Also known as Hankslist.com

I'll sell them my student loans cheap!

If the above assumptions are correct, the most likely scenario is that the American military umbrella will be reduced internationally. No sovereign nation accepts civil disturbances at home (due to financial seizure) to provide the expenses for democratic and financial security for others. The "social instability" will be in other lands as the American military is mandated by its government to reduce its "international footprint". And not coincidentally, if past trends hold true, capital will withdraw from these regions and return for internal investment to the United States and other secure areas. (The defense budgets of other first world nations most likely will be going up exponentially.)

LOL...right. After overseeing the decline and fall of our economy for the past 14 years (with only the last 2 as the minority), you seriously expect us to believe that the congressional GOP will suddenly develop both gonads and ethics?

What are you smoking and where can I get some??? Remember, many of these folks were there when Gramm-Leach-Bliley was originally passed. They have been there campaigning on and passing tax cuts and wonderful, gourmet pork for their constituents.

We'll see what the final vote turns out to be. Assuming the Democrats get their wish list met (talk about another group that needs to grow a set) it will likely pass by extra large margins...maybe 90-6 in the Senate and similarly high margins in the House.

And then they come home to campaign. If the electorate has truly decided that enough is enough, these next few weeks should be torture for these bozos, especially in the GOP.

I wouldn't be much impressed by the naked cynicism Ruffini is pushing for.

Uhhhhhh . . . Ruffini IS aware that SOMETHING has to be done, right? C'mon, PAT FREAKIN' BUCHANAN was on MSNBC this evening saying there had to be some sort of bailout, ledt there be a catastrophic crash.

The problem is, what kind? The Bush Administration's naked power grab-cum-welfare for the super rich is a non-starter. Or at least I pray so.

But SOMETHING has to be done, preferably involving some sort of commission, strong Congressional oversight and sweeping reform (and strict regulation) of the Wall Street "robber barons" and the Ponzi schemes they presided over.

The only way out is some form of socialism. I'd like my socialism straight up, please.

The Republicans need to realize they ARE over now. The Democrats need to realize they MAY be over. And what they all need to realize is that our choice, now, is between a dicey crash landing on a runway covered with defective Chinese foam . . . and flying United States Airways Flight 1929 straight into the ground.

Me, I'll take the defective Chinese foam. It only cost $1 trillion, and it just might work. Maybe. If we got a good batch.

http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/

"Quickly phase out or jetison the money market federal insurance program."

Yep...and watch that industry fail as well. If you threaten to take away the federal guarantee on the one financial instrument that houses most of the pensions that the middle class has struggled to build up, you will create a massive sell off as folks move to other instruments. The sell off will create HUGE losses for the middle class.

And we know that the companies handling these will be bailed out by the government, once again leaving the average Joe and Jane not only with no pension but also with increased taxes to bail out the companies that ruined them.

Sooner or later some pitchforks need to be brought to this picnic. Especially if the only group that keeps getting screwed over is the middle-class tax payer.

Well, when 15 April 2009 rolls around, we can always opt out. In fact, we can protest with custom-made stamps that read "I object to the Pelosi Bail Out" and file the paperwork with that stamped in red on the front page.

Anyone with me???

;)

No taxation without representation

"Well, when 15 April 2009 rolls around, we can always opt out. In fact, we can protest with custom-made stamps that read "I object to the Pelosi Bail Out" and file the paperwork with that stamped in red on the front page."

Nice try Laura, but this pig is whole-hog GOP, through and through. It was engineered by the Bush administration and is being pushed through by them. Congress will hang some nice clothing on it and put some lipstick on its snout, but it is still a pig...a Republican pig.

I hope the press begins holding McCain's feet to the fire regarding his consistent support for deregulation over the past years. That and his campaign's connections to the Wall Street banks that are being bailed out by this pork-belly bill.

If rank and file Repubs had a serious interest in fiscal responsibility, they never would have voted for GWB in the first place. Wasn't conservative economics professor Gramm one of the candidates in 2000, and lost? People need to get over the idea that Repubs are for responsible economics. There are only leftwing and rightwing welfare/warfare statists at this point.

Look, folks, the fact is that there's $1 trillion or more in bad debt, sliced and diced into "securities," sprinkled throughout the financial system. Until it's filtered out of the system, all kinds of financial instruments are assumed to be shaky, even if they're not, and any number of banks and funds appear to be in danger of collapse, which they aren't unless everybody decides they are. That's how panic works.

Everybody from Henry Paulson to Paul Krugman has concluded that the best way to head off a panic is to take the bad paper out of the financial system and park it temporarily in the national debt. Desirable? No. Preferable to a domino-effect crash in the value of all securities and collapse of institutions that keep day-to-day economic activity going? Yes.

The constructive argument at this point is not whether there should be a bailout, but what form the bailout should take and what safeguards should be in place. Recriminations and ideological posturing are merely noise pollution.

MarcM,

"Nice try Laura, but this pig is whole-hog GOP, through and through. It was engineered by the Bush administration and is being pushed through by them. Congress will hang some nice clothing on it and put some lipstick on its snout, but it is still a pig...a Republican pig."

Absolutely...it's one or two elected officials with a handful of appointed ones. That was my NON-PARTISAN point. Pelosi et al, as Speaker of the House, is representative of the window-dressing wrangling that we are currently seeing before they finally vote this pig through. And then we lose control over what happens to our taxes for the next coupla generations...

Taxation without representation

Personally, I can think of better ways to spend $700,000,000,000.00 dollars (did I get all the zeroes in?):

1. Let's have a year of Jubilee: cancel all mortgage debt (starting with the least financially stable amongst us) and then, consumer debt (at 24+% interest)... setting the slaves free. Why should multi-millionaires who have already proven to be criminally financially irresponsible have that kind of money and control?

B. Go after the post-modern Robber Barons: Indict those who have consistently raided healthy corporations, traded commodities they didn't own, engineered personal exit strategies that produced millions for themselves whilst leaving wreak and ruin in their wake. Liquidate ALL THEIR ASSETS; leave them one house, two cars, and some money in the bank (maybe $50,000...a shock to their system, I am sure); use those liquidated assets to help those who have become poorer or homeless because of their raider practices.

iii. If there is a bail-out, give Congress or an elected committee control over the mechanics of the bail-out so we have transparency and accountability. No more appointed financial whiz-kid gurus behind closed bank vaults.

And, MarcM? Rather than pointing fingers at the Republicans (and the case could be made this started with FDR...or, even, Alexander Hamilton and the Revolutionary War debt...), look at your own practices. How have you contributed to this mess? Have you wanted goods at unreasonably low, low prices? Double-digit returns on your investments? A job that pays thirty bucks an hour with an unlimited healthcare benefit at $5/month???

:grin:

Then you, too, are part of the problem, my friend. We have ALL been part of the problem...

Personally, I have bigger concerns: a Daughter who lives in China and my 14-month old GrandSon who has to drink imported milk and formula because of the corruption in the food industry. Just be glad you don't live there.