Just at States found out when Carter was President and Congress voted in 55 MPH speed limits, something that had always been left to State control, when you take more Federal money you are going to get more federal control.  The following letters to banks taking (some under duress) Government money for preferred stock (5% div. for 5 years climbing to 9% after) should give bank compensation people pause.  Even if you agree, as I do, that many financial people are WAY overpaid, because the money belongs rightly to the shareholders who put up the capital, the thought of some government official making business decisions leaves me upset.

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2265

It is has been estimated that in every branch of government that it costs you more than two dollars for every dollar of services. They want to turn the economy into a government enterprise. R.I.P. all we need is the flowers to mark the grave.
Lets face it Haymore people do not want to know what is going on? They only say they do.

I agree. In my lifes experiences, the only thing that the feds do well, is screw it up. Never fails that when congress gets their grubby little fingers into something, you cant get them out. Like little kids in cookie dough.

Yup, the days of banks being controlled by the private sector maybe coming to a close for better or worse. While I too think these executives get paid too much, this government involvement in the business themselves makes me uneasy.

As I have always said, the role of government is to make sure, through laws and regulatory means that the marketplace is fair for all and that the consumer is protected. Being somewhat of a socialist on some issues, Ihave to agree that the banking system is not an areaa the government should be directly involved in.

If they want to mandate through legislation that is fine and more their role as long as what they mandate is enforced. The real problem is that whatever oversight they should have done and enforced was simply not done and so here we are. Whoever the next president is should kick Paulson and Bernanke out and repeal this bailout or buy it back or whatever they have to do to negate it and get the heck out of these banks and go back to legislating and then ENFORCING the laws and regulations they have aqnd create new ones as necessary.

(end of Monday Morning Rant)

The problem here is that we are forgetting that the initial bailout was for distressed mortgages i.e. (TARP). However, all we did was the opposite! Giving money to banks so they could merge…in return the gov can control them. Now we will bailout the car industries…it’s just on hold right now, but that will allow yet another merger i.e. GM with Chrysler. After all this gets done they will come out with the new program for homeowners to refi their homes with new rates, loan amounts and more favorable terms. So basically they are not going to buy most of them back, only reissue the same paper that got us into trouble the first time!

 

Now I hear that the democratic candidate will in turn make us even more socialist. Can anyone comment on that?

I have to admit that I have done little as far as political activism goes.  It may be time to join the Republican party and voice my concerns.  Hopefully things can change, if even in only a small way in my small part of the world.  The last two presidential elections I voted third party.  This time I thought of voting for Obama just because of how the republicans have done little to speak up to change the course of our country and this mess.  Apparently McCain saw this mess coming several years ago.  My hope was that an Obama presidency would cause the Republicans to wake up and get their act together.  Then Palin became the VP nominee, now I have to wonder.  Most likely I will vote for McCain and Palin, I just wish there was a better choice, who actually had a chance to win.  But my choice to vote for McCain is largely because of Palin.  I would like to see Palin as the presidential candidate.  We need another Perot.

I've had my rant, thanks.

Corbinb2 the problem is the money is gone. In a way what Ben and Paulson did was buy us time. I try to look at it like I am not trying to agree or disagree and how I would handle it. I had a cousin who handled the 1987 crisis and many banks were closed simply because they did not meet the requirements not because they were bankrupt. The government then in turn auctioned everything off. Losing probably 30% of the equity making them bankrupt. Today however it is different. Today the banks paper has no value. The money is gone, taken away and carried off. There is nothing to auction off. Not even at 5 cents on the dollar. Because of the 24-1 and as much as 50-1 leverage used. They split it all up into pieces compounded it and charged a fee. The Fraud that caused the 1987 crash was also there today. Yet on a bigger scale. Because it was multiplied using leverage. So if you close C, where do you get the 2 trillion to bail them out? The FDIC has to make good on that. What would happen if the dollar were to crash? It would all be over. When they fall the default swaps will take out everyone else. Mortgage market is 50 trillion lets say. So we bail out that, 25 trillion. Now what about corporate debt? Who would hold it, who would sell it? Everything was thrown into one pot and mixed up. It is like somebody threw up on your meal! Yes it is a good meal and you might even be able to scrape it off. But would you eat it?

This is my two cents. Entitlements, SSI, Government indebtedness, Social welfare including the prison system, have all surpassed their limits. On top of that the fractional banking system the way it works is over any period of time the banks would end up with all the money in circulation. So it is a dumb system to begin with. Sometimes you just have to start over. Like with a system where the fractional banking system profits would be used for social welfare.  The only problem is

1. who gets what?

2. What do we do in the mean time until the new system is up and running?

3. How on earth are we going to get people to understand that lies, coruption, stealing will bring down any system? Meaning all of us.