Is there anybody out there who’s all for this Wall Street bailout plan?
September 21st, 2008 at 09:06pm Pat Cunningham
I’ve spent much of the day watching TV and combing the Internet, and I’ve yet to find anyone, liberal or conservative, who’s fully in favor of the proposed bailout plan as it’s currently written.
Barack Obama, among countless others, says he wants changes in the plan. And conservative pundit Bill Kristol said on Fox News this morning that John McCain might come out against the proposal.
On both the left and ride sides of the broader political spectrum, there are lukewarm supporters and vehement critics of the plan alike. Whatever else can be said of the scheme, it’s not something that has created clearly partisan lines for or against it.
It’s strange that there seems to be nobody who thinks Henry Paulson’s draft of the plan is fine just the way it is. Perhaps this is due, in part, to a reluctance among conservatives to show enthusiasm for what nakedly amounts to socialism for rich folks.
Here’s the TEXT of the plan, if you haven’t read it yet.
UPDATE: Some lawmakers are ENDORDSING the plan in principle, but they all want to tweak it a little or a lot.
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10 Comments Add your own
1. swamprat | September 21st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Pat. Click on this link. This man is the only one I know who tells it like it is. He used to have an internet company in Chicago but sold it and moved to Florida. I don’t know how he learned so much about finance but he is one of the few that I have read that is exactly right about America’s finance. Read it and watch the 2 videos. Then check back every day for his next opinions.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/index.html
2. LD | September 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
There was a woman on CNBC last night who obtained a $900,000 mortgage and she made $10 an hour. For some reason she can’t seem to make the payments?? Crazy I know….Yes, it feels great to bail out these people and the people who lent to them.
Wouldn’t it be nice to reward those who actually borrowed what they could afford and made their payments on time?
3. Mike Carroll | September 22nd, 2008 at 9:18 am
Pat-If no one is totally in favor of the plan then its probably pretty good as written. The danger will be what idiocies will be attached by the genuises in Congress who contributed substantially to the mess we are in.
4. Pat Cunningham | September 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Mike: So you’re not bothered by this part: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Sounds a little dictatorial to me. But then, most of you conservatives admire authoritarianism.
5. Mike Carroll | September 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Pat-I’ve always maintained that the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. Democracies are just too messy.
Tongue planted frimly in cheek.
6. LD | September 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
“A party begins in somebody’s back yard. It is quiet at first, nothing out of the ordinary.
But as the night wears on, the music gets louder, the voices get more boisterous, and things begin to get a little out of hand. The neighbors can’t sleep, and one calls the police, but nobody comes.
The party gets louder, more out-of-control. A second neighbor calls the police. Again, nothing happens.
The party kicks into high gear. Drunks wander into backyards and urinate on the neighbors’ houses. A window is smashed. A fence is torn down. Neighbors call the police with lists of specific offenses, but are told the party-goers are all consenting adults, and the police have no reason to believe illegal drugs are being consumed.
In short, the policeman says, the partyers can handle themselves.
Suddenly, above the music and drunken singing comes a hysterical scream. A neighbor investigates and finds a fight has broken out, and somebody has been killed. The party-goers are in a stupor. They can’t agree on what to do.
911 is called and police cars come screeching to the scene of the crime. They discharge dozens of serious-looking cops who surround the premises, shine their flashlights in the faces of drunk and retching party-goers, count the empty liquor bottles strewn across the yard and throw towels over dazed, naked couples.
After carefully sizing up the situation, the officers make their move: they tell the drunks, “We’ll pay for the damages.”
And they arrest the neighbors.”
http://jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/
7. Pat Cunningham | September 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
Mike: Where’s the benevolence?
8. Pat Cunningham | September 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
LD: I love that parable.
9. Mr. Baseball | September 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 pm
The main criticism I’ve heard of the plan is just what you say in number four. Much too much power for the Treasury Secretary. I think the main issue here is that if the government does not take this action, the alternative will be much worse. That’s what happened at the start of the depression. Government did practically nothing. What’s fair is not necessarily what’s right..
10. swamprat | September 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
We don’t know for sure that the system was at the breaking point. The same ones who are going to benefit said that it was. This administration lives by scare tactics and this housing/mortgage collapse has been well orchestrated through GWB the puppet. And they must get this done before he leaves office.
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