand to lose their outrageously overpaid jobs because they mismanaged other peoples money are the ones begging to be bailed out.

Jack,
Absolutely not. We should also be considering prosecution of the CEO’s for crimes against our economy (Economic Crimes)… they ultimately had the responsibility for the use of the questionable practices. I can not believe that there is even the thought of compensation to these individuals. Where is the total outrage???

Who knows what this bailout will do for the finanial health of the country! It seems to be the greatest ‘golden parachute’ to end all golden parachutes for Paulson, Bush and their cronies.

Las Vegas, Nevada

We the people should not bail out wall street. If we do, that will start the cycle of more and more monitary bail outs to come. When are we going to say enough is enough.

Show me da money!

There is absolutely no sense in allowing markets to correct themselves if they plunge the entire world in trying to achieve that goal. However, there is nothing pleasant about using the tax payers’ coffers to bail out financial giants whose CEO’s care more about their own wallets than the American citizens’ very lives. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the only choice we may have at this moment is to bite down, smile, and accept the fact that we need to bail out Wall Street.

Senator Palin,
Is the downfall of Senator McCain’s presidential chances. All I know about her is that she is for Soccer moms. No Jack she is not a candidate for the White House Thank God!

No bailout……..PEOPLE FIRST………..

I say NO bailout. We need a good market correction without the political machine with their oiled and money covered hands mucking with things. Don’t socialize the debt when you haven’t socialized the profits.

No matter who the fault….if you are not the cause, good for you, if you are the cause, shame on you. However, we are in this together. If the economy fails, we ALL suffer. So you people need to shut up, accept the fact that unless you want another great depression, shut the hell up and LISTEN to whats goin on

No Bailout!!!

They made their beds on Wall Street, let them sleep in them now.

If this bailout goes through any politician who voted yes should be voted out and then tried for crimes against the American taxpayer.

This is absurd! The market will work it out quicker than any bailout. The bailout will prolong the bubble evolving into a greater and much more harmful burst.

Come on Jack.
If your house catches fire, are you going to call the fire department or wait for the rain to come?
Rick
Waianae, Hawaii

So companies can leave the country, put those people essentially into poverty because of the falling job market, yet Wall Street wants us to bail them out? Where are the priorities here?

if it our country in debt shouldnt the country be getting bailed out by other countries. I remember when debts were forgivable..

I don’t trust the goverment to buy bathroom fixtures (remember the $600 toilet seat?). If we give them $700 Billion, I fear that’s where the majority of the money will wind up. No bail out…. Let the market take care of itself.

If you think sub-prime bad, wait until a trillion dollars in credit card loans hit the fan. Citicorp already started spiral by raising existing card holder rates, regardless of their credit score.

The size of this socialistic takeover of the markets, though enormous, is not sufficient to ‘bailout’ Wall Street. The market is going to consume the weaker companies out there. Not even Congress can change the Darwinian nature of the markets.

Maybe the 700 trillion should be given directly to we taxpayers – another economic stimulus check, – I’d be happy to pay off my mortgage, my children’s college education debts and spend, spend, spend…

The FBI is investigating the very people that Bush wonts to turn over $700,000,000,000 dollars too. I say NO WAY !!!!! I think their trying to cover up some kind of corruption of the Bush Administration before they leave office.

If the government doesn’t bail out the country then I think they have to, in mass, resign for not doing what the government exists for which is to protect the citizens of this country. Enough bad has already gone on, and letting it fall off the cliff is tanamount to NERO fiddling while Rome burned.

The question shouldn’t be a matter of whether the government should bail out private industry, it should be a matter of will it even work? The right has repeatedly lauded the free market system and sometimes, in a free market system, businesses fail. This is a dangerous precedent set forth by our legislators and is far from a free market solution. I believe the old adage is correct: you make your bed and in it you shall lie. Let the political and economic repercussions teach us a valuable lesson: free markets are only as good as the stop-gap measures the government installs to oversee it!

I’m having deja vu all over again — fear tactics and blank checks! Please, can somebody tell me how the magical $700 billion amount was arrived upon and where it would go?

Corvallis, OR

Excellent question Jack: I have been struggling with this one because I don’t know who is going to win the election. I feel that I can trust Obama with managing the bailout money, but I don’t trust McCain and the republicans.

Simply NO!

If we continue to give money to the people that caused the problem won’t that make it worse? Why don’t we make a deal with the people that are hurting and losing their homes to help them make their payments to the lending institurions that gave them a poor product? I don’t see how helping at the top is going to help at the bottom. If we help the bottom, making a deal for them to make there house payment, then in the end the money will get to the top.

These executives have already demonstrated that they are not responsible businesspeople. There should be tough penalties for this kind of thing. These people are financial terrorists driven by greed and selfishness. If they get that money, they will just be laughing at all of us. Not only should they be put in jail, but also never allowed to work in the financial industry again. This New Yorker says……you fill in the blanks.

Hello Jack, I have a solution and it is much cheaper. Give all household who filed taxes last year 1 million. That pay’s of the mortgage and stimulate the economy. That’s a two for and cost only approximately 100 million.

Johnnie

No. Me, along with alot of other folks could use a “bailout” too! These companies sold bad products to people and should have to pay a price.

No bailout. We cannot keep printing money. We must learn to live within our means. I do not want to pass to my kids a worse quality of life but it sure looks like that will happen. This administration is corrupt, and you cannot believe anything they say. No No No bailout. Any State Senator or House of Representative in Calif. that votes for this will not get my vote in November, guaranteed.

The only way they should be allowed to spend $700 billion of our money is if they cut 700 billion in wasteful spending. Take all the money we’re spending on illegal aliens and use that to bailout Wall Street!

Something STINKS around the Treasury/FED bailout plans!

Treasury — Why is the Paulson plan geared at shoring up Wall Street instead of insuring troubled homeowners and helping them pay their mortgages. The plan announced by Mike Pence (Indiana) would trickle up to Wall Street with a sure recovery … the Paulson plan will just impair the Taxpayer and waste $$$ resources before the next [ATTTACK] domino falls.

FED — The FDIC did not back WAMU with money to stop the run caused by panic withdrawals. Why not? I thought this is what FDIC should/would do. If the FDIC replaced the fleeing accounts with FED funds, WAMU could have averted the failure. Instead, the FDIC allowed/arranged for Wall Street to steal the assets of this institution.

The markets should be allowed to correct themselves if the Taxpayers, Homeowners, and Depositors are kept healthy and stable. If a stinky bailout plan prevail, a raw-capitalism survival-of-the-fittest policy will cover the land and the Country will suffer greatly.

“The Market” is a THING, incapable of making decisions, regulating itself, or doing anything else that thinking persons do. PEOPLE make decisions that effect “the market”, which affect many of us. Quit bailing out the wealthy at the expense of the poor! Let’s stop worrying about THINGS like markets, and corporations, and start worrying about people. Couldn’t we make sure that all American children had health insurance with that $700 billion dollars? I’m sure we could do that, and a whole lot more. No more corporate welfare, without first providing human welfare.

I think the government should let them fall and if they want to spend 700billion to spend in on programs to help the people cope while the market corrects itself. I’m afraid that the national debt will become unpayable with the rate it is increasing and I think that is far more of a concern that Wall Street being irresponsible.

I say let the bond holders of these companies share the risk. Pay them 80 cents on the Dollar. Holding bonds is not risk free. Let them share some of the pain so that Govt. doesn’t to have bail out these companies.

In a word, NO!!!!!!

NO BAIL OUT…I say, “Let them eat cake”!!!!

Carol
Palm Bay, Florida

This isn’t just a bailout of Wall Street, this is a bailout of the US Economy and we, every single person living in the US, are the US Economy. I will agree that we weren’t the ones that got them into this but we are ultimately going to pay the price for what they did. I’d rather pay the price of higher taxes then watch my retirement money evaporate, the mortgage company take my house, the creditors take my cars, lose my job and I am left with nothing. This isn’t a situation that we can turn our backs on and let them crash and burn because they deserve it for lining their pockets. If they crash and burn they are taking all of us with them. Yes the markets may correct themselves over time, but at what price to the America people. I say bail them out and save us all but push for fraud investigations and hold these people accountable for their actions.

A similar situation happend in mexico in the 90’s. Its called FOBAPROA which the government tried to protect the banks from going bankrupt through taxpayer money and some aid from the government. This was applied in 1994 and it basically ruined the mexican economy. Im not saying that will happen here. Just wanted to give some insight to people who did not know about this.

Please! Heres an idea…Why doesn’t Bush and Cheney open their large checkbooks, seeing they are the ones that have caused this terrible situation? Better yet why doesn’t the American people pass a vote: To garnish half of Bush and Cheneys retire pay? To pay down the large debt that again they caused? If we weren’t in the middle-east right now, we wouldn’t be in this situation, again because of the Bush administration.

Something smells fishy. I hear that capital is virtually nonexistent, yet i have seen numerous tv commercials from Lending Tree, DiTech, and other financial institutions over the past few days. Does not make sense to me.

I have also heard let the market take care of itself for years. Well the market has spoken. So have I, It is their problem, not our nations.

Sorry Jack, no bailout, no handout.

The government is already in debt up to its eyeballs. A bailout will encourage more of the same behavior in the future no matter what regulatory mechanism is put in place. All we’re doing is writing a huge IOU that our kids will have to pay back so that big business can screw them over too. What kind of legacy is that?

I’m fully aware of the consequences of doing nothing. My 401k could become (more) worthless, I could lose my job, my house, my car and I still say “no”. I’m a grown man and I’ll find my own personal solutions. I don’t want or need government protection. With friends like Uncle Sam, who needs enemies?

You don’t want to invest in me…I don’t want to invest in you.

No bailout!! This is madness for all of us, the taxpayers, to cover the liabilities of the greedy crooks on Wall Street. We are tired oif being fleeced!

A lot of these comments sound like people just want personal revenge on Wall Street, without thinking clearly of the consequences to their own future. Sound out your feelings of revenge and resentment, but then try to think clearly and rationally. On the other hand, none of us has a crystal ball.

NO Bailout NO way ! Don’t sell my freedom to the crooks of Wall Street.

Listen to the words of Ron Paul no more democrats and republicans, no more congress and lobbyists putting their agenda ahead of the American people.

Vote No this fall, vote for anybody from any other party, and if there is no choice vote for the new person, NO incumbents!

No, no and no!

This bailout adds insult to injury. None of these talking heads starting with W have any credibility – one day they tell us the economy is stong the next they tell us that the world as we know it will stop to exist. If us “less important people” lose everything we have, we’ll find a way to rebuild, as we always do. The problem is that the Wall Street type managers don’t want to lose their millions, because then they would fall down to our level.

NO BAILAOUT FOR ANYONE!

Don’t be idiot. Bail out is for the Main Street by passing through WallStreet. If there was no bail out, Wachovia, Citi bank, Bank of America, etc would fail one after another until nobody will provide credit in the USA. Then there will be no economic expansion, no job, nothing. We will be back to stone age. If this is what you want, we should start talking about immigration to Europe, Russia and China. Don’t let the Iranian president win, he predicted the fall of America. But he will be very wrong.

NO!

Jack,

Unfortunately the old cliche “perception is reality” is true. And the Washington goons, with some help from the mainstream media, have managed to ensure that the American people will perceive this bailout as inevitable.

So we’ve been brainwashed to believe that We The People have no say in what gets done with our money and in our names. Michelle Obama may finally be proud of her country, but I for one have never been more ashamed. It is disgusting to see this display. Push it on down our throats. We’ll just eat it right up.

Absolutely not. What should I have to pay for the rich Morons failing at their high paying jobs. How about this you hire me for $10 mil a year and I give it a go.

Jack I live in the part of th counrty that excercises common sense, that part that is outside the Beltway. The reality is that Bush and his posse got us into this mess, no question about that. If we want to deal with the lesser of 2 evils, I guess we have to bail out Wall Street. But they ALL need to remeber who helped them when they needed a loan. I wonder if they’ll remember the old saying “one hand washes the other” after we get them on the corrected path. My guess is they won’t.

Steve

Nappanee, IN

Let see if I got this straight. We bail out the “big boys” to save financial collapse on the “Street.” We continue to let jobs be shipped “offshore” for tax purposes and cheap labor…..Then we see businesses fail here, unemployment continues to go up…..then what do we have? We have an economy where we don’t make anything, we don’t have people earning (or just barely) a living….so then we don’t have anyone able to purchase goods and/or services. There goes the country. Bush wanted to “retrain,” sounds a bit socialistic or communistic, but what do you retrain people to do? You end up with the USSA, the United Socialist States of America. Remember the sound bite where Bush says, “if this were a dictatorship it would be easier, especially if I were the dictator?”

Are you kidding me? We got a mortgage last year even though we had both filed bankruptcy and are barely above water…..now they want more money (that we don’t have) to bail out companies who somehow have LESS money to do what? No one has clearly said what this money will do or where its going….I’m a registered Independent – and so its not a “party issue”. Its a flat out – if I don’t have the money – who does – and where’s it going??

The government should bailout the economy.

Here isw my idea:

Setup a temporary department to buy all the bad paper at 75% of Outstanding Balance.
Rewrite the loans at the discounted price with an interest rate 1 or 2 points above the going rate.
Collect the money directly from the borrower.
This is a one time deal.

Wall Street is liquid and Main Street is proctected from foreclosure.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Bailing out wallstreet is the finantial equivalant of a doctor prescribing painkillers without trying to discover the underlaying cause of the pain. The finantial meltdown is a symptom, its not the cause. If we treat the symptom, we’ll stop feeling the need to treat the cause. We need to fix the underlaying problem, which basically boils down to the short sighted nature of our buisness decisions, before we can ease the pain. We need the pain so we can take steps to make the fundamentals of our economy strong.

Jack

Here’s my Plan:

Let Wall Street tank. Take the $700 billion and inject all the financial institutions within the United States with the $700 billion, reconstruct or reconfigure these bad mortgages out here. Give homeowners a chance to refinance if need be, lower the interest and credit standards to allow Americans (minorities included) with marginal credit to get a loan. The bottom up, that’s the only way this is going to work. If they cut a check to Wall Street we’ll never see that money again.

Charlie from Raleigh

Bail out ? NO WAY.Let the market self correct.Let those who created the mess suffer the consequences.I say we should all be responsible for our actions,and this includes the government. I fear they will not corrcect anything and most likely only exacerbate the situation.To really foul things up just let Washington intervene. Anything that the Bush administration proposes is bound to fail ! Eight years of torture is too much for all of us.Send him back to Texas with a bill for the mess he has helped create.

No, let the chips fall where they may. the government should stay out of it.

Hi Jack,,
Not. If they can come up w/ that kind of money- they can come up w/ another way. We keep bailing out the mafia ( paying protection money) so they can keep stealing more from us. How’s that workin’ for us, so far? Don’t worry- Be happy. It’ll all be trickled back down to us when they pay us all back w/ their failing manipulated markets which we’ll have another opportunity to bail out again, later. That’s counter-productive & not my idea of the “free market” system
Later,
Deb.

I vote no bailout for Wall Street.

Since we were not asked to share in the profits and the over-the-top salaries on Wall Street, I would decline Bush’s offer to share in their losses. Furthermore, the last time Bush rushed the USA into imperative action, the results were and continue to be disastrous, and may well be a contributing factor to the very problem for which Bush is again calling for imperative action! This is a hold-up of the American people; no dice!

Either way we are screwed because of our debt. China owns us.

I wouldn’t even bailout the boat that boat the administration put itself in. Letting it sink will get rid of that rodent infestation that has been living in the White House eight years too long.

No bail out!!! I believe that this is nothing but a scare tactic on behalf of our government officials (democrats and republicans). If our government officials really wanted to do what’s best for our economy, they would be bringing in high level business men, economy professors from our universities, etc., and get their input. Allowing this situation to be decided by politicians is a big mistake. The middle class is sick and tired of paying higher and higher taxes to squander on the pet projects of the elite…..Denny, Sturgeon Bay, WI

Something obviously needs to be done–unfortunately, credit is the lifeblood of American capitalism and unless we as a people are ready for some major changes in our way of life (which we’re not) then we need to take steps to ensure credit continues to flow.

However, giving a $700 billion check to the people who messed up in the first place doesn’t seem to make sense, especially since it’s been pointed out that without restrictions on how it’s spent it’s just as likely to be used to shore up individual companies to their previous inflated, unhealthy level of operations instead of to fix the policies and ensure these lenders work together to keep credit available.

At this point we have no guarantees that this will fix anything, and to be honest we have no guarantees that anything can fix a system that is revealing itself to be more and more broken at a fundamental level.

Frankly, if this bailout is passed without steep protectional provisions for the taxpayer, then it will be–or SHOULD be–rioting in the streets.

Austin, TX

No bailout. You commit the crime, you do the time. You screw around with your “complex” financial instruments, you should lose your job, forfeit your bonus, and get indicted for fraud. Will this wide-spread nonsense affect Main Street? the argument is that tight credit will cause a depression, or a panic. Let’s ask Main Street: how many people are going to buy a new car NOW? Start a new business NOW? Buy a house NOW? Precious few, I would think. Let’s let the dust settle on these crooked banking schemes first (and let the FBI investigations run their course). And let the banks get regulated back into what they were years ago, before the dense fog of the Bush years. Honest banks = open free credit. No sense mortgaging our children’s future.

The GOP is right. No bailouts for those reckless people on Wall Street. Viva Conservatism!

It appears to me that the farther congress gets from putting a deal together, the better the market is doing. Guess they know Washington is the last place to put $700B to be managed. Unlike the media, I do not believe Wall Street is holding their breath until the bailout is done.

Could I please get a bailout, too? I would only need $700,000,000,000.00 but would prefer to have it in loonies (Canadian dollars). I don’t want to be accountable for it, but I’ll get back to you periodically to let you know how well it went. And if not that, I’ll gladly take Paulson’s golden umbrella instead. After all-what’s $700-million amongst friends?

Not unexpected that all this is just political fodder coming from all those fat cows in Washington that pretend to represent us and look out for our interests. It is no wonder that most Americans have lost faith in their government.

Let the economy correct itself. If that means bank failures and fire sales, that’s what it means.

A bailout is just another example of the Bush administration doing all it can to favor it’s corporate sponsors over the American public…again.

Honestly, I have to say…I don’t know.

It is my understanding that our country’s credit would dry up, and our stock market would tank, if we don’t act…That sounds like the end of the world as we know it. But…

No one has effectively explained the details of the bail out plan and how it would be implemented if it passes.

We need more information!!!

Exactly what ARE our choices?

Yes, we need the ‘Investment in America’! We need to keep the wheels turning!

Absolutely not. The market has been bolstered all along and still can’t stay solvent. We need to implement a totally different type of regulated system to keep the Wall St. thugs from stealing from the American people. Why aren’t the assets of the CEOs involved ever frozen during these investigations?

Any Congressman or Senator who votes for a bailout will NOT get my vote.

Those of us who have our lives invested in the companies we worked or work for don’t have a bailout option. If we become ill and can no longer work, we lose it ALL!

The government should absolutely not BAIL-OUT wall street! Not unless they intend on bailing out everybody else!!!!!!!!!! Let wall street and the private sector work it all out without the governments interference!
Most of the Americans do not want this government Bail-Out! Do the politicians ever listen to the american people? I guarantee you if you took a poll the Majority of the citizens do not want a bail-out! How dare Bush scare and blackmail the people into this…very few people trust him or his appointee Paulsen. Why are there so many econimist that say it would be better to let this happen…then we will truly know what the dollar is worth and what to value!

Partial bail and reform. Keep some money back for the second idea. The second idea will be what occurs to us if the first idea doesn’t work.

If the four requirements that were outlined by Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank are in the bill, then my anser is “yes”.

Annapolis, MD

I think we should not correct it. Let the “natural” course for our previous predatorial actions happen. It’s not just the republicans nor is it just the democrates, its our ego. We can’t be printing money out of thin air. We can’t go to war when we can’t afford it. We should be running our country is if it is a business, an in the “green” business. All of our not-so-sound financial decisions are catching up to us. Whether we have a recession now doesn’t matter because it will happen. Our economy may not fail but without a sound monetary system in place our financial well being will always be in peril. Think of your own financial situation, what if you were in debt beyond imagination? What if you were not bringing in the money to come even close to paying it off and you don’t even have these loans backed? To me I bet our government officails will jump ship just like most bad executives do. I won’t tell anyone who to vote for or whether they are right for making their own choice, but I am not and have not been happy with who we have for options. I want to vote for Ron Paul.

Jack

So the guy that brought America the NO BID CONTRACTS worth say a 100 billion dollars or more now wants 700 billion dollars for his other friends, often refered to as his base,. If this package has to be done then does this make the USA a socilist country, if so where is the health care?

Brian

Someone has probably already thought of this, but if the government insists on spending $700 billion to bail out the economy (banking/mortgage industry mostly) why not use the money to pay off all single family home mortgages in the US? This would essentially reboot the banking industry. They get the money back for the loans they put out without simply being handed a check. This would also give every family extra expendable monthly income that they would undoubtedly put back into the economy. Then the congress could actually claim they did something for the American people. I think the markets will correct themselves, but I’m almost sure that congress is going to decide to dump all this money, so their choice is to give it to the banks that made bad decisions, where I’m sure the first thing the execs will do is take their cut, or they can give it to the people. Why punish those of us that have tried to make responsible decisions (we may still have our houses but our investments/retirements are getting hammered due to the irresponsibility of others!). So to the congress, if you insist on spending the money, buy us all a house!

The situation that we are in is soley at the hands of the Republicans and the fat cats of Wall Street – why should the tax payers bail them out? I say if we bail have to them out, there better by a lot of oversight and no big payouts for the CEOs. I say let them learn how it feels!

Thank you Cafferty, for listening, somebody has to….. btw, can someone get rid of LOU DOBBS?

No one will talk about this, but a very, very ugly truth here is that Bar Mitzvah’s must be financed and the Wall Street folks – rife with celebrants – exert enormous influence and – as throughout history – stand ready to profit from the misfortunes of others…

If a kid falls and scrapes his knees you help him up, like the great depression. If the same kid falls again you may shake your head, then help the kid up, the S&L crisis under Bush 1. If the same kid falls and scrapes his knees again you walk away and find a kid that can walk on his own, current crisis under Bush 2. No bail out Jack.

Why should we let the fox back in the hen house or what’s left of it? We’re being asked to blindly trust the very people who got us into this mess.

Evelyn W.
Fort Worth TX

someone earlier said “if my half of the boat aint sinking, why would i bail out your half?” ….becuase we’re on the same boat.

I read this morning that RIchard Fuld from Lehman Brothers owns 5 residences including a $21 million NYC apartment plus a vast art collection. Maybe his next trip before the office should be to Sotheby’s to auction off his belongings and contribute to the bail out since he sank the S.S. Lehman.

Jack,
Sure why not. What’s another trillion dollars? At least by giving the money to Wall st. it wont be spent on bombs and bullets to start a war with Iran.

The bailout package is a game-changer. Your preamble properly reflects the prospect of non-capitalistic drivers changing the operating environment for some of america’s largest financial institutions. The long term impact of this move is further government regulation of yet another domain of civil society. I cannot support a bailout that erodes a fundamental underpinning of the US economy. There should be no safety net for this type of toxic circus.

Houston, TX

I think in this state, we have to do the lesser of two evils and that’s bail out the billionaires. It’s not the best choice, but I’d rather have that than another depression. I just feel that we, the middle class, should get something from this: money, lower financing premiums, land or whatever.

I am not in favor of bailing out the greedy, unscrupulous wall street giants who caused the problem. Aren’t the republicans always calling for free markets, and yet, when the markets aren’t going their way, they want the taxpayers to come to the rescue. Privatizing gains while nationalizing losses will lead to a huge moral hazard, and will more quickly turn us into a nation of slaves. Of course, none of us has any idea how bad it really is (or isn’t), so my opinion is basically worthless. I am suspicious when bush tells us we have to do it or we’ll be doomed. Everything he’s ever said was a lie. Why should this be any different? I think it’s a giant ripoff of the American taxpayer.

This is part two of the savings and loan crises of several years ago. We learned nothing. Let wall street fall and pull its own self up.

Republicans, since they believe in an ownership society as-well-as a free economy, should own up to their failures and not expect a government freebie. I say no to the Wall Street Welfare Plan!

What’s even more scary is the fact that there are millions of Americans who are ready and willing to vote for her. Wake up, nation!

Dent
Seattle, WA

If there are enough strings attached to this bailout, I think it could be far less of one than the hype would have us believe. Government equity in the companies being helped, the possibility of selling the purchased assets back to the market later and all the other demands being made give us some insurance that a bailout is not the equivalent of the end of capitalism. I prefer to look at it as a temporary intervention that will end if and when the problem actually gets fixed. Once that happens, things should return to “normal”, albeit with (hopefully) a whole slew of new regulations and controls.

No! Just good money pouring in after bad.

Jack do you mean Panic bailout?

Boy it sure doesn’t look like 57% agree with it here, and you can place my vote on that side. WE did not create this mess, only a few did, and it should not be our or our childrens cross to bear. While we all appreciate the free market society we live in, it should not come without consiqences for mismanagement or personal greed. There is way too much at steak for a $700 billion dollar handout on the taxpayers dime, only for the water to settle and potentially see this pattern repeat itself. We must change the way that we govern-manage our financial institutions and implement viable financial practices to ensure that history does not repeat itself again.

i am not an american yet i love america, for many reasons one of which is its idea of free market, what has happened to that?

While I am against the bailout simply because we should not be coming to the rescue of greedy executives who are at the root of this problem to begin with. Let the market correct itself and let this be a lesson learned by the executives who are going to get spanked where it hurts the most…their wallets. Look at his joker at WaMu who has been there for 3 weeks and gets an 18mil severance package…how about take that 18 mil and use that to help out folks who are losing their houses because of the sub prime crisis that started this whole ball rolling. Let’s put the money where it will actually do some good instead of just lining the fat cat’s wallets.

I think its gross when people blame companies for giving mortgages. It was the “people” in Washington who wanted to get more and more people in homes. People are to blame really…People were getting into homes that they had no business being in, because they couldn’t afford it. THATS WHATS GROSS.. Is there any personal responsibility left in this country?? If you cant afford the payment EVER MONTH, do not buy it…the banks don’t care, and neither do I, that you can make payments for three or four years…if you miss something…YOUR FAULT…Have a look in the mirror…those people are weak.

i don’t know if we really have a choice but my thought is no. i feel that this didn’t happen over night and whoever didn’t do their job should be in jail. Why should we pay these people who let the ball drop they should be let go and make them pay. I only see this one way and trust me its not going to benefit the one’s who really need the help. We Americans that get up everyday and work will never see the day that we can sit down and enjoy the retired life

Can I change my primary vote to Ron Paul?

Can you say “personal responsibility”…..or “no welfare” or how about “free markets” or my personal favorite ” government needs to get out of the way and let the market work”. No Bailout- no way- no how!

They say that the $700b will “open up the free flow of credit”. Wasn’t it “free and easy credit” which lead to this “crisis”? Now if we remove the ‘clog’, the so-called ‘toxic loans’, then more free and easy loans can be made by the same speculators, without a penalty for pushing ill-conceived derivatives and badly underwritten loans in the first place! And nothing to stop them from repeating the cycle! I say, let capitalism work! USA taxpayers will pay for this one way or another; but with a bail-out, the individuals & institutions who caused this mess have no incentive to change their behavior!
Bob / Chicago

The economy needs to be safeguarded from fluctuations like this if we want to continue having a middle class.

This is going to end in 3 ways Jack.
1) The deal goes through and we’ll print out 700 billion further devaluing our currency via hyperinflation.
2) The deal doesn’t go through and we have a 1929 style crash.
or
3) We default and upset the planet – who will then want to seize our assets to pay them back.

There’s no winning this one. And you know what? We had it coming.

The culpable should be candidates for jail not bail.

Don’t provide any money for a bailout. Let the market make the
necessary correction. Tell the president to go into hiding. Anything
he says is a lie.

We are one small “decider” moment away from Martial Law. For the first time in more than one hundred years a US Combat Dvision will preform mission operations INSIDE the US. All Bush needs is an excuse and the house Republicans are providing it. They are prepared to cancel the elections and protect us from ourselves! I am not even sure if Obama can pull this one out, and I am praying for my 11 month old daughters sake he can.

If this goes through even the decent among us will have NO incentive to pay our bills and avoid taking on too much debt and risk. I’m sick of sending my hard earned money (yes, some of actually earn our money) to foreign governments to keep their peace, to the Saudi’s for our oil and to the egotistical and insulated CEOs whose paychecks go to a PO box in the Caymen Islands. I want a Bailout – spend $350 Billion on an Energy Indepence Stimulous that will create new jobs, give us better leverage in foreign policy AND restore our national pride.

I think the gov should focus on bailing out the people who need it the most, every day citizens. Wouldn’t it make sense for the government to use that 85Billion dollars it was going to spend to bailout AIG and instead pay down people’s mortgages to levels at which they can refinance for a more stable, and more affordable 30-year fixed loan? That way the banks get all this bad debt off their books but it actually goes to people who are in jeapordy of losing their homes. I say if the government is going to spend OUR money on a large bailout, some of that money should go directly to US.

No Bail Out Correct It’s Self !!

Prices on just about everything have skyrocketed far passed the average man’s salary. If the government bails out the banks in order to stop the free fall of overpriced housing, prices will stay inflated. My answer is let the market correct it self. Salvage whats left of the American Dollar.

Could someone please tell me who is going to bail out the U.S. when we all wake up to this huge debt Bush has created? The government needs to learn how to spend money it has, not money it can print. Our society needs to learn how to live on what they earn, not what they can borrow. Time for some very difficult lessons. No to bail out. Let the rich suffer with the rest of us.

There needs to be some action taken. If there is no action, then we will all suffer.. get it? Honestly, I’d rather just have those fat cats on wall st. get rich than to see the whole country suffer. The one underlying solution that has to happen is the housing rebound. That cannot happen soon if you bail all the homeowners out. Pricing needs to be corrected ASAP because there are tons of responsible people and new families that need homes and cannot afford it. Why keep the other people in their homes when they couldn’t afford it in the first place?

To all you “free-marketers” who don’t want the government to act, who trust the system that produced this crisis: Please enlighten us with your brilliant scenario(s). Market self-correction? And, in the meantime?? That is Neanderthal thinking tantamount to blind faith in something that has been thoroughly discredited. Without action, which WILL be initially costly and could prove to be burdensome, even in the long run, the U.S. economy is doomed to a protracted and deep recession, and quite possibly a full-blown depression. If a plan is not passed– when you anti-”bailout” zealots lose your retirement savings and your houses can’t be sold even at fire-sale prices–perhaps you will think back and regret your simple-minded positions. On second thought, that would require the ability to think, and hence, is unlikely.

Like others, I have mixed feelings about the bailout. On the one hand, I recognize the necessity of a bailout since what’s happened has only worsened what’s happening to mainstreet America. On the other hand, I would definitely like to have the market and those companies going belly up, sink or swim like the rest of us are having to do. However, since it’s eventually going to happe, why doesn’t the President, the House and the Senate, separate the insurance companies within AIG from the entities that are failing and let those entities go down the drain. As far as Fanny Mae and Fredie Mac, let it go and let’s get back to financing homes through regulated Banks and Credit Unions. And any excess money that is earned as a result of the bailout shoudl most definitely be put towards programs that benefit mainstreet, such as healthcare, education, mortgages, etc.

Hell No!

Bail out the citizens first!!!!

Let these companies be responsible for their own actions. No one bails out the average person when they act irresponsibly. Let them take care of their own problems. This country is in enough debt as it is- don’t use tax payers money to save greedy CEO’s for their acts

Minnesota

Jack, the problem the public’s having is feeling comfortable with the Presidential word on this. It’s October before an election, Ringmaster McCain is up to his antics and possibly “W” has once last rock to throw at us. My belief is we have to by into this bailout because we can’t risk falling fowl to the crying wolf scenario.

Jack the goverment does nothing with this bail-out to correct the situation of the millions of American folks losing their homes which is after all the root of the problem. I see no reason for Washington to be sticking their filthy hands where they don’t belong…I say let the chips fall where the may!

No, I do not think we should bail out the financial institutions. They still have millions to pay their CEOs, their lobbyist and other corporate perks. Let these institutions liquidate their assets, and then let them come up with their own recovery plan that is forbidden from taking or asking for taxpayer’s money. Let them get out of their own financial troubles just like every other American citizen.

I don’t think you people understand what’s happening here. The government is proposing to buy Mortgage Backed Securities (most of which will ultimately mature at par) at deeply discounted prices. These securities are toxic right now because anything with “mortgage” in its name is basically worthless. The fact of the matter is that 95% of the mortgages in this country will pay off as planned or get refinanced eventually.

Then, you and I will own billions of dollars worth of securities with an extremely low market value but an extremely high likelihood of appreciating in value over time.

Currently, banks are not lending money. If we do nothing, they will continue this trend of not lending money and what do you think that will do to the real estate market?

Face it, you can buy into the Obama campaign’s class warfare rhetoric and claim this is a bailout of Wall Street. It isn’t. It’s a bailout of Main Street.

I worked for Bear Stearns for 10 years and I can promise you that neither myself nor any of the other 14,000 employees were “bailed out”. I’m not complaining because I made an awful lot of money and knew exactly what I was getting into but on Wall Street, most of our compensation comes in stock. When that stock becomes worthless (Bear Stearns, Lehman, etc.) so does the golden parachute.

So go ahead, advocate the do nothing approach, see what happens. I paid cash for my house and am retired at 45 years old, I’ll be fine but Main Street won’t. I promise you.

The beautiful words from our Declaration of Independence.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Our government has long ago abandoned the common person. It serves the elite, the greedy, those who preserve power for themselves. We have a caretaker government and its been very busy taking care of itself. This bailout is just another step in the long line of abuses.

Not many mention that this is something that was engineered, we are just seeing the closing of the show. How could normal folks like myself see this coming for the past 8 years (when I was laid off) but the Administration claims to be surprised? I think we should seize this opportunity to prosecute all involved and while we’re at it prosecute them for all the other offenses this Administration has committed against the people of this country and others around the world. Set and example so we never have to go through this type of rule again and we can reinstate our Constitution in full.

Jack,
The government MUST step in to fix this situation. If it was only the company and employees in question…let em sink. But, this situation is far more reaching than that. There were families that were tricked into taking home loans that they couldn’t afford so that the big wigs could make more money. Those families should not be penalized for that with being foreclosed or stuck in a home that is losing value by the minute. We cannot let the mistakes of the few ruin the lives of many. As American citizens we should consider ourselves lucky that our government is willing to step in and rectify this situation. The one thing I would like to see happen is that all the companies that had a hand in making this mess should have severe penalties levied against them. It is only right. Take away a few of those CEO’s cars, vacation homes, boats, etc. and sell them to help pay back the taxpayer money being used for this bailout. I just hope they come up with a solution soon. God Bless America. And one more thing I want to bring up that nobody seems to be talking about….Why in the world are we allowing the Iranian president to come into our country talking about us and saying that we deserve what we are going thru? Am I the only one that has a problem with that? Tell Larry King to interview someone else.

Jack,

Why am I ought to consider bailing out people who spend their lives making and taking bets? I work a 50 hour week making an honest living and live accordingly. It’s not all that bad, it feels good and I can rest my head in peace at night.

To simplify this, goverment has to do something. It didn’t do its job prior to the bail-out so it has to do something now. It should have overseen the problems before they grew to what they are. It did not. Now it has no choice but to take care of the problem at the eleventh hour. To not act now will affect everyone and in a big way.

Why the McCain Showboat to Washington, then no Deal?

The Republicans knew they could not sign the Economy Rescue Plan, because their constituents (RICH BANKERS) would not agree to financing without their “Golden Parachutes,” payoffs – as to the wishes of taxpayers and Democrats. Therefore, McCain went to Washington as a Political Show, to act as if an effort was made. Then the Republican spin-machine tried to blame the delay on the Dems.

Let the markets fall – and from the ashes , a stronger greater nation will prevail. Either that or Microsoft , Apple and Oprah will take over and evrything will be just peachy any way !

Any bailout has to wait for a new administration Jack,
This Bush administration has been busted red handed lying way too many times. There is NO TRUST. Not 1 red cent for this lying administration. Even if that means the economy tanks.

From Beggs, Louisiana. What happen to $700B? Where did it all go? I’m for helping each and every legal citizen of this great country. That’s what our nation is built on…helping each other in times of need. One thing though, I’m $2K in debt. Went to get a loan and was informed, get this, I have bad credit. I’m a credit risk. Oh, but you can bail out a $700B debt. Who is the bad credit risk?

The government needs to get out of the business of bailouts. We should be a nation for all people, not just the wealthy. If my husband and I couldn’t pay our mortgage, we would be on our own. In fact, our family hasn’t asked anything from the government. But these Wall Street firms continue to beg for more.

Many people are against welfare. I think the needy have a basic right to food, housing, and education. But I am adamantly opposed to corporate welfare. They created the situation. Now they have to figure out how to fix it.

Jack,

We the people will be the ones to pay the price of the Wall Street bail out. That means that OUR economy, which has been rapidly deteriorating over the past eight years, will render us unable to pay our mortgages, put food on our tables, pay for “luxuries.” What will THAT do to the economy? At that point, those Wall Streeters who are raking in the big bucks are not the ones who will bring the economy to a halt – it will be us little everyday working people. It makes no sense to me to bail out those who speculated on the market. Have we forgotten what speculate means? It means that it’s a risk – you get the bad economic times along with the good ones. Not the fault of the common person.

Wall Street is like the gangster that is being cornered by the cops.
So he calls up the bad cop and says if I go down ,You are going with me.
Bush McCain and several others don’t want that to happen. Why else would McCain abandon his campaign, other than to save his on skin.
NO B A I L O U T.
It is not fair to the people who have done it right. Plain and simple.
If we hadn’t butchered our constitution, we wouldn’ be in this mess in the first place.

It seems appalling that the reason we are in this economical mess is because the government decided that there should not be any oversight to just about anything their rich brothers have been involved in. What kind of package are they trying to put together? They are supposed to working together as a whole and yet the republicans are too intent on showing the american people that if anything is decided it is because of them not that the republicans and democrats are working together. What a sham our political system has become. Wonder what the McCain camp is going to come up with next. He has become dellusional to think that if it is because of him the package might pass. Wake up America.

Mr. Cafferty:

Seems to me that the government is the last entity we should call on or expect to help clean up a mess. If the Feds “bail out” Wall Street, they will be taking on a responsibility that they are unable to shoulder or assume. They’ve yet been unable to properly oversee the social security system, the medicare system, and/or the health care system at large. I heard someone say recently, “If your house is on fire, you don’t call an arsonist to put it out.” ‘nuf said about help from the government! Let Wall Street correct itself! After all, isn’t that what capitalism and the free market dictate? Profit and loss, risk and gain?

Jeannie – Enterprise, Alabama

Jack,
There is no way that we can do this. I work for a bank and I can tell you that it is really just these “fat cats” who are in trouble. Small banks are doing okay. I don’t doubt that this can and probalbly will change, but this just feels like more “corporate welfare”. I only hope that party politics doesn’t lose this message in their wrangling for points.

By all means lets bail these bozo’s out and reward them for doing a horrible, horrible job. Lets also bail out the people who made extremely bad choices with their money. Plenty to go around right? ….

Right? Guys? Where did everyone go?

Jack,

Those who argue that the market will correct itself if government does not act are correct. However, this correction may take up to 10 years or longer before it is able to correct it’s course. If we want to avoid a decade of economic recession, we need government intervention. Having said that, who knows what the right course of action is.

At first I was for it. But after listening to a few economists describe how difficult it will be to evaluate the thousands and thousands of obsure assets, I’m now definitely against it.

Plus, the free market guys can’t have it both ways. What’s the old saying…..”Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.?”

Why doesn’t the government go after all the fat cat CEOs that get thier annual multi-million dollar bonuses and have them pay for a big chunk of the bailout? There is no reason one person should have that much money. It’s complete greed and a lot of these individuals are responsible for this crisis. You average tax payer should not have to pay for this when you have all these CEOs sitting on mountains of cash. Why hasn’t anyone suggested this? They are responsible and THEY should PAY!

President Bush and his cronies created this mess – now they want the taxpayers to bail out the banks. I say – let them tank – with their CEO’s with the banks.

They made the polices that made this mess – let them lay down in the mess they made – they will never do it again – but they will – that is greed!!

Bush says the government had nothing to do with it – what about all the job outsourcing President Bush – you supported 13+ Million American jobs going overseas – plus the H1-B & L1 visa program to bring people from India here. Don’t Try to pass the buck mr Bush – you were directly responsible – you are the CEO of this country!!

YOUR FIRED!!

Our bodies will become dust but our ideals live on forever. There is no need to bailout Wall Street. The credit markets will correct themselves most likely in a shorter time than Bush, Paulson and Bernanke think. Why? Look at what happed with Wamu. JP Morgan Chase got a fabulous deal. That’s what smart executives who run smart companies do. Buy during a fire sale. Heck, I wish I had their money now to buy the distress mortgage securities. At even 50 cents on the dollar they’re cheap and some have been selling at 25 cents! Bottom line is there are private investors willing to buy the “toxic” mortgage securities (ex: Lone Star Funds, a Dallas-based private-equity firm, agreed July 28 to pay Merrill $6.7 billion for CDOs with a combined face value of $30.6 billion. It also got Merrill to finance the bulk of the transaction and then Merrill was able to sell themselves to Bank of America for $50 billion). There is an old saying. No pain, no gain. We don’t need American taxpayers money to save the financial system. Lets use the taxpayers money to rebuilt the America’s bridges and roads; build faster and safer mass-transit to reduce our dependence on gas and to provide American adults and children with health insurance.

Jack,
I like the proposal as it was before it went inside the white house.
$350B first.
Congress oversight
Limited CEO Pays
Profits passed on to citizens

In addition, I would have added 2 clauses.
Fire the CEOs and
Book a case based on FBI investogation. If found guilty, absorb all their current mobile and immobile assets into this plan.

The replublican party whole heartedly concedes that Barack Obama will be the next president. So they want to screw this economy so bad that the democratic administration toild through 4 years and loses to republicans again.

BTW, Whats Sarah Palin’s stand on this. Sure she must ahve seen money in her own yard. She must be an economic advisor to Dubya.

It is not the time to be scared – this is the time to laugh and be amazed.
I feel like on one of Copperfield’s shows. There is obviously no way that rabbit can be in his hat – but here it comes out. The magical trick is built on distraction and double bottom, not on physics
There is no way Treasury can pull this amount of money. But here it comes – hot from printing press and out of future taxes.
And next thing you know – some gullible audience ecstatically applauses, but others want their money back from the ticket box. I guess, Americans will applaud for a while, when foreigners will pull their money out.

Why should there be a bailout when WaMu who just failed can pay Alan Fishman $20 Million for 17 days of work?

why should us the taxpayers have to pay for the mistakes that those greedy, stupid ceo’s made on wall street? NO!

No. It will only enable more irreponsible behavior.

Reluctantly, I say we should bail out the economy. The key is that we are bailing out the “economy” not the financial industry. Executives at “failed” companies need to lose their jobs, have their pay slashed, and NOT get their over generous severance packages. Let the failed companies be divided up and sold, with the proceeds (profits?) going back to the government to repay the money for the bailout.

There is precedent for temporarily setting aside capitalism in a crisis. Government essentially took over the railroads during WWI and most industry during WWII. It certainly wasn’t a free economy. And the government bailed out the railroads in the northeast in in 1976 when most of the railroads failed.

Once the bailout is passed, we need to quickly get back to understanding exactly what caused it (not the generalized notion that it was greedy wall street’s fault, or Bushes fault, or congresses fault) and put the regulations in place to prevent it from happening again. We could learn a lesson from Gerald Ford who sacrificed his political career by pardoning Nixon. He knew Nixon was a crook, but he also knew we needed to heal the country and that was the best thing to do because it ended the chapter on Nixon.

So lets roll up our sleeves, and in a nonpartisan way, figure out why this happened and how we prevent history from repeating itself. Undoubtedly, we will make more mistakes in “this experiment called democracy,” but lets not repeat this one!

I think we should let the markets correct themselves. I believe Bush is
trying to frighten us again, as he did after 9/11 and before he started
the war over so-called WMDs. Our present debts frighten me, as does
the war, and especially the warmongering republican candidate John
McCain.

Only if it bails me out first.

Do whatever,I’m leaving the country!

Falls chruch, va

In order for the markets to correct themselves, they would have needed to have been right in the first place. We have to ask ourselves if this is the best talent out there to steer this sinking, stinking ship.

Aren’t the markets SUPPOSED to correct themselves Jack? At least this is what the conservatives have always said.

Let them fail or pull themselves up by their bootstraps!!!

Jack, here’s my question:

Instead of rewarding mismangement and funding executive severance packages, What would a “trickle-up economics” bailout look like?

If we spend $700 Billion of taxpayer money, why should we hope for some long distant indirect benefit to the taxpayer while we save Wall Street? Could we at least be vested in the companies we help bail out? After all, they’re going to turn their backs on us the moment they become stable. Many of these firms were strutting around boasting about their big end-of-year bonuses, and proud of playing the market for big profit. And I don’t recall any government bailout to the people because of that largesse – quite the opposite. The reaction was that they had ‘earned it.’

Now that they’ve ‘earned’ the reverse, Chicken Little and Crew are running around screaming about the sky falling, yelling “Buy Now”, and demanding Carte Blanche w/o review for nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer debt, with absolute irrevocable authority.

There has to be a better way than making the taxpayers holding the bag (many of whom are the ones whose homes have devalued or who’ve defaulted on loans already). So, what is the solution that helps the taxpayers first?

Let the market correct it self. No socialism for the wealthy.

D from Dallas, TX

The markets should correct themselves……period.

Just one more chance for Bush to run the funds down to less than nothing, thus handcuffing the next President’s ability to try and do anything good for this country. That was predicted as Bush’s intentions in a book (IMPOSTOR) by a whitehouse economic insider several years ago.

The government is FORCED to bail out the economy. But couldn’t “Big Business” add their fair share, too. Seems to me that Warren Buffett can do it, where’s the other big billionnaires that are affecting our economy? A little help from his business friends would’nt hurt. Why do the taxpayers have to take the whole load? Hey didn’t Exxon just make an $85 billion profit on us, too? There is alot of responsibility with money and how it is acquired. It’s time to pay up!!

The biggest problem for our generation, aka those who will have to deal with an Enron math based economy 30-40 years from now is this bail out isn’t going to solve ANYTHING real. I understand that companies need money to operate, but the reliance on credit to operate business is ass backwards. After this bailout goes down, at least the way paulson wants it to, people still won’t be able to pay their mortgages. Just like before, when we thought that house prices could never go down, we’re banking on the assumption that the economy is going to get better and soon. We’re betting that people will start being able to afford their purchases, but if you look at the signs… there’s no reason to assume that.

What do you do with the american auto industry? What about outsourcing, trade deficits, inflation, real wage declines, unemployment? These indicators aren’t looking too good, not to mention the obvious abysmal housing market. This incarnation of the bailout isn’t going to change anything.

Let the free market work.

The pain will not last as long.

You are just like the rest of the media lap dogs to Obama. You never bring up any of the things he did in the past nor do you talk about the many stupid comments that Biden has made. You and the others act like Obama is the almighty and will fix the world. However if he does become President the Congress will not let him do anything that does not benefit them not the country (this has been proven in the past when the President and Congress were ruled by the same party). The Democrats acted like Obama was not in Washington yesterday and that McCain caused all the problems. They are just looking for a scape goat. Beside all these problems started back when Clinton was President. Oh yes I would rather have Sara as President than Obama any day. He will destory us if he is elected.

I must admit that the complexity and enormity of the banking problem far exceeds both my pay grade and knowledge of all things financial. I simply cannot say whether the bailout is a good or a bad idea for the American people…..to hell with Wall Street and Big Business.

However, of one thing I am sure and that is in regard to the propriety of the bailout. And that is simply this. If the American people have to shell out $700B for the good of the country in this action, it should only be done with the explicit understanding that all employment contracts for all executives be rendered null and void and they be shown the door. And since the contracts are invalid that they repay all compensation paid previously under said contracts. No parachutes, no thank you, just the shameful exit they deserve.

However, what we sorely need is legislation that stipulates that if an organization is so mismanaged that it either fails or gets a federal bailout to keep it afloat, they people are protected from repeat performances. To that end, two things must happen.

1. In order, to get a penny of taxpayer money, the entire executive leadership and board of directors must be removed and replaced with government appointed interim leadership.
2. Those removed must be barred from ever again serving as an executive or board member of the board of any company ever again. Think of it as a lawyer being disbarred.

Only a serious downside to acting in an irresponsible manner with public funds by corporate executives and boards will curtain their reckless and irresponsible pursuit of personal profit.

The Democrats have the votes to pass their cosmetically modified version of the Bush Administration’s bailout proposal. The Republicans (including McCain) should vote against it, because it’s simply a bad deal for the American people. Both sides will be praised and vilified, depending on whose side you’re on. SO WHAT!.. like that isn’t happening already.

As for bipartisanship, until we see a frank (no pun intended, Barney) and honest admission of responsibility on all sides of the political spectrum, all bipartisanship means is that the politicians in Washington have agreed to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people.

This mess has Democratic Party DNA and fingerprints all over it… and the Bush Administration failed to take charge, in spite of the fact that they predicted this was going to happen (as the NYT 9/11/2003 article attests). The Democrats have the majority, so they should act like a majority… but of course they recognize that this bailout is widely unpopular, and need to have the Republicans in Congress on board to avoid political liability. Bipartisanship in this case is about using you to cover my butt. Republicans in Congress should JUST SAY NO!

No. The government should not bail out the economy because the economy is not what is being bailed out. Companies that made bad decision are the ones being bailed out.

De-regulation is why we are in this mess, and strangely, it will be the best way to get out of it. Our government needs to enforce strict over-sight of the investment markets. However, a bail-out is not necessary and will probably do nothing to help the situation. Companies that made bad decisions simply need to close shop and when these so called securities are written off the market, the balance sheet of surviving companies will look better and pull the market back up.

And let me just add that there is no such thing as a company too big to fail, the media failed to mention that all insurers participate in state-enforced policy protection plans that saves consumers from failing insurers (AIG). Likewise your investment accounts are protected up to $500,000 for every account by the SIPC. With the average taxpayer having a net-worth well below half a million dollars (which includes the shrinking equity in their homes), most individuals will not see a direct financial loss due to the bad decisions of a few greedy people.

Yes the economy looks bad, jobs are weak, and there is pain at the pump. But need I remind anyone that we loss 1,000 banks in 1,000 days during the massive Savings and Loan crisis of the ’80s? What about the oil shortage of the 70’s and Detroit went from producing gas guzzling land-boats (ahem, SUV’s) to producing econo-cars (Chevy Aveo). And most recently when the tech bubble burst and the media was forecasting the end of American decadence? People we have been here before, and we’ll be here again. Panic is not the cure, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions, potentially trillions of dollars is not the cure, but as with all things… time heals.

I am dead against that bailout package because what is being considered here is completely ridiculous and unheard of in the United States: financial institutions, prompted by greed, make risky decision and fail in their endeavors. Then, papa (or mama) state comes along and takes the consequences for bad decisions, greed, and mismanagement off the backs of financial institutions and rolls it over onto the backs of tax payers.

The results of this procedure could be disastrous. Not only is this one of the most drastic state interventions in the economy in recent history, tax payers could pay for generations for this act of mercy. At the same time, the problem of bad debt will not go away–it will simply be deferred. Instant gratification for wall-street tycoons at the price of a long-drawn out recession and unhealthy economy propped up by mama state. America needs to learn to take fiscal responsibility at every level, this applies to private borrowers who got over their ears in debt to satisfy short-term needs and desires, it applies to the financial industry which fueled irresponsible borrowing and got incredibly rich with it, and it applies to the government, who is aggrandizing the national debt at an astronomical rate. Finally, if this bailout package goes through, there will be even wilder speculation in the future because now traders and speculators know that there will always be that nice safety net in case they over-extend themselves yet again.

If the market has been over-heated and under-capitalized for too long, there will have to be a correction. The correction is painful, yes. But at least it will last shorter if we let it take its course than the slow, chronic economic ailing that is likely to be the result of the bailout package. All the bailout package will achieve is defer the correction. It cannot produce value out of thin air.

Sincerely,
Bernard Schweizer

No bailout. Actually, who’s left to bailout? I’d like to see a list of companies. All the major banks and financial institutions are just about throught this.

If anything the executives who personally made millions on the front end of this fiasco should be banned for life from holding a similar postion and subjected to a huge fine – enough to bankrupt them. Then lets fire the CEO resposible for the whole mess – Bush.

There should be no bail-out of these market malfeasance misfits. Period. Let the markets correct themselves. These investment bankers created this mess, let them figure a way out of it. If the economy goes belly up, then the $700 billion would be better spent directly aiding individual Americans than by giving it to Wall Street. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing Angelo Mozilo in the bread line behind me – I guarantee that I’d have a pretty interesting conversation with that guy…

I remember the stories my grandpa and grandma told me of the Great Depression. It sounded like a terrible time in American History, but after alot of reflection that is the where our greatest generation came from. Would it really hurt our country to go back and experience a little diversity? The corporations that have put us here, (the state of our economy) should take they’re lumps and move forward. Wouldn’t it be nice to over extend ourselves and say oh that’s ok, the Gov’t is going to bale us out. Isn’t that why they introduced legislation to make it harder to go bankrupt. All these kids going into college and going “buck wild” with new found credit. And all of a sudden being presented with the fine print. I dont think we should bale out Wall Street just on principal. It’s time for a reckoning….and a wake up call.

No. When the tech bubble burst it hurt our economy and our retirement portfolios but then better, stronger companies emerged and things turned out ok and the economy and the tech market kept on growing. This crisis will certainly end up hurting our economy and retirement portfolios but by bailing out the companies that engaged in the high-risk business you in essence give them a reward that the ones who played it safe won’t be getting. This will be a setback for the other companies that ended up playing smarter and will impede a healthy market correction and prevent our economy from being healthy for a longer period of time, not to mention weakening the value of the doller so that the money I have left doesn’t go as far as it would have.

NO WAY!!!! We should not bail them out. I make over $70,000 a year and a single mother of three who lost her home and husband in IRAQ. My taxes couldn’t save me so why should it save wall street and the guys who kicked my out of my house. They had no mercy on me when I begged them not to kicked out of my home. Now my tax dollars are saving thier butts. Jack, only in America!!!!!!!!

When did the US become ME, ME, ME? I haven’t seen a provision for more taxes in this bill. Why all of the rhetoric about shotguns pulled out at the ready for the revenuer? Get a grip folks. If the house is on fire you need to plug into the fire hydrant. Quit the quibbling about your own personal water bottle.

NO BAIL OUT FOR WALL STREET THEIVES!!!!!

Let the crooked bankers, politicians, congressmen, and wealthy wall street mogels take the consequences for their irresponsible actions!

Let us have a lengthy investigation as to just WHO profited from their dirty deals, and let it all be known! We deserve no less. They have raided the american people, and created financial havoc in everyones lives…causing far reaching chaos…and devestation. Let them pay the price, and bear the burden of finding their own way out…but not by bail out .

How can we even consider letting Paulson, (PREVIOUSLY of GOLDMAN-SACHS,) TELL US ANYTHING????

He was one of the ones who exited with a HUGE GOLDEN PARACHUTE….and now we plan to entrust him with 700 Trillion
dollars of our money to discharge a s he sees fit to anyone he chooses???

I think not. I repete…NO BAIL OUT!!!

Seriously I don’t want my money going to failed businessmen who otherwise are filthy stinkin rich. Let it correct itself.

cut the captial gains tax to 0% for the next two years and we will have money left over from the billions and billions that well come in…..

This bailout will act like heroin for the market. If it goes through, there will be a decent jump in the next few weeks followed by a devestating crash in 6 to 12 months. If nothing is done, the market will correct itself with less drastic consequences.

700b should be given to all of us. Not to the companies and the greedy investors and CEOs. Give that to people and we will pay our mortgage on time.

You mean there is a choice???

from Frenchtown, NJ

We need the bailout… however they wanna structure it. I don’t wanna stand on a bread line with a suitcase full of money a la Argentina.

Free Market correction is the best way rather than hit bottom and lose the &oo Bil.

Markets should be allowed to correct themselves. This, however, is a case where the market itself is not working, so the government has to step in to make it work again.

Jack,

I’m glad it taken all but a total crash of our economy before our so called leaders decide to do their jobs! These talks should have been done years ago not as a balilout but to prevent this from happening!

The bailout will happen whether we like it or not…I really hope the American public starts paying attention to who they put in office from now on!

I hate to just give all our money to the people who screwed up, but it seems pretty simple. If the banks don’t have any money, nobody has any money. We have to do something.

Why should we bail out wall street? This is going to do nothing we need to bail out the American people! People need jobs to pay there bills no jobs no paying the house payment or credit cards. If we don’t solve the root of the problem which is that the American people are tapped out you will not solve anything.

Jack, I left someone out of my comment. Sen. Paulson who is heading this deal is one of the Wall Street insiders and used to work for a company which is having trouble and might be one of the next one to go belly up.
Why can’t something be done about all these greedy people who are making decisions every day that effects us so personally.
thank you.

It’s very difficult to trust the Bush Administration after all the years of deceit and failure. Can we get a second opinion from someone that isn’t a Bush appointee? “Bushenomics” haven’t worked out very good so far.

No bail out !!!! I don’t see anyone bailing out, those who have lost the value of our properties and are paying on time.

Ana

The bailout is necessary. As a college student, I don’t want to graduate and enter a job market that is about as nonexistent as our leadership in Washington.

US financial system as a whole is built on lending based on your credit. When banks don’t have money to lend, because they are so stupid that they spent all their money on priceless merchandise, you won’t get any loan no matter what credit you score, you are done! So you go and figure it out.

let the markets correct themselves, and also explain to my grand mother why her pension is gone.

These people in washington are delusional. All I hear is people wont be able to get a loan. This is the reson we are in this dire situation. RECKLESS SPENDING. And why is everyone so worried about getting the deal done by the opening of the asian market. I thought this was for main street. What a bunch of bull.

Unfortunately myself and 99% of the American public aren’t financially adept enough to know for sure if a bail out is absolutely necessary so we have to trust those who are supposed to be experts in this area.

Even more unfortunate is the fact almost all of these financial gurus are greedy at best and criminals at worst so maybe the best way to determine what to do is simply flip a coin. Come to think of it that is likely what John McCain is doing right now.

I think that when thinking about this situation, you must remember that the American economy affects living, breathing people whose lives cannot be predicted or gambled off. As seen in the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover treated the American economy like it was a machine in the way that he expected the economy to work its own kinks out. But when the living aspect of it came into view and people were in dire need of help, he took no action. The government needs to do something here, maybe not jump the gun and send us into debt and hurt later, but we need to think about how every action affects the livelihoods of people today and far into the future.

Jack, on the surface, your question is appropriate; I have my opinion, too. But just how many responders even know how the economy works, considering the poor showing of our educational system. Of course, I’ll have to include a lot of those idiots in Washington who are SUPPOSE to represent us, who are suppose to vote on any resolution, and who appear to not have a clue on the ramifications. Sadly, it just reflects how very difficult getting out of this situation is, sometimes including “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenarios.

The boat is not sinking. It is a global economy. Not all financial institutions in the world are suffering. Recessions are healthy!

What is the difference it foreign companies buy the debt behind bad institutions or run the business they bought. They own it either way.

Without the bailout they will not be able to prey on the average American. If you need a short term loan for business and you are a good company you don’t have to worry.

The sky is not falling.

I personally think that the market should be allowed to correct itself. Tax payers should not have to BAIL OUT large corporations who have intentionally mislead investors and have gotten rich in the process. When these corporations were making a killing and the working class and poor were struggling, there was no talk of bailouts for the little people. I should not have to foot the bill for houses I have never stepped foot in. I should not have to foot the bill for people who invested in non-insured investments knowing that there was a chance they could lose everything. Its time for some of these executives to become part of the working class and some of the middle class to visit the poor.

Paulson says, trust me, I’m with the government and I’m here to help you! Who really knows what to do? The boys in DC have cried WOLF so many times in the past 8 years! Should we really believe the sky is falling this time? Maybe……Maybe not!

No to ANY bail out financed by tax payers. Yes to a REGULATED free market plan. Wall Street financial institutions have reaped billions playing casino. They offered unregulated games like CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and CDSs (Credit Default Swaps) instead of roulette and craps found in the typical casino.

They have a huge incentive to bail themselves out. That incentive is the future profits. There is a lot of money to be made “the old fashioned way”, even in a regulated environment. They won’t be able to say no.

Absolutely not!
Would this not open the door for another bail out opportunity? The opportunity is now.
Individually and collectively as a nation we should all learn by reaping what we have sown. Regardless of the effect; this being the unknown sum. What is most important is the cause.
We as a country can evolve. Evolve to a higher awareness and disposing once and for all the ignorance that created this mess.

Let the market correct it self

It seems like it’s not a simple yes or no here. I have more to learn, but from my current perspective, I think the Democrats’ plan of a conditional bailout with restrictions for CEO’s salaries, congressional oversight, provisions for homeowners, etc. might be what’s needed. The original proposal was downright scary in the power it gave to Secretary Paulson, but I think it’s naive to believe that a crashing Wall Street won’t impact the rest of the country.

hmm… I’m not one to be taken in by conspiracies, as a matter of principle, but it looks like the folks in charge of running our government are about to save their own pensions, er, uh, our nation’s economy, and come away with “government” ownership in the largest sector of our financial market as well…

any of you guys ever read Animal Farm? this is not good.

Our economy needs to get hit hard. We need to except this fate, learn from it, and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes from this point on. Throwing money at the problem is a good short-term fix, but I feel the same greedy philosophy that put us in this situation to begin with, will just be allowed to survive.

This to shall pass. And Wall Street will fix itself. They wont think twice about spending 700 billion to fix a bunch of reckless bankers but 700 Billion spent on health care could fix us all.

I am not going to pretend to understand the economy but based on my best understanding of the situation, we are all being corralled into a “car dealership” with a “fast talking salesman/politician” and being told that if we don’t give away a 700 billion dollar bailout immediately, no questions asked then the “sky will fall”

If the government is so willing to 700 billion on a bailout plan that has now predictable assurance of ever working then I say we should not do it. Instead, let the market correct itself and use the bailout money instead to give and assist the American people and small business that are negatively impacted (not market or corporations) to survive.

Jack, your show is great! I wish you got more air time.

The market will take care of itself if our government can ever stop meddling in it!

Hope against hope that the bailout does not pass.

I don’t like the idea of bailing out the people that have made this mess. But, we don’t want a recession. I think the people that have got
us into this mess should be held accoutable. My husband and have
recentley retired & are looking forward to enjoying our retierment. We
always lived moderitly and were planing on traveling.

The market should be allowed to correct itself. Im aware there will be some financial pain however “no pain, no gain” Risk takers reaped the rewards for the risks…now they must bare the pain. Most of main street is far more economical savvy than our “leaders” are verbalizing and do not believe the individuals who lived beyond their means should be bailed out/rescued. There is no lesson learned in a bailout.

Kay
Starkville, MS

Absolutely NO. If you want to gather the rewards of the risks that you take, then you must also be willing to shoulder the consequences of failure. You cannot take away failure without taking away success at the same time. The members of the administration, including Benochio Bernanke, and those members of Congress stupid enough to actually buy into Bush’s attempted economic terrorism, should be ashamed of themselves and removed from office without delay.

Jack,
Why not let the culprits take a dive as they deserve for having taken advantage of the people and gone greed crazy? After that, let the government do a bailout but only addressed to the American people via the income tax avenue as well as subsidies for small businesses in trouble due to the culprit’s crash.

Fern Archibald
Sherbrooke, Qc, Canada

Jack….why should we the tax payer bail out the CEO ’s of the biggest financials institutions that have caused this mess. Why not bail out the Americans that are in foreclosures or buy out their bad sub-prime mortgages? $700 Billion is alot money that we could use for heath care, better schools and help provide jobs with new green energy businesses.
If this is the way our money is going to be spent…time to leave the US and go live on an island. This is sad.

From a personal perspective socialism seems enticiing, but capitalism is a driving force in our country’s greatness. Let’s keep our country great.

Hi Jack,

Well in most cases I’d say let the markets correct themselves. We have a huge government as it is, and this is just one more thing the government is taking over.

BUT…… this is not most cases. If something isn’t done I think it will be awhile before the markets get back on track and we risk credit card companies going under. (See Wamu).

What I don’t want is a plan that bails out the fat cats that are partly responsible for this mess. It seems stupid to give Wall St. a black check and not help out the rest of us.

P.S. Isn’t funny how most of the people commenting know more about the economy than the candidates?

We have to bail out the economey. Taking care of the people first, and punish Wall Streeter and Government people (Senator McCain) all who allowed them to do this. There must be accountability and responsiblity and total transparentcy. Imagine if all the government people saw that their would be swift retribution to all who harm the public, we get Clean Government quick.

if we invest $700B on wind, solar, infrastructure, CNG car, health, education etc,,,we can build this country more stronger then bailing out these monkeys

Jack, I’m still looking for my economic stimulus check. You could almost bet that I’m for a bailout of any kind. That is as long as I get some of it too. I don’t believe that will happen! How many of those homes that have already been foreclosed would have liked a bailout? Where’s the President when you need him? Where’s the Congressmen when you need them? Campaigning I guess!

Jack,

Over 80% of the banking in this country is done in local communities. Most of those banks are still lending to existing customers with deposits and long relationships. IT IS NOT A PANIC SITUATION in small town America. I just signed a $ 1,200,000 loan for a local developer with a strong record.

I am fed-up with the Bush Administration crying wolf yet again and with McCain trying to convince us it is a CRISIS situation. ENOUGH!

Let us get used to buying only what we can afford and not BORROW every time we percieve a WANT and not a NEED. There are far too many Flat Screen 52″ TVs, cell phones, IPods, and SUVs out there.

Time to buckle up and live within our means.

Let Wall Street take care of Wall Street.

We’ll be fine and so will the economy. GO OBAMA!

The bailout is going to overflow the system of liquidity creating inflation and making things worse down the line. Let the market correct itself, its neccesary. A credit freeze?, probably, but is creating a big opportunity for peer to peer lending over the internet.

RE
from Denver, Colorado

Jack,
I’m a resonably smart guy, I pay attention to national affairs, and I don’t have the foggiest clue what to do! How am I supposed to make an informed decision when there is no ready source to make my own mind up? All I hear is that the sky is falling and we HAVE to do this. Well, OK, what happens if we don’t? What if we do? What are the 5 pros and cons and their likelyhood with either choice? What are the dissenting points of view? I read up some on what Japan went through in the 90’s, what we went through in the 30’s, but how does this effect a global economy? I don’t know and I’m not hearing any debate, just sound bites. I don’t even know what the canadates think – other than their “conditions” – because neither has posted their point of view.
So may answer is – I have no idea, but I sure hope some really smart people are on it!
Andy R, Auburn CA

I hate stupid elites! They take and take and take since 1913. I thought the federal reserve system would stop all banking insolvencies and economic stability would rule hence forth. Let ‘em burn with the rest of us!

Markets need to be allowed to correct themselves. Each time the government interferes with bailouts, it changes the balance between risk and payoff. It’s not a newsflash that with high risk, there’s a high potential for large losses. Wall Street took these high risks and for a while there were enormous returns. Unfortunately, the luck has run out, and now there is a tsunami of losses. Now the true face of risk has finally reared its ugly face.

If we bailout the markets the true losers are those who didn’t make the risky investments. We cannot have an economic system that capitalizes profits and socializes losses!

Socialism(involvement of government) seems to be a dirty word.
Sometimes one HAS to talk dirty to get somewhere.Considering human nature it is highly unlikely that the market will be capable of
healing itself.So give the Feds a chance to intervene. Either way NOBODY knows exactly whether or not “bail-outs” will ever be THE answer.Long live the consumer!

No, the goverment should not bail out these corporations.
Why should we tax payers be stuck with this 700 billion dollar tab?!
What they should do is, do away with the Capitol Gains Tax and that would bring in tons of money into the stock market right away. And would more then likely curve any kind of fall-out. If they did away with that pointless tax alot more people would start pouring money into the stock market.

Also, keep in mind that 5 years ago in 2003 Bush, at the advise of others, tried to pass a bill that would bring some regulation to these corporations. But the Democrates in shot it down. We were warned back in 2003 that this day was coming, but Dem. Leader Barney Frank among others said there was no way Fanny May and Freddy Mac were in trouble.

The fact is that these corporations were making bad loans to people that never should have been financed in the first place. The banks took on too much risk and went under.

Now I’m no fan of Bush at all, can’t stand the guy.
But just keep in mind who it was that pushed for these banks to take on more bad business and give people loans for houses, that they never had any intention of paying back….

Bend, OR

Let it play out the way it naturally would without a bail out. Nobody is going to bail me out of my measly $200k house disaster.

The market needs to correct itself with as little government intervention as it can possibly muster.

This event has been a long time in the making. Lost in this conversation is how consumers can become more savvy and not burden themselves with endless debt that enables this kind of collapse to begin with. Yes, the rich CEO’s need to be taken to task for endless corruption and greed, however, we the consumers can take much of this back from them by choosing to not go into debt and spend our money wiser. They only get rich when we give them the money to begin with!

Sure, only if benefits all parties not just wall street. On way of doing it is to wipe out negative credit history for all the individuals who has been suffered through loans that were offered to them when they were not even qualified for them.

No no no! No bailout. The same people that got us into this mess are the ones making the bailout plan. Wake up America. I say it’s time for some econimic Darwinism.

Jack,

I am for a free market solution, but I feel that the Government can prime the pump using a few Billion dollars. If the mortgag
e backed securities are worth anything, then let’s create a trading pit just like any other commodity and let the traders determine a price.

Democrats have opposed any type of free market approach, which is their right. So if they want to pass the legislation as currently written, then go ahead they have the votes-they’re in the MAJORITY!

But as you know Democrats have very little courage. Blaming is their game.

Mike
Scottsdale

I think we all agree that the answer should be no. But I am afraid that our economy will totally colapse. At least that is what Bush told us. Does that mean we need to trust him eventhough I never had before? I guess we have to believe this situation is serious enough to warrent a bailout.

Why bail out companies that put them selves into the position they are in while the exec.’s made huge saleries?

Why not instead of helping the companies, help the people of the country. Take $610 million, rather than $700 billion, Give each US citizen $2,000,000 with some kind of regulation that it goes to debt first. The normal US citizen has no where near that kind of debt. Everyone could spend what they did not need on other items, the economy would probably see many good years.

If everyone paid the debts the finaincial companies would recover if they are managed correctly, if not they falter and that is their problem, not the tax payer’s problem. If my company fails it’s my problem not yours.

Lowell

In a word NO. These idiots got themselves into this mess through greed and I say let then eat , well you know. After 26 years in the senate why is John McCain now so concerned …

I have to wonder, how it is that Bush Jr. & the rest of the Republican party can keep a straight face while blaming this on every one else, where were they when this was happening. They have been in control for the majority of the last 8 years. It is an insult to the intelligence to the American People for them to act like they are innocent in all of this. What I want to know is – why did the U. S. give $290 to foriegn banks to liquify the dollar? If we kept that $290 Billion along with the $800 Billion, then why would there even be a problem? This was on CNN Money.com’s webb site today.
I’m not an economist, so may be some one can explain this to me.

Give us the $700 Billion and we will stimulate the economy. That would be about $350,000 per person over 18 years old.
We would pay off our debts (or at least some of us would) we would buy stuff (all of us would); we would pay for college(the smart ones would). Instead of the great $600.00 stimuls we got ,how about a real one. Its our money anyway.

Why should we be surprised that this country is, in effect, bankrupt? Bush has bankrupted almost every company he’s been in charge of, why should the country be any different?

I oppose the bail out for Wall Street. Intead, there should be relief for homeowners. If they are allowed to refinance at current market values with better terms, they can keep the properties, the banks keep receiving the payments, the taxpayers having more cash to pay other obligations. The difference between what is owed to the banks and the new loans based on curretn appraisal, should be negotiated with the government.

The strong survive and the weak die. If I loose ten grand to help pay for this bailout I won’t be able to afford to get a loan anyways. Let’s just have companies that do buisness smartly and if they don’t they will understand the ramifications of not doing so. Lower and middle class familys don’t want this legislation and the rich do, thats why most politicians support this bailout.

Everybody needs to take 2 steps back and breathe a little. Theres an old saying, any decision that is made by impulse ussually turns out to be a mistake. If the American people give into this bail out, the Government will just come back and ask for more a few weeks from now just like the Iraq war. We have a compulsive, spend now pay later President still at the helm with a popularity poll of somehwere around 20% so why should we believe the fear of personal failure thats driven us the last eight years? I believe this was set up a long time ago to cause an economical collapse to usher in the new world order. Seems as though things are on shcedule. Think about it!

Enough is enough.The administration has already spent billions of dollars on wall street bailouts without any idea or plan of what they were doing, now they want billions more. This money should be going to the people in this country that really need it and not the executives on wall street. Enough !!

Rick
Riverton, NJ

We should not be bailing out banks or Americans who took out credit they couldn’t afford. Why should I have to come up with extra money to keep these people in their homes. I live in a small but comfortable home maybe they should do the same and live within their means.
People who save to make purchases don’t need credit. The credit we are talking about making available would go to the same people who got us to this point.
It you don’t qualify for a 30yr fixed rate mortgage with 20% down you don’t belong in the house. It is proven that without substantial savings you will not be able to keep up with homeownership.
I’m tired of social programs that feel like welfare for the greedy.

No. The Federal Reserve is owned by “Big Business” not by the Government or “The People”. The same group that has made the stock market unstable by shorting stocks for profit over the past 10 yrs is the same people who are our banking systems. The banks also profit from the mortgage crisis, as the property defaults back to them, the only problem today is they can’t unload it anymore at inflated prices and interest rates. Let it topple so we can build an economy on a solid rock foundation instead of “Big Business” ideals of shifting sands.

The government does not step in for the American people and bail them out. Look at the Americans who are on a five-year waiting list for disability or Medicare benefits. If the government doesn’t have the money to give back to the people who paid into these programs, where are they getting this enormous sum of money from to help the people who put them in office and created our economic situation? This is one form of change and we didn’t even need a new leader to initiate it.

what if $700B were used to pay off home mortgages? we could keep roofs over our heads and the banks would start getting loans repaid.

this is a lot worse than wallstreet.

the last generation squandered all that the two before it created.

we have to go through a serious depression and start over.

that means infrastructure investment, new currency backed with something tangible and a new economy.

this is like giving a drug addict their fix, we might get by for 2 or 3 years before they are back asking for 5 trillion next time.

I personally feel noone on wall street should be bailed out. Greedy exec’s got into this and thier salaries and bonuses should be used to pay it back. Including the money they have already made while getting into this situation. The market will correct itself over time and that is exactly what needs to happen. A bailout by the government will simply lead to more and more of this down the line because nobody learned anything this time.

Yes, let’s bailout all those who folks who bought $400K homes with $40k incomes…(sigh.)