Tagged: bailout

Why The Mortgage Plan Stinks

A nice article in OregonLive.com, which echoes the sentiment of many, regarding the Mortgage Bailout. Basically asking the simple question “what about all the people who bought houses, have been budgeting, cutting their expenses, and paying their mortgage ON TIME??? What about the people who know how to live within their means?

But back to Mr. Obama and his plan to bail people out of mortgages that many had no business taking on in the first place: He’s making a lot of us who bought homes we could afford — rather than homes that put us on the financial edge — look like complete chumps, has-beens and idiots.

His plan would take billions of taxpayer dollars and give them to banks and investors so they could lower borrowers’ interest rates and make other changes to the terms of their home loans. This is exactly the sort of thing that I worried about when Obama talked to us about being our “brother’s keeper” in his convention acceptance speech. His plan will teach people to be even more irresponsible with money; to acquire more and more and more because the threat of failure is getting lower and lower.

Complete CHUMPS!

More Bailouts: Auto Industry

This is getting ridiculous. I ranted about the bailouts before, I’ll do it again. SAY NO TO THE BAILOUTS! Now, Pelosi and Co. want to bailout the auto industry. ARE THEY FREAKIN’ NUTS!?! The most sensible comment on this actually came out of the White House:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the companies had made business decisions “over the years that have led to this situation, but we have gone as far as we can with the authority Congress has given in order to help industries.”

While companies like Toyota and Honda were spending money on R&D for efficient, hybrid cars, Detroit was spending money on Hummers and gas guzzling trucks.

Now they want help because they made some stupid choices over the years. And to top it off, the freakin Dems are pushing for this bailout. This, on top of the news that the Wallstreet companies that received bailout money continue to spend on huge bonuses. In fact, news came out that AIG, which recently asked for more bailout money, spent $343,000 for a two day “sales meeting” at luxury resort in Arizona:

The company had already been under criticism for spending $440,000 for a weeklong retreat in California for top-performing insurance agents, just days after the U.S. government stepped in to save the company with a $85 billion taxpayer-funded loan.

But on Monday, ABC News reported on an AIG sales meeting at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week that cost $343,000.

“AIG made significant efforts to disguise the conference, making sure there were no AIG logos or signs anywhere on the property.

“An AIG spokesperson said there were no AIG markers in order to minimize signage costs and to lower the company’s profile.

“A hotel employee told (ABC), ‘We can’t even say the word (AIG).'”

Write to your representive in Congress and tell them NO MORE TAXPAYER FUNDED BAILOUTS!

Roubini: “the worst is ahead of us”

Economy guru and professor at NYU, Nouriel Roubini gave a presentation in London, and basically said the worst is yet to come. Roubini, back in 2006, accurately predicted that the US will fall into a recession. Back in February, he predicted the financial market meltdown. Some quotes from the conference:

  1. We’ve reached a situation of sheer panic
  2. hundreds of hedge funds are going to go bust
  3. We’re seeing the beginning of a run on a big chunk of the hedge funds
  4. don’t be surprised if policy makers need to close down markets for a week or two in coming days
  5. This is the worst financial crisis in the U.S., Europe and now emerging markets that we’ve seen in a long time
  6. Things will get much worse before they get better. I fear the worst is ahead of us.

Read more from the RGE Monitor.

Nobel Prize Winners, Republican Conservatives Oppose Bailout

And rightly so. From ABC News:

Some Chicago economists are leading an opposition movement to get lawmakers to consider other options.

Two economists lead the opposition movement, one from the University of Chicago, the other from Northwestern University. And Thursday their concerns were brought into the White House meeting.

Senator Richard Shelby went to the White House armed with a letter. The letter is signed by 200 economists, including three Nobel Prize winners, and warns Congress not to back the bailout.

Why:

The Democrats should be right along with this as well. I understand something must be done to keep credit flowing within the banking system. But people should also be held accountable for their mistakes. Why should we as taxpayers, who pay their mortgages, bills, and taxes on time be forced to bail out folks who gambled?

Washington Mutual No More!

Wow! A 119 year old bank, WaMu has been seized by the government and sold off to JPMorgan. A major consolidation is happening in our financial markets/banking system.

And they just built a WaMu location a block away from me, set to open next month.

Wiki On Subprime Mortgage Crisis

A nice, continuosly updated, writeup on Wikipedia on the current Financial Meltdown and Credit Crisis can be found here.

Paulison’s Unconstitutional Bailout Proposal

From The Nation:

Under Paulson’s draft plan, Congress and the courts would have been barred from reviewing or challenging his moves to stabilize financial markets — effectively making him the nation’s economic czar. That’s not just a dangerous power grab for economic and politic reasons. It’s unconstitutional.

So basically, this man is looking for $700 Billion in taxpayer money, to do whatever he thinks is right, without anyone having the ability to review or question his plan and whatever else he does with the money. ARE YOU FREAKIN” NUTS?!? This is just as bad as giving the President the blank check for the Iraq War! They’re looking for another blank check. I hope and pray this proposal does not go through and sensible minds prevail in Congress. Don’t get pushed and bullied into approving this plan.

And yet the folks that caused this mess, the CEOs and managers and those that made the loans, all go away scott free with their golden parachutes. Anybody who knowingly made loans to people who they knew wouldn’t be able to afford them, should be going to jail. Period.

Why were all these people able to do what the did? The answer is Deregulation. If you have some time, here’s a good writeup on the history of this mess.