If No Bailout, What Should We Do?

This bill should NOT pass. I have lost over 30% of my 401k and understand that no bailout means I will lose more, but these are the consequences we must face when let greed dictate our actions. These companies, and hopefully the executives, should be allowed to fail. I have my own personal credit problems, I haven't been able to get a credit card, I can't even get a car my credit is so bad, I moved closer to my job and take the bus to work, I managed to survive without begging someone for help. This country is strong enough to get through this horrible crisis, we have faced tough challenges before but begging for a handout is not the answer, we as a Country are better than that. It will be tough for all Americans but we should look at this as a learning experience, we can not blame any person or any party. This was caused by the greed of America and that greed crosses party lines, that greed extends from the middle class to the rich. The only good thing that will come from this economic crisis is that most people will start living within their own means and not living off credit.

No Bailout? You can't argue with that terminology. Don't. It doesn't matter what you call it. NO RESCUE WITHOUT REGULATION and NO RESCUE WITHOUT REFORM!!! The government led the charge. US fiat currency is an IOU. The Federal Reserve Note is an instrument of debt. Smoot-Hawley. Glass-Steagal. Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Now, an aggregate of mortgages are bundled, mislabled a (SIC) "security", and the yield is based on a future that cannot be guaranteed. The risk is astronomical. The government allowed it. The government ignored it. The FDIC is corrupt. They didn't have enough money to make good on the deposits. So, instead of doing what they are supposed to do, they destroyed the capital investment of stock holders in Banks that they insured. That's my retirement--I'm a taxpayer also. Please stop saying that the FDIC is helping. You think the credit crunch is a problem. Wait to you see investment funds dry up. Bailout -- it's a bailout because we're being told that taxpayers have equity as provided in the amended paulson plan that didn't get passed, but that is being expressed by the same people who caused the problem, the same people who were asleep at the wheel. Nah, we don't care about that coming depression. Why don't we care? Because this bandaid bailout will have us right back in the same place. 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Who knows, but it's a sure bet without regulation and reform.

This all started with housing. It has not improved because there are so many people still willing to get into with both feet. In basic term, too much supply. This BILLout will not help the main street America. When Wall Street bankers get BILLout, they will only cause themselves more trouble in lending enough to boost the housing market. The top dog executives get to retire with their hundreds of millions of taxpayer's dollars. The best thing is to let the market take care of it. Let those that made bad decisions file bankrupty. Set BILLout to secure the actual Main Street America's deposits. It's John Adam's "Creative Destruction". It hurts for a little while. But what comes out is a more efficient system in the banking business system.

It is time to take out the garbage. It stinks. This mess was created on our watch. We must not pass it on to the next (several) generation(s). Liberty is worth more than all the money on Wall Street and all the pieces of paper with pictures of dead Presidents the Fed can print.

Have the experts and the government been wrong before? Yes they have. The experts on your channel constantly make predictions that do not come true. This is not an exact science. This problem stems from loans that should not have been made. The magnitude of these loans created banking giants and institutions to handle the volume. These institutions have to fail for our economy to go forward. The institutions and their supporters want the government to take these toxic loans off their hands. We are back to the status quo. There has to be change. Without change there will be no improvement. Let the strong survive and the weak fail. I do not believe that the entire economic system will come to a girding halt. It seems that the loudest proponents of this package complain that they will only be able to loan to individuals with good credit. DUH You know it may be hard to accept the fact that we cannot fix everything. Maybe it is time to go back to a savings based society rather than a credit based society.

"How fortunate for leaders that men do not think." Adolf Hitler "The victor will never be asked if he told the truth." Adolf Hitler

Lower interest rates to 5% or 5.5% so that people in homes with adjustable rates can refinance. Those that cannot, the banks get their house. If these loans are merely the only problem, then the problem will end within a year. I suspect that there is more to the problem than mortgages and that is why such a large sum of money is needed! Also, if main street is really affected like everyone says, then how come wall street never shared with us their profits when times were good,i.e. when paulson took 500million from goldman. Wher was the main street share? Thanks, Alexis for doing such agreat job reporting for us to make it somewhat understandable.

Alexis, One thing that bothers me is that my family makes 300K a year, we owe 400K on our house pretty good, but average in So. Calif. We never took additional equity out, while people I know took out 1M in equity to buy more property. So we are in better shape than people who could not afford there house and others who took to much equity out to buy more propoert. If the rescue/bailout does not happen, what are we looking at clasping? 10% unemployeement? 10% interest rates? no one has said what specifics could happen. what will interest rates go to? what is the worst unemployment number? what other things could happen.

If we are not going to let the market take care of itself and intervention is the bottom line then we should do 3 things and quit talking about a bailout. We should do the following. 1) Insure for the losses. A lot cheaper. We don't know that there will be these types of losses. The insurance will lower the risk and ease market concerns. 2) Fix the accounting rule, mark to market. Change it back to a rolling 3 yr average but with closer supervision from the regulators. 3) Cut capital gains.

You got it right, what is with so many other pundants screaming we must have the bailout?