Why the Pressure is on to Seal the Deal

My question is, if the banks were barrowing 30 to 1, is this means that they want us to give them $700 Billion in exchange for $23.3 Billion of over price real estate? And if that is the case, how can we ever get our money back? (Never the less make money) ,And if that is true, maybe that is reason why they are not saying how big this mess really is?...Not because they do not know, but because they do know!

Dear Ms Glick, I am so disgusted with congress over this issue. They really don't seem to get that they caused this crisis with the Community Reinvestment Act which forced financial institutions to make the bad mortgages in the first place. I am finally hearing some people speak out on this topic. If this bail-out does anything, it had better fix the primary cause and eliminate the CRA.

This bailout is a rip-off. The arguments of the Bush administration are just deja-vu of a country full of weapons of mass destruction. I don’t trust them! I think they are just utilizing a cyclical financial low for the benefit of their inner group! If the banks don’t have the money to stay on business let then go to HELL! God willing!

I applaud your article and I am a firm believer that with a few concessions this bill will be passed. I do hope that they will lower capital gains and the corporate tax so that more American businesses come back on shore, instead of leaving. Many comments on here rant and rave about Americans being tough and letting the banks fail. Thats ridiculous, if a member of your family fell on hard times even if it was their own doing you would still help them out. This is the samething. personally I don't want to live through a depression, if this stops it, then I'm all for it.

Dear Ms. Glick: Alan Greenspan in the essay titled "Beyond Economics, Beyond Politics, Beyond Accountability," as published by Worth in 1995 and I quote: "It is precisely the greed of the businessman, or, more approprately, his profit-seeking, which is the UNEXCELLED PROTECTOR OF THE CONSUMER." How foolish does he look today, right now in this moment? How protected are we now Mr. Greenspan! It is amazing to me that we will be forced to bail out the corporate irresponsible decisons of publicly traded companies. Recently I requested help from our Government to assist my private company in collecting over 1.2 million that was defrauded out payment by the Iraq Trade Ministry on a rice contract. We even won London arbitration. Yet not one member of the Senate, Congress or State Department would help my small business. They all stated and I quote: "We cannot get involved in private corporate contracts!" Now they will bail out Wall Street? How hypocritical. With a beautiful wife, 2 year-old daughter and new baby on the way I wonder when our government will truly start caring about us? They speak big words but only help BIG business. This is socialism at its finest. You support this? Let them fall like Enron, MCI and all the other greedy corporations. I have spent 17 years building a life only to lose it in 1 year without the help of my Government. Today they state that we must act or doom and gloom is coming. We must clear these BAD assests off the books so THESE banks can beging to loan again? To whom? They got greedy and lost so we bail them out so they can repeat it again? Everyone who buys into this bailout should be ashame. America is a strong nation with strong people. Let the market crash. We will recover and be stronger for it. Put the banking and Wall Street crooks in prison. They say main street will suffer...how funny is that.....we already are and our Government does nothing. Amazing.

A couple of the commentators have asked why is the clock ticking and why is this bailout so urgent. 1. The CLOSE of 3rd quarter is the end of September. 2. The 3rd Quarter statement is public information and it will so just how upside down the balance sheet really is and cause yet another plunge in the market. 3. They need the cash infusion to offset the bad debt on the books and they can put the loan down as long-term making their short-term net equity look good to the untrained eye. 4. The bad debt or over-inflated mortgages are realized at 10% to 20% of their face value ( no magic here) as standard business practice for debt liquidators (auctions) 5. If they don't push this through then those firms will file for bankruptcy and will become debtors in possession (DIP) as are FNMA and FreddyMac. This means the a United States Judge/Attorney will be the controlling officer and decide whether Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 is required as they are obligated to honer the debts owed by theDIP. 6. There is a 185 day rule, whereas once a DIP the Fed can look back for 185 days to find hidden assets, parachute and wrongful or unusual preferential payments made to others. Sincerely, Peter Schroebel

First of all both political parties need to come clean with thier constutients. With an FBI criminal investigation now taking place in Frannie and Freddie Mae politicians need to come clean with thier constutients. Why? How benenfited from the corruption of Freddie and Fannie Mae. Further every single cent needs to be publicly disclosed and this includes those harping left wing Demoncrats like Nancy Pelosi. When it comes to capitalism they're hypercrites about it. All need to come clean. Public is getting sick n'tired of being lectured too by these politicians too.

I watched the Senate Banking Hearing yesterday and guess what? The lowest price the US taxpayer can get on these toxic assets is their carrying cost less capital on the books of each problem institution. That IS the floor. Do not pass TARP. Let the institutions that cannot make it fail. The US Taxpayer is already on the hook...Paulson said it yesterday. If we let them fail, the partcipants who took the risk get punished. Free market participants are hungry to full the void...look at IndyMac, on Friday they closed and on Monday another participant stepped in. As to fear, panic, and lack of confidence, we have already seen it...bring it on. We would be better served if they put the $700 billion into the FDIC insurance fund and then took out the weak institutions. Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke are looking for the easy way out. They want to shoot bazookas when they should be using grenades. They need to use the power they already have...and have not used. They have closed one bank per week since July...and the consensus is that 500 to 1000 will fail....at that rate, we would need to step it up to one per day. Reality needs to set in at some point.

This deal does not have to go through. There are many of us out here that are going to lose everything, I included, and to stop this foolishness I will live out of my car. These people that took multimillion dollar bonuses while the people like me lose it all must pay this money back. Just as I am required to pay my mortgage, so to must they pay. No foodstamps for the rich. Conservative Values? Personal responsibility? Lies, all lies. These traitors have raped the country and now we should reward them? What sane person would advocate that. They stole the countries wealth, put it in their pockets, and now want us to borrow to give them more. What are you thinking?

And just why are Congressmen supposed to be anxious to report to their constituents that "I just wasted a trillion dollars of your money to bail out a bunch of MBAs that make $500,000 annual bonuses."?

Bold Call, I did not detect a deep understanding of finance on the part of the committee. In fact 90 percent of the hearing appeared to be a finance 100 lesson. Clearly, this is what slows down the process the most. When the same question is repeated time after time and the Secretary and Chairman need to dumb down their language to the grade school level needed for basic understanding, you can not expect progress. Couple that with the pomposity and in some cases outright ignorance (who or what is 'wall street' and how does it not include every last american whether they participated as a consumer or cheerleader for excessive spending and irrational exuberance?). I could only feel sympathy for Hank Paulson as he sat there and contained his frustration in having to deal with incompetence. It was embarrassing. The committee needs to get re-elected. That is their priority. There were many instances of 'what am I to tell my constituents about ______' type questions to which the Secretary gave simple answers when he should have been saying, as a member of the finance committee, you should have the basic knowledge and capacity to answer that in an intelligent way. We shall see tomorrow how the next round goes but given the fact that todays panel of inquirers were supposed to be the experts, Tomorrow does not appear to hold much promise for information discovery. 2 Fed Governors, 1 Sick Economy, a whole bunch of clueless politicians.

There is a lot of private equity out there waiting for the right price on these assets. Why should we not allow this to play out? Bernanke admitted that there is value behind these assets. He should force private firms to disclose what they own and let the market decide.

This is the time for the Congress to step up and keep the Bush machine under control. They are now fulfilling their roll in our government. Good job today!

It's time to say NO. No bail out. Scared of recession, scared of another great D? This bail out will only prolong the agony and hit the rest of us with inflation out the gazooo. This country is going to go broke, plain and simple. At some point, the tune of personal responsibility (be it a bank or an individual) has to be danced to and we can't avoid it for much longer, even with a bail out. So, let's just say no. Let the chips fall. People will just have to learn to live within their meager means, like the rest of us have been doing for decades. The entitlement folks will have to learn to make do like the rest of us. It's time to say NOOOOO!