The BIG Bailout

[Jim]

It is fun to look back, isn't it?
It was only back in March but good enough.
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=38960

[docholly]

Our economy stopped being about productivity, and has become "virtual"

That's a huge part of the problem. No new manufacturing.. and the "new" business is shuffling $$ back and forth in a virtual world.

Whatever the outcome is, it's going to be long and messy and whoever gets in office in January is going to have to be less self-serving that those currently in office.

The whole thing is making me writhe in fetal position several times per day.

[elKabong]

Unfortunately bailing out Wall Street is something we're going to have to do even though we'll have to do it while holding our noses because of the bullshit smell.

If banks don't grant credit due to fear of losses then business' will collapse, which causes the economy and the stock market to collapse, which causes unemployment and loss of wealth...

The normal reaction is to be angry and want to punish those that got us in this mess, but unfortunately punishing them will start the dominoes falling that will eventually hurt ourselves even more. Bailing them out is a tough pill to have to swallow, but it's got to be done, the details just have to be worked out.

[Mr Spock]

What I find interesting is that experts talk of sub-prime losses running into trillions of $ (how much is a trillion anyway) , what is the market value of every house in the US? Surely not that much.

I find it pathetic that all the politicians on Capital Hill are wringing their hands agonising over poor taxpayers and protecting them form greedy bankers, isn't it these taxpayers who borrowed above their capacity to pay and have now caused this

Instead of a banking bailout I propose a porn solution - all sluts working for i-banks must be seconded to the porn industry and suck cock until the economy improves

[elKabong]

Originally Posted by Mr Spock

Instead of a banking bailout I propose a porn solution - all sluts working for i-banks must be seconded to the porn industry and suck cock until the economy improves

I'll vote for that plan...

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Mr Spock

I find it pathetic that all the politicians on Capital Hill are wringing their hands agonising over poor taxpayers and protecting them form greedy bankers, isn't it these taxpayers who borrowed above their capacity to pay and have now caused this

Oddly enough, no.

Second, according to what I hear from my betters in the world of finance, the most serious problems are not with the bundles of subprime mortgages themselves — a large but not lethal quantum as far as I can tell — but with derivatives contracts tied to subprime and other dicey debt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/bu...20stein&st=cse

But even if this crisis was the fault of a few hundred thousand foreclosures, would you blame the folly of the homeowners or the outright idiotic practices of the banks that would risk destroying themselves by knowingly giving those people the loans which they could so obviously not afford?

Also, our government is NOT "wringing their hands agonizing over poor taxpayers and protecting them from greedy bankers." They are working to keep the "greedy bankers" in business by using the money of the "poor taxpayers."