I have a feeling and its just that a feeling, that its going to be just about as easy to enact a sensible bailout as it is to fight bailouts altogether.
Josh

I have a feeling and its just that a feeling, that its going to be just about as easy to enact a sensible bailout as it is to fight bailouts altogether.
Josh

davelj,

I think your plan is excellent (much like what I proposed in the “call your representative” thread). 😉

The only thing I would disagree with is the loans for new mortgages. The govt should not be in the mortgage business, as it will continue to distort prices. Besides that, many of the current homes on the market will still lose over 30%, and the 10% down will lead us to the same problems we have today, except the govt is directly on the hook.

I think there is plenty of money out there (both to buy houses and to make mortgage loans), but we are not willing to pay prices that were determined by specuvestors with Monopoly money.

There is lots of evidence that the hardest-hit areas are already seeing huge increases in sales volume and multiple bids. We need to get there with the rest of the market, and there’s nothing that can do that better than letting prices drop to such levels that people who have something to lose (significant down payments and good credit) will step up to the plate.

We need tighter money, and that is a GOOD thing. This whole notion that debt = wealth needs to be put to rest, permanently. Debt is the means used to transfer money from the poor/weak to the strong/wealthy. Self-liquidating debt is okay, but consumer debt (including mortgages) should be wound-down significantly, IMHO. Let the poor people save for a change.

davelj,

I think your plan is excellent (much like what I proposed in the “call your representative” thread). 😉

The only thing I would disagree with is the loans for new mortgages. The govt should not be in the mortgage business, as it will continue to distort prices. Besides that, many of the current homes on the market will still lose over 30%, and the 10% down will lead us to the same problems we have today, except the govt is directly on the hook.

I think there is plenty of money out there (both to buy houses and to make mortgage loans), but we are not willing to pay prices that were determined by specuvestors with Monopoly money.

There is lots of evidence that the hardest-hit areas are already seeing huge increases in sales volume and multiple bids. We need to get there with the rest of the market, and there’s nothing that can do that better than letting prices drop to such levels that people who have something to lose (significant down payments and good credit) will step up to the plate.

We need tighter money, and that is a GOOD thing. This whole notion that debt = wealth needs to be put to rest, permanently. Debt is the means used to transfer money from the poor/weak to the strong/wealthy. Self-liquidating debt is okay, but consumer debt (including mortgages) should be wound-down significantly, IMHO. Let the poor people save for a change.

davelj,

I think your plan is excellent (much like what I proposed in the “call your representative” thread). 😉

The only thing I would disagree with is the loans for new mortgages. The govt should not be in the mortgage business, as it will continue to distort prices. Besides that, many of the current homes on the market will still lose over 30%, and the 10% down will lead us to the same problems we have today, except the govt is directly on the hook.

I think there is plenty of money out there (both to buy houses and to make mortgage loans), but we are not willing to pay prices that were determined by specuvestors with Monopoly money.

There is lots of evidence that the hardest-hit areas are already seeing huge increases in sales volume and multiple bids. We need to get there with the rest of the market, and there’s nothing that can do that better than letting prices drop to such levels that people who have something to lose (significant down payments and good credit) will step up to the plate.

We need tighter money, and that is a GOOD thing. This whole notion that debt = wealth needs to be put to rest, permanently. Debt is the means used to transfer money from the poor/weak to the strong/wealthy. Self-liquidating debt is okay, but consumer debt (including mortgages) should be wound-down significantly, IMHO. Let the poor people save for a change.

1) The first thing to realize is that the single biggest issue in the financial system is confidence in the system itself. I think we can all agree on that.

Spoken like a true banker;)

-Maybe if the banking system was sound then there would be more confidence.
-Or if congress and the fed did not say we are on the verge of an economic meltdown
-Or if banks were not spontaneously combusting in front of our eyes
-Or if every major bank was not insolvent
-Or if maybe if anything resembling honesty came out of any officials mouth.

These conditions and many others do not instill confidence. Maybe besides short selling they should ban pessimism and lack of confidence.

Lying to instill confidence only works for so long. Cramer and the CEO of Bear Stearns gave the ultimate confidence booster two days before it went BK.

This whole bailout is just further looting of the treasury for the made men, not unlike all those CEOs that left with golden parachutes after they ran their companies into the ground. This time it’s the whole country.

MSNBC had this headline (today):

Treasury Secretary Paulson says credit markets remain frozen

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the nation’s credit markets are very fragile and still frozen and Congress must move quickly to pass a $700 billion bailout package for financial firms.

Translation: Gimme your money before you look at the details of the proposal and see what a bad deal you are getting.

The empire wears no clothes….

1) The first thing to realize is that the single biggest issue in the financial system is confidence in the system itself. I think we can all agree on that.

Spoken like a true banker;)

-Maybe if the banking system was sound then there would be more confidence.
-Or if congress and the fed did not say we are on the verge of an economic meltdown
-Or if banks were not spontaneously combusting in front of our eyes
-Or if every major bank was not insolvent
-Or if maybe if anything resembling honesty came out of any officials mouth.

These conditions and many others do not instill confidence. Maybe besides short selling they should ban pessimism and lack of confidence.

Lying to instill confidence only works for so long. Cramer and the CEO of Bear Stearns gave the ultimate confidence booster two days before it went BK.

This whole bailout is just further looting of the treasury for the made men, not unlike all those CEOs that left with golden parachutes after they ran their companies into the ground. This time it’s the whole country.

MSNBC had this headline (today):

Treasury Secretary Paulson says credit markets remain frozen

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the nation’s credit markets are very fragile and still frozen and Congress must move quickly to pass a $700 billion bailout package for financial firms.

Translation: Gimme your money before you look at the details of the proposal and see what a bad deal you are getting.

The empire wears no clothes….