The U. S. House of Representatives passed the pork-laden Senate version of the $700 billion bailout bill. Obviously, many reps changed their vote from “no” to “yes.”
I can’t wait for the promised Utopia to commence.
The U. S. House of Representatives passed the pork-laden Senate version of the $700 billion bailout bill. Obviously, many reps changed their vote from “no” to “yes.”
I can’t wait for the promised Utopia to commence.
You can mark today as a Day of Infamy.
And the walls came tumbling down ….
Oh, it will take time Karrie, the country will not collapse tomorrow, but the die is cast.
Mouse: It will come faster than most people are willing to admit. Many people just pray and hope like Scarlett O’Hara —- Fiddle – dee — I’ll think about that tomorrow — is about what she said in Gone With the Wind. It won’t be tomorrow — I agree — it will be in my lifetime.
$700 billion. $700,000,000,000… that’s more than $2000 for every citizen of this country. You want to revive the economy? Give everyone $2000 dollars.
No, this is Congress. They will give it to two private banking institutions instead. Maybe Butch and Sundance, Jesse James, The Daltons, Willie Sutton and the rest were right: The Banks are our enemies.
I mean, really… who puts $250,000 in a savings account to earn 3%??????????????????????????????
kcdad – just to enlighten you the insurance covers all monies on deposit which include long term deposits called certificates of deposit…and yes more Americans and foreign investors have $250,000 than you must believe. OTOH in banking the 80/20 rule also exists meaning 80% of the money is owned by 20% of the customers. Now, does the increase to $250,000 make more sense to you? In spite of it probably further inflaming you?
Promised utopia? Who is promising utopia? Everyone I’ve heard speak regarding this plan talks about necessary evil.
Yeah, C.J., so many of the plan’s proponents promised Utopia.
I’m weary of playing Cassandra, so I’ll just say that I hope Congress didn’t dick around with it for too long and I hope it works. When companies like AT&T and GE are reporting early onset effects of the crisis, the fear is not imaginary. Now even California, that small country just to the west of the United States, can’t sell the bonds needed to operate. It is a pesky little fact that companies and states employ people. Just this week the economy shed more jobs than it has in 5 years, many credit market metrics were at their worst level ever, and the activity in the commercial paper market was at its lowest level ever. Oh, and banks are scared to loan money even to other banks. Does anyone really think they are insulated from the dire effects of companies, banks, and states not being able to fund ongoing operations?
For those who persist in calling it a bailout, who is being bailed out? Yeah, $700 billion is a lot of money, but it’s a mere pittance relative to the $8 trillion in deposits insured by the FDIC. Trivia question of the day: Who funds the FDIC? Hint: Not Wall Street fatcats.
For those who think the intervention should be attempted but are opposed because they want their pound of flesh from Wall Street, think of those as two separate things and rest assured that those guilty of malpractice, negligence, and in some cases outright fraud are already being investigated, which will continue with or without the rescue plan. By all accounts, prosecutors, the SEC, and even the FBI are digging fast and deep.
For any who believe they are insulated because they work for a large, global company, read the reports on how fast the credit contagion has spead across the world. Expect the global demand destruction to continue, with the only debatable questions now being how bad will it get and how long will it continue.
For any who are opposed because they are hell-or-highwater believers in capitalism, by God, and this plan is socialist, c’mon, do you really think that the feds aren’t already the single largest player in the financial markets? That doesn’t mean it’s no longer capitalism. $700 billion is chicken feed relative to the feds’ overall role in the markets and if this hadn’t passed, the feds already were and would have continued doing the same thing in myriad other ways. The plan is just a higher profile front-door version that allows the point of attack to be more targeted in boosting price discovery in specific assets.
My hope now is that the intervention came soon enough to act as a psychological salve until the plan has a chance to work. Even if it did, it’s still going to be ugly for a while.
If it were a perfect world, I believe that only those who were high-fiving and fist-bumping when the House voted down the first bill would be devastated by the looming crisis, but God’s ways aren’t that mysterious.
Have a nice weekend.
$250,000 per account, not per account holder. Again I’ll ask the question… who has $250,000 in any account… and WHY?
Who needs that much insurance? If my bank fails I lose about $2000… How about you?
This isn’t about failing banks. It is about failing stock and funds investments that are marginalized and bought on credit. Gambling with other people’s money… NICE.
In the end the Feds are going to own a whole lot of mortgage paper. This is where politics will come in. During the VP debate Biden told us that Obama was in favor of letting judges write down the principle on mortgages. Give me a break! If someone got screwed on the loan interest thats one thing. If however you took out a $200,000 loan, you knew you were borrowing $200,000. To now have the government rewrite that loan to a $50,000 so that they can keep you in your home is wrong. But that is were all of this is headed. Free goodies for some. Higher taxes, debt, and inflation for the rest. Thats a slam on both parties this go round.
kcdad,
I do believe you are wrong on the FDIC insurance ceiling being raised to $250k for every account – it’s $250k per properly designated account holder and not per account. Reread any article and you can get the drift. Such as this one:
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre4906ro-us-financial-bailout-congress/
kcdad — you and “without malice” are both correct. Check out fdic.gov. The insurance covers a single depositor at that bank. So, no matter how many accounts you have at, say, National City, all those accounts combined are insured up to $100,000 (now upped to $250,000 temporarily).
However, if you have accounts at different banks, your funds in each bank are insured separately. So you get $250,000 insurance for all your National City accounts combined, and another $250,000 insurance for all of your Chase accounts combined, etc.
This American Life had a good episode on the economy today. They made an effort to try and explain what is going on in layman’s terms. It isn’t ready for download yet but you can find it at the following link when it is ready:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365
As a former subprime underwriter, I have heard all the wisecracks. I was even compared to a guard at Auschwitz when I said that I was only following orders, but I digress. Consider the bailout as an expensive “fireside chat.” Bush knows that his credibility is shot, but at least wants to leave on a semi-positive note. After being completely wrong about Iraq, he definately does not want to be seen as the next Hoover and fiddle while the economy burns. Besides, Bushvilles just doesn’t have the same ring to it. This bill, while not perfect, may give some confidence back to Mr&Mrs Public and at least get them to spend what they need and save the rest. At least up here in Woodfield they are still spending.
The episode is online (see my comment above)