Stupidity, Scams and Scapegoats What a big, steaming pile of horsecrap! It was the Republicans who made ‘Deregulation’ their Mantra for decades. It was the Republicans who took the concept of ‘borrow and spend’ to unimaginable heights. Dubya and his Merry Cronies were the ones who decided that it was OK to hock this country to folks who don’t like us rather than to pay the bills. Now, of course, they want to blame the whole mess on “helping poor people”, as if poor folks have all the power. Poor people haven’t been stashing profits in the Cayman Islands until they could steal an election and get their unelected president to vow “Tax Cuts So Help Me God”. Once again, let me post THIS chart: …and ask you why we CUT Fatcat taxes in a “Time of War”, and won’t even consider raising them during a “Fiscal Emergency”. If nothing else, this entire fiasco should, once and for all, put to rest the notion that Government Is The Enemy of Business. It won't, of course, but if Congress ever gets around to actually authorizing that $700 billion bailout, I would make it manditory that the Fatcats all be required to sign an Oath to that effect before they can lay even one fat finger on any of it. We got into this mess due to Republican stupidity, scams and scapegoats. ...and once again, it's up to the Democrats to figure out how to get us out of it.
I agree as well KD...its the politicians, the banks, corporations even us little folks!! Let's just get this crap figured out and back on the right track, don't care if you are a Rep or a Dem. The credit crunch is starting to creep in our backyard...hubby works at a car dealership as a tech, found out this morning they laid off 600 company wide, 4 in his store.....people can't get car loans therefore noboday buying cars!!! Makes him feel not so secure in his job!!
And the Republicans are not blaming the Democrats for everything? I thought we just agreed, there's enough blame to go around, we need to stop it. How about we start with us?
WHO CARES??? I just want them to fix it or at least get things on the right track again, the whole lot of them!!! :x Sorry BobF, nothing personal against your post just frustrating as an American....
I've been hearing and reading that the credit crunch is what is really going to affect all of us. So many businesses rely on short term credit, just to even out their cash flow; and pretty much all businesses rely on consumers being able to get credit to purchase their goods and services. If the credit freezes up, as it seems to be doing, I don't even want to think about what the unemployment rate will be. That's why I'm hoping congress will come up with a plan that will get credit flowing again, with appropriate safeguards, and protection for the taxpayers and for ordinary Americans, without rewarding those executives who made bad decisions. It's a tall order, I know.
I can agree to this... on a couple of conditions. 1. Pelosi quits trying to facilitate one sided arguments and playing the blame game minutes before our leaders are to vote to dig us out of this mess. 2. I get a big ole hug from KD's Grandma! Deal? How bout just a hug then? :lol:
Sorry, I have no control over Pelosi. She and Sherry hardly ever take my advice, but I love them both anyway. Here's your hug: :grouphug: And I hope to meet you the next time we have a 4042 get-together! :cheers:
The very start of all this goes way back to the Carter time frame, the loosening up guidelines to receive home loans. There is a long history of what caused this and there is plenty of blame to go around. There are those that tried to change things but have been unsucessfull in doing it. So those who are pointing their fingers at republicans only are as ignorant as those that put us here. I do know this Obama has been involved with several of the names in the mix. There was a good video that was on You tube showing all this but do to the music that was being played Warner Bros pulled it off the site. For those that might of seen it it was very good. I hated to see it pulled off.
There's a good article in the NY Times about the bill the Senate is taking up today. They have added some things to make it more palatable to both the right and the left, including some tax provisions. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/business/02bailout.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
Exactly..that is what I am worried about. You know what I was hoping to do around the beginning of the year, however with hubby worried about his job that may have to be put off as well until this settles down...much to my dismay :neutral:
Are You Better Off Today... I do, actually. I don't want to see the same mistakes made again. If "they" can fix it while reforming the system, then I'll find it easier to support the bailout. No need to apologize. I never take this political stuff personally. ...and yes, it is frustrating. Especially when you check out the numbers: DOW January 19, 2001: 10,587.59 DOW September 29, 2008: 10,365.45 NASDAQ Jan 19, 2001 = 2770.38 NASDAQ September 29, 2008 = 1983.73 CPI, January 19, 2001: 175 CPI, September 29, 2008: 219 Dollar exchange with Euro, January 19, 2001: 1.068 Dollar exchange with Euro, September 29, 2008: .695You know, maybe picking the right president DOES make a difference!
Very true, there has already been one state reported that could not get short term loans to cover their cash needs. The interest rates the banks charge each other for essentially overnight loans to meet the FDIC deposit requirements had quadrupled from the expected standar rate. That rate is still about double what it should be now. When banks stop loaning money to each other there is a big problem that will be felt everywhere.
I don't want to see this bill passed, I want EVERYONE to learn a lesson from this. Living beyond your means WILL catch up to you, if you're an individual, a company, a government, it doesn't matter. Bailing out these companies will only send the message that what they've done for years is okay. The people are just as guilty as the companies, as is the government, and fat lady is singing for all of em. It's time we're held accountable for our actions.
OK, here is my concern. Yes, it is primarily greed by the big guys that caused this, let em' burn!! However, it does scare me that if it doesn't pass in some form or another, things are just going to get worse and worse and for how long? Today, hubby's company laid off 600 people company wide cause their customers can't get car loans...how long will he have there if this credit crunch gets worse before perhaps he gets laid off?? Yes, we have some money in the bank, have a home equity line of credit, our credit is excellent but if he does get laid off it doesn't sound like there is going to be many jobs to get...
It has almost nothing to do with living beyond anyone's means although that is the assumption everyone seems to want to make. It has a lot to do with the thoughts the housing bubble would never burst, but that is not the problem we are facing. If you have any relatives who were alive during the Great Depression you should ask them if they would want that as a message to anyone. They have an idea of what we are facing and evidently most of the rest do not.
You may have a home equity line of credit now, but it can be recinded and if the credit crunch gets bad enough it most likely would be along with most other types of credit lines. Not trying to scare you in particular or anything, but it is a very serious situation that will continue to get worse until the credit markets become unclogged and there is credit made available again.
It has everything to do with living beyond a means. How many people are a month's pay away from bankruptcy, yet they have the newest toys? People don't need the new SUV they finance, the new house they finance, the etc etc they finance, only to keep up with the jones'. All of that money could have been put away for a rainy day. But what do I know, I'm not Wayne, I'm just a fool that drove my old truck and saved up for a time like this. That whole personal responsibility thing ya know...
I agree with the personal responsibilty thing entirely, that is why we have money in savings, no credit cards etc...it is just scary to know that perhaps sometime in the near future my hubby can get laid off because of reasons out of our control...no loans being made to buy cars, that is why I want something to happen...
You Nailed It! The Real Deal So who is to blame? There's plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn't fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn't do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of "layered irresponsibility ... with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role." Here's a partial list of those alleged to be at fault: [*]The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap. [*]Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively. [*]Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses. [*]Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes. [*]The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families. [*]Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates. [*]Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages. [*]Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral. [*]The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market. [*]An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic. [*]Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up. The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult. http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
