Comments on: Why aren’t you pissed off yet?

By: JohnM

JohnM — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:32:48 +0000

Somehow I lost the RSS feed to your site so I just found this. I would like to give you my perspective on this sometime, but not in the confines of a blog comment. I’ve been doing some reading about the Community Reinvestment Act, and find it to be very interesting. I posted on fbook an article printed on 9/30/1999 that almost exactly predicts this very scenario that we are in. I think we are quick to assume that corporate greed was the cause of all this, and I believe it did play a role, but much blame needs to be pointed at this piece of legislation aimed at being a social benefit to increase home ownership. All of the data points to a rapid increase in home prices (bubble started) at the same time as this legislation. Politically what does this mean? I have no idea, but I do agree with you that the current “bailouts” seem like a hastily crafted piece of crap fix just so politicians look like they are doing something 35 days before an election. What would this bill look like if the election was next year and the stock market wasn’t shedding 777 points in a day. (It got almost half that back the following day) I think we need to have a beer soon. (I think I was supposed to be working on that?)

By: ryanroth

ryanroth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Ok Gunny – I’ll make sure to do some more reading.

Giving money to banks is EXACTLY what we’re doing. Read your own statement. Does “Buying bad investments” actually seem like a good idea to you? If a banker walked up to you and said:

Hey Gunny how would you like to buy this mortgage from me? It’s a 400k mortgage for a family that makes 32k a year. They’ll likely default, but I really could use your money so my business doesn’t go under.

This “BAILOUT” is exactly that. Buying bad investments with a 2% chance to make our money back. What American thinks that’s a good idea? Surely you don’t.

The principles of a free market economy stipulate that you can win big and lose big. Someone will fill their shoes, that’s how the market is supposed to work.

By: Gunny

Gunny — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:23:37 +0000

Hey, you should really stop just reading the headline “BAILOUT” and realize what that really means, with out this bailout plan the stock market will likely crash as it did today because of the lack of credit and capital available to people and businesses. We are not giving the money to the large banks in question but the government would use the money to buy for pennies on the dollar the bad investments from the large investment banks with the possibility of actually making money. Do some extra reading beyond 700 billion and bailout before you rant about things you don’t know much about like the economy.

By: ryanroth

ryanroth — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:03:23 +0000

No worries Jeremy – I put this out there to grab other people’s opinions.

I agree that perhaps SOME money is needed to help W. Street. But the manner in which this is being paraded forward screams Patriot Act and has almost no upside for the average American (read you and me). And certainly no direct or predictable upside for the millions of American below the poverty line…

And this program certainly doesn’t need to be run by the Treasury Secretary with ZERO oversight/review from anyone. Remember this is the guy that was head of Goldman Sachs until 2006. Why is that interesting? Oh perhaps because some of his best friends are Chinese (where do you think we’ll get that $700 billion?). Or perhaps because his very firm is one of the companies he’s aiming to bail out. You could probably draw a conflict of interest there too.

But even more importantly – I wasn’t aware that there was a fail switch for the Free Markets – what’s the trigger for Republicans? Remember: “We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all.” The free markets are supposed to fix everything!

My point is – If we have $700 billion, put it directly into the hands of Americans through public programs that will ease the bottom line (Healthcare, Free Cable for a year, you name it) – Just not the crooks on wall street who got themselves into this mess. And Republicans – don’t forget to stand by your beloved values when things go south, that’s when they matter most.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:12:01 +0000

Ryan,

I couldn’t resist responding. The only problem with letting the market sort this one out is that it would be extremely hazardous to the economy and everyone’s personal financial situation, not just those on Wall Street. It would make your goal of ending poverty much harder to obtain, since many more people would be poor.