What are you willing to sacrifice Rene in exchange for a return to an America our founding fathers penned? In all due respect, are you saying that you would rather give billions of dollars to a bunch of greedy corporate criminals that WILL change this country forever, for our comfort TODAY?
Is this country presently in trouble? YES! But instead of handing over billions to the same people who created this problem that 'we the people' are in...and instead of bailing these crooks out....why not offer them loans? Yes loans at a low 2% interest rate payable back in 5 years. Encourage economic growth. Lower or do away with our high corporate tax to entice companies to invest in our economy.
Rene....don't fall for the rhetoric that it is solely about saving 'us'. NO..it is about saving 'us' so we can buy all of the foreign made products so we can save 'them' and help their countries economically grow.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Why not another Great Depression? Richard Cohen Richard Cohen is a nationally syndicated columnist.
It comforts me that Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and an architect of the financial bailout plan the House rejected Monday, is a specialist in the Great Depression. This, of course, was the economic calamity that beset the United States from 1929 to about 1942 and ended only when America went to war. What stopped the Depression was a worldwide bloodbath. Anyone who knows the history of those awful times has to be chastened. The Depression was not, after all, simply an economic crisis. It was also a political and cultural one. It contributed to the rise of totalitarian movements abroad — both in Europe and Japan — and some pretty ugly political movements here as well. These things are hard to measure, but American democracy’s closest call probably came during the Great Depression. The rhetoric in Washington seems oblivious to history. It talks only of financial matters and it searches, as any mindless politician must, for culprits. Greed is blamed, as if it is something new or controllable, and the entire problem is discussed as if failure will do nothing but endanger some rich institutions and their equally rich managers. The Great Depression teaches otherwise. Throughout Europe, the Depression saw the rise of fascist parties — the Nazis in Germany, the Union of Fascists in Britain, the Croix-de-Feu in France, etc. Elsewhere, communist parties were emboldened. People were desperate and they looked for desperate solutions. It is hard to envision anything like this happening again. But why not? The world is a smaller place than it was in 1929. We have become globalized, financial markets intertwined as never before. During the Depression, nations moved to close their borders to refugees. How could more people be let into a country — any country — when those already there were out of work? America, too, clamped down on refugees — even though many of them were fleeing for their very lives. In 1939, the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees went from Germany to Cuba and back to Europe because its passengers were not welcome anywhere on this side of the Atlantic. It is harder still to envision anything like that happening today. But, again, why not? The zeitgeist changes instantly. Less than two years ago, the world was awash in credit and then, within months, there was none to be found. Credit had dried up. The housing market plummeted. Mortgages turned out not to be worth the paper they were written on — not that anyone could find the paper, anyway. Circumstances were suddenly different. If circumstances get even more different, who knows what could happen. Much has been made of the so-called culture wars here in America. The Mc-Cain-Palin ticket represents one culture and Obama-Biden another. But this clash is not about culture per se — otherwise, how could the mother of an unwed pregnant teenager be the conservative while her opponents, as conventional as Saturday night at the VFW, be the liberals? No, it’s really about outlook. Obama’s people feel they have control over their lives. Palin’s people do not have a similar confidence. This is why the Republican National Convention made war on the media. This is why Palin frequently has referred to “the pollsters and the pundits.” These were the hidden manipulators of the culture and the economy, part of the often-invisible elitists who made it so bad for everyone else. They controlled the culture, the smut that came into one’s home on the TV set and what was playing at the multiplex. They owned the banks and the newspapers and the TV networks — and it didn’t matter that their name could be Rupert Murdoch and they could be deeply conservative. As Don Quixote knew, “facts are the enemy of truth.” Hard times are hard on truth. The Great Depression was not just a period of wholesale unemployment and incredible poverty — of bread lines and apple-peddlers and women selling brief intimacy for 10 cents a dance. It was also the period of Hitler and Mussolini and, in this country, of Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin, and the belief among otherwise sane people that communism was the remedy for what ailed us. An economic crisis is like war. It’s impossible to contain. It affects everything it touches. Ben Bernanke knows all this. He might focus on the raw numbers of the Great Depression — “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished,” Franklin Roosevelt said — but he would also have to know their social and cultural ramifications. You can, if you want, say the bailout program is about the future. But it’s really about the past.
Bring in the private sector savy business people in. I mean really....when doctors first thought of a possible heart transplant for the future they did not call on lawyers or the government. They began to seek out the best of the best in the medical field.
Even when the government started a space program they began to seek out the best of the best in science/space exploration.
NO BAIL OUT! NO RESCUE PACKAGE.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Bring in the private sector savy business people in. I mean really....when doctors first thought of a possible heart transplant for the future they did not call on lawyers or the government. They began to seek out the best of the best in the medical field.
Even when the government started a space program they began to seek out the best of the best in science/space exploration.
Paulson already has a record of not being my choice to handle $7Billion. He was warned of this a year and a half ago. NOW he is saying 'the sky is falling'. We still have time to 'do the right thing' other than turn it over to the crooks.
But are you telling me that there could not be possibly ONE business person/group/corporation out there that could encourage economic growth? Work and grow the country economically without government intervention?
There
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Someone decided to let others know what they think about this. I didn't have my camera, but if someone could get a picture of this, it would be great.
On Duanesburg Rd (Rt 7), as you are approaching from the west, someone took a box and wrote with a magic marker a sign (sort of like the makeshift garage sale signs people put up). This is across the street on the gas station side. It tells how Mike McNulty voted for this bailout and to call his office (giving his phone number) for people to call and tell him he was wrong.
Paulson already has a record of not being my choice to handle $7Billion. He was warned of this a year and a half ago. NOW he is saying 'the sky is falling'. We still have time to 'do the right thing' other than turn it over to the crooks.
But are you telling me that there could not be possibly ONE business person/group/corporation out there that could encourage economic growth? Work and grow the country economically without government intervention?
There
ONE won't quite do it. Listen, right now banks won't lend and they won't until confidence is restored. The bailout, whatever its failings is a step to restore it. The spread to LIBOR is key right now. Until it narrows we are in dire straits.
Someone decided to let others know what they think about this. I didn't have my camera, but if someone could get a picture of this, it would be great.
On Duanesburg Rd (Rt 7), as you are approaching from the west, someone took a box and wrote with a magic marker a sign (sort of like the makeshift garage sale signs people put up). This is across the street on the gas station side. It tells how Mike McNulty voted for this bailout and to call his office (giving his phone number) for people to call and tell him he was wrong.
Funny, when I watched Gillibrand explain her NO vote I thought she implied she was smarter than Paulson which alone would make me vote her out
Bring in the private sector savy business people in. I mean really....when doctors first thought of a possible heart transplant for the future they did not call on lawyers or the government. They began to seek out the best of the best in the medical field.
Even when the government started a space program they began to seek out the best of the best in science/space exploration.
NO BAIL OUT! NO RESCUE PACKAGE.
Steve Wynn- Donald Trump- a couple of guys that know how to make money- why are they saying no stinking bailout ?
ONE won't quite do it. Listen, right now banks won't lend and they won't until confidence is restored. The bailout, whatever its failings is a step to restore it. The spread to LIBOR is key right now. Until it narrows we are in dire straits.
Gee what are people doing ? Who needs a freakin loan to buy a TV- refrigerator ?
Even to meet payroll- business need to be able to make payroll without borrowing-
I enjoy watching the politicians change the wording of this once called "bailout" now called "rescue" bill.
I would much rather take the advice of a laymen over the educated elite who currently oversee the economy, both on Wall St. and in Washington DC. Check their track record, I don't know how anyone could disagree.
The twin towers were attacked on 9/11 by international terrorist, trained and funded by those on foreign soil. I can see how this could have possibly slipped through the cracks of our intelligence agency.
What I can't understand is how our economy can be compromised to this extent, and now, we the people are expected to entrust those "experts" in the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and Finance Committe, who's job it is to oversee these matters, with a $700 billion bailout in 1 days notice. These foreclosures weren't happening in some far away country. It was happening right under their noses. These "experts" act as if they were blind sided by the collapse of these large banks. There's how many media outlets between T.V. and newspaper. Not one courageous person or party could have brought this foreseeable crisis to the attention of the American people? Where was Bush, and his use of the bully pulpit?? Absent!
Now we have Wall St. and Big Business putting a proverbial gun to our elected officials heads while those on Main St. flood their Representatives offices, threatening their heads if they go ahead with this bailout. They don't know which way to turn. I find it amusing.
If one good thing came out of this, it's that I was able to see our democracy work on the national level. Congressmen and women forced to listen to their constituents over their fat cat campaign contributors. It awoke the American people, much like 9/11 did.
I say let the markets correct themselves. Americans need to understand the risk and not just the rewards of Capitalist markets. Nationalizing Americas banks isn't the answer to this problem.
ONE won't quite do it. Listen, right now banks won't lend and they won't until confidence is restored. The bailout, whatever its failings is a step to restore it. The spread to LIBOR is key right now. Until it narrows we are in dire straits.
Gee what are people doing ? Who needs a freakin loan to buy a TV- refrigerator ?
Even to meet payroll- business need to be able to make payroll without borrowing-
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