Why We Need the Bailout

Dear Alexis, as fas as I am concerned this "bailout" is like eating Lima beans for me, can't stand em but know the value of them eventually. That being said, I fear that we may not have had the time to look at other possible scenarios. For example, lower the capital gains taxes, and income and business taxes as well. Repeal the death tax, and then hold the line on government spending. At that point market forces will come into play and we will get our way out of this. Yes, it may take a while, and other banks and financial firms may very well fail, but they need to so more robust and stronger firms can take over. As far as people losing their homes, well that is life. I used to work in the home security industry, and I can remember going into new homes and pitching an alarm system, and the homeonwers telling me that they just owned this house so they could "flip it", and of course they never did because the value went down, and the market collapsed down here in Orlando. People got greedy, morgaged their homes in the hope of flipping new ones to make a profit and got caught. Secondly, the lower income people were just as gullible as well. So, in the end we, the tax payers have to pay for this apparent greed and stupidity on the part of bankers, real estate agencies, fannie mae, freddie mac, and etc. Not having a bailout may make for some rough times, but just like a forest fire clears out the dead trees and shrubs to make for new growth, so to can this and we will be better off in the near future.

Steven, you do not understand credit and small business. This will only get worse without government stepping in.

For everyone who says we don't need the bailout and this is not constitutional go back and read your history. For those that don't know their history we are doomed to repeat it. You cannot tell anything by a stock market going up for one day. Look at Black Friday in 1929 huge drop and we recovered for awhile and then it dropped into what is known as the great depression. The market was up and down throughout the great depression but took 25 YEARS to fully recover. This IS constitutional under Congress' Spending Powers - look it up - this isn't the first time this has happened in history, this is just the first time it has been this large an necessary. The market NEEDS regulation and for all of you screaming no bailout that is what happened right before the Great Depression - No Bailout, just let the free market fix everything. Look where it got us. Do you really want 50% of the country living on government assistance? My parents have busted their butts all my life to get where they are and they are middle class and lost a HUGE portion of their retirement. If we don't pay for this now we will pay for it later. Also several people have said to stop saying main street doesn't understand. If you are still saying this is $700B of taxpayers money then you don't understand. They are BUYING ASSETS not flushing it down the toilet so the return on that investment will be either breaking even at $700B and therefore NOTHING out of taxpayers pockets or there will be a return of MORE than $700B. Even worst case, a small percentage of $700B will not be returned. YOU ARE NOT PAYING $700B Taxpayers! Look how much the market lost - that is main streets money, retirement accounts etc. The greedy CEOS are already gone with their golden umbrellas - this is not about them.

I guess the media remains convinced that they know so much more than the American People, just like congress. You all want to tell us what actions should be taken, regardless of what we think. The media is doing their best (including Fox Business)to sell the "financial meltdown crisis" to the American people. It a "Sell" in my book. Why isn't Fox on the leading edge in supporting the American people in rejecting this legislation. I haven't heard a single word about the "earmarks" that are being attached to it, which is more just wasted money. Most of us work, pay bills, pay taxes, and live according to a budget. If we didn't we'd be bankrupt, shouldn't Wall Street be held to the same standard? I guess Big Business wants to operate like Big Government, be irresponsible, make bad decisions, pay themselves millions and when it doesn't work out, just tax the American people. In reading the comments to your story, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm surprised opinions like this get so little play on the air. Of course, Fox is a business, and a lot of Fox revenue comes from Wall Street businesses.......Hmmmm, I guess I understand now why your network is so desparate for this bill to pass, regardless of how the American people feel. I wonder who the people can count on to stand up for them??? Not one comment on your network about the abusive "earmarks" in this bill either

I've seen a lot of articles stating that the bailout will help those businesses and people struggling to get credit to be able to get credit. If they are struggling to get credit, it's because they aren't credit worthy. By creating a situation where they are allowing more credit to be extended to those who are already over leveraged in debt, they are just adding to more of what created the mess in the first place.

OK, seriously, I am positive. Positive we are in a mess, that could – potentially – become a disaster. The credit markets are all but frozen. They may, in fact, be frozen. I know banks that are no longer giving loans. That’s loans, period. Regardless of your credit worthiness, assets, etc. No loans. No car loans, home loans, not even a line of credit. Actually, I know of one large bank that is actively going around to the customers they think are able, and asking them to repay their loans early, because the bank has no cash to operate with. Things are bad, there is no doubt. I am afraid nothing will change until our politicians come clean and admit how we got into this mess. Face it, we don’t trust our leaders to tell us the truth anymore. (Turns out, it DOES matter if they tell truth, even if was about sex). Washington has no credibility anymore. Just as importantly, until the American people have faith that our leaders actually understand how this mess was created, we will not have any confidence they know how to fix it (and, I’m not so sure anyone in Congress really does understand the basic economy, and how to address this problem). I get the sense that the people on Main Street (who also, for the most part, do not understand how this happened, or the implications of doing nothing about it) are willing to let Wall Street implode, along with everyone in Washington, rather than continue to listen to the political-speak / media spin / partisanship. Of course, Main Street will get hurt in the process, but I don’t think the average person connects those dots, or maybe they do and they're willing to let the chips fall. A $700 billion bail out/rescue plan is not the answer – it is a reaction by people who don’t know/won’t admit how we got into this. I think Bush is being ill advised (and he, personally, does not understand the economy) and now that we have discovered holes have been dug under the hen house, we are counting on the foxes to help us fix things. Not a good situation, at all. While I fully expect us to have a very slow growing economy for several years, we could avert disaster by doing a few simple things. Unfortunately, our leaders would have to come to grips with what caused the problem first, and I’m not sure we will see that ever happen. I am fed up with all of the politicians in Washington. Every party has failed the people. I am not interested in who caused this, but I am interested in WHAT caused it. And, what caused it was a failed ideology. A concept that government, not the markets, knows best. This is nothing but an example of what happens when arrogant politicians, thinking they know best, force the markets to do the government’s bidding in social engineering. And now, somehow, we are supposed to believe they are the ones who will get us out of it all… Well, for sure, the government will either do something, and we will muddle through for four or five years, or we may well see a true financial disaster – the kind our grandparents talked about. Good will come of all of this, but it may be painful medicine.

There are several points that I would like to make. First, we may not have a microphone but we understand perfectly well, we do not trust the government Bailout bill. We know it will give them the ability to BUY lousy loans that can not sell in the market place, and stick us with the cost. All this talk about us making money over years is bull. It does not take into consideration Maintaining the house during that time. My money is on the Pirates that will strip the home of alll valueable amenities and then us spending more money to replace the stolen items. Second, WE also do not trust the same people that got us into this predicimate to get us out. Why don't they bring on financial esperts like Mark Farber and Jim Willie that understand economics? The current CAST of Politicians have been for the lobbyiests for so long I don't believe they are capable of drafting a bill that has the American People's best intrest at heart! Both parties share 50% of the blame each. If the Glass Stegall act had not been disolved by Clinton in 1999, this debacle could not even be possible! They the Republicans had 9 years to notice and do something and they didn't have a clue! Now that we are here we need a real solution, not more partisan bickering. Alas, that is all they know how to do. The shame is that once the folks are pressured or scared into thinking this bill will help they will find out all that got accomplished is that the foriegn investors that invested in our markets got their money bacdk akd left us fools holding the bag. I truly believe it is time to throw the baby out with the bath water and elect an entire new group of political leaders because the current cast of characters are truly PATHETIC !

Here's another item the congressmen didn't address. I was watching Bloomberg TV on Saturday afternoon and the CEO for AMBAC brought a real interesing point. The credit raters. Since Ambac is in this business he pointed out the fact they should've been part of the failed bill. Becouse they give companies they're credit ratings. Now that avenue hasn't been explored. But it should be. He believes if the credit raters had been a part of the proecess the problem would've reslove itself. But something needs to be done. Confidence has to be restored to all markets.

Why don't they take that 700 Billion and give all tax paying Americans $1,000,000 each? Talk about a spending stimulus package!!! And, the government would save money and get taxes back in the form of sales tax! Hell, they can even tax the million and give me $700,000 of it! Why am I the only one that thinks of this stuff and not the idiots in Congress that want to save the very institutions that caused the problem in the first place?!?!?!?

We must let this play out without pumping money into it! Riding an economy dependent on credit is like purchasing a boat, made out of paper towel for a future river crossing. For years now, Americans have had credit cards shoved in their faces and in some cases, Banks, or other, establishing lines of credit without the permission of the individual. This unresponsible recklesness must not be saved. Past administrations have encoraged Americans to "use your credit card" to stimulate the economy. Using credit is nothing but a false stimulus that has an unavoidable reaction, which is paying the debt (with interest) which robs the individual and the economy of TRUE capital to support a real economy. Most people, in the U.S. have been suffering sinse "Katrina" where the price of fuel went out of control and has never rebounded. You talk about Wallstreet and Mainstreet, WHAT ABOUT REALITY STREET? People have not had TRUE capital to spend because of the price of fuel and how people cannot see how this directly effects Everyones lives, is beyond me. If you want to do a stimulus package, make ledgistration to make it more difficult to invest in energy. If energy is not allowed to be manipulatated, on wallstreet, EVERYONE WILL HAVE MORE REAL CAPITAL (cash) not to be comfused with credit! They say we need student loans.......I say no. If you want to fix this problem, get the business out of higher education so people can afford to go to college. Our country needs Doctors and Nurses but the cost is so high and a simple system is made overcomplicated that we are now paying for it with the quality and quantity of health care. The government needs to step in and remove capitalism in the areas that are destructive for our country. Minimze credit and the need for it. There are plenty of poor countries out there where people survive every day WITHOUT CREDIT and they do something real foriegn to us, THEY SAVE MONEY TO MAKE PURCHASES. If we are to make this country strong again we must invest in it WITH COMMON SENSE. Do not through money at this, let it play out, it will only make our country stronger. We need to stop living this galse economy driven and depending on credit.

Does anyone really have a clue if the bailout will work? put aside the agrgument about whether its a wall street bailout or not. I hear the world will end if we dont, I also hear its the end of capitalism if we do. Which is it. Also seems strange that Pelosi says the democrats had nothing to do with the problem becuase its all Bush and they were the minority party, but then the bailout failed because of the Repubs, who are the minority party now. We are never going to get a straight answer on anything are we? I wonder if this is why people have second thought about giving these guys $700 Billion to mess around with.

I too say NO to the bailout!! Let the greedy Wall Street CEO's and their banks fail! Unfortunately they walk away with the money. We as a Republic will survive this. I like many have bolstered our own finances against times like these and we will be just fine. We can't keep throwing money at our problems! You have it wrong this time!

And the market is up this morning???? No to the bail out. No to thieves with MBA's. Yes, I understand the risk to my families future in the short term. This is the biggest problem with the bail out; it is a short term bandaid (notice the word "fix" was not used). Does this sound like the bail out of the Saving and Loan to any else?

If I hear one more "expert" tell me I need to spend 700B to bail out "Wall Street" I'm going to puke!! Get a life. Maybe you all shouldn’t be so greedy to begin with. By the way your, Wall Street = Main Street argument isn’t flying any more. Get Life!!

Dear Alexis: Have you perhaps considered that yesterday, on 9/29/08 the sell off may have had other causes than the failure of the bailout package? I note that the end of September is the end of a quarter, an important timepoint for measuring fund performance. Fund manager psychology may have been that they were afraid of turning in bad numbers on 9/30/08 and thought it was safer to sell on 9/29/08 rather than risk a lower number on 9/30/08. Also, many hedge funds have quarterly auctions, or liquidity windows at the end of the quarter. They probably felt they had to fulfill withdrawal bids by selling. Don't blame all of the market's fall on the elite attitude that the masses don't understand how the crisis on Wall St. affects Main St.