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May I suggest a seventh? Since the mortgage foreclosures are the basic problem, skip the bailout completely and pass immediate legislation that would prevent foreclosures. Another poster suggested a system that would work, and I would vote for it. I wouldn't vote for the bailout plan, if anyone ever gave me the opportunity.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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Unfortunately, this would also turn the US into a dictatorship, without the protections of the Bill of Rights. As Barack says, many policies built around good intentions end up having bad consequences. I may be a liberal, but I wouldn't want to live in the America this idea would create.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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I have three questions for the experts:

1. What will the bailout do to the value of the dollar?

2. Why did the Federal Reserve actually relax the banking rules yesterday, while Secretary Paulson was telling Congress that lax regulations helped create the problem we're in? (see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/opinion/24wed1.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1222268851-pklLALXCCUZlhnRx4B9LlQ )

3. What is Phil Gramm likely to do with the $700 billion if McCain is elected and makes him the Secretary of the Treasury?

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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Paulson says that it is imperative that the taxpayer buy all illiquid assets, not just bad paper owned by failing institutions. This means that profitable, healthy banks and other financial services will have a huge new market for their mortgages and other securities, which they will be able to sell for more than the market currently believes they're worth. This sounds fishy to me.

Also, there is no limit on the types of assets that the new program can buy, so the people running the program can decide for themselves if student loans, credit card debt and other assets are currently illiquid, and then make an offer to buy them. This sounds like an enormous early Christmas present to the banks and Wall Street.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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