The more I see and read the more I am beginning to think the bailout is a bad idea.

It sure feels like Paulson is Colin Powell in front of the UN and they are not telling the truth again.

Do they think we are stupid?

How can we bail out the bad guys, and they get to keep their jobs? That is stupid.

in my life, but when I retired I owed no one. I think I'm responsible and would expect the same from Wall Street and the rest of those thieves. I'm retired, can't afford the burden this would put on me. I'd rather eat and have some medical insurance. But, that's just me. Go to your Rep/Sen website and leave an e-mail. They can't ignore you....

Bush wants Congress to approve the bailout - why give money to the people who broke it in the first place? We can't trust them fix it. Bushco needs to give a detailed plan of how exactly all that money is supposed to fix things and what we, the American people, get in return. It's OUR money. Otherwise no deal.

Congress must do it's job and demand accountability on our behalf.

Of course I won't be holding my breath.

they bail out the top and leave the little people (the taxpayers) holding the bag twice. Once to bail out these banks, then leaving those facing foreclosure and those of us with money in the markets devastated.

It's disgusting, we get nothing in return, and I hope all of these guys go straight to hell.

The bailout IS needed but Congress/Americans Citizens will likely get screwed.

The credit market has frozen. Even banks with cash are not lending to ANYONE. They aren't lending to consumer, they aren't lending to businesses, they are not lending to other banks.

With no liquidity it will be VERY bad for the little guy. The rich can survive off being rich. The middle class needs credit.
Unless you want to buy a car w/ cash
Unless you want to purchase your next home once you have $200K cash in bank.
Unless you can remodel your home w/o consumer credit or Home Equity loan.

The problem isn't the bailout. The problem is Congress has no idea what the assets are worth.

Take a 1 billion block of "non-performing loans". Non-performing means stopped payments, foreclosure pending, late payments, missed payments, partial payments, etc. Basically anything other than 100% on top.

By def. a non-performing loan is NOT worth face value. Non-performing debt is sold for cents on the dollar. So what is a good price. 0.70 on the $, 0.60, 0.50 on the $?

If the loans are worth $0.52 on the $ and Congress pays $0.80 on the $ likely they will think they are getting a "good deal". We paid $800 million and picked up $1 Billion in loans..... YEAH YEAH WE ROCK..... (sigh). In reality due to defaults those loans will only return $520 million so taxpayers lost $280 million and the banks cleared $520 million is value for $800 million in cash.

On the other hand in Congress drives a hard bargin and demands no more than say $0.45 on the $1.00 they pick up $1000 million for $450 million. After defaults that is worth $520 million. Taxpayers actually come out AHEAD $70 million!!!!!

The problem is generally speaking Congress sucks at anything financial. They pay too much on contracts, they demand too little penalties, the have no idea what anything is worth. I have no doubt this will be just as bad.

Congress WILL WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY overpay for the bad debt.

Please keep these topics in GD. Thanks.

One just knows some of those being "rescued" will eventually profit wildly from this at the expense of we the people overall. I wish that could be prevented!