Follow the money

Maybe that's where the problem lies. The influence of money and greed. If a physician is tied to rules, why not overhaul the systems as to what candidates can and can't do. I trust my physisican more than nay of these people. Lobbyist need a leash. It's more than apparent at the fed level and also at the local level with the crooks on beacon hill..COGNOS

Remember on 9/10/2001 Rumsfield announced that over a trillion dollars had gone missing? Why don't they find that money and use it?

Am I missing something or did the Republicans who voted against it still collect more than the Democrats who voted for it, both over their careers and in this cycle? So where do we "follow the money"?

You may follow the money to understand why NY legislators support the measure and Arizona ones opposed it etc., but it all comes down to Republicans wanting to eat their cake (radical deregulation) and have it too (main street "populism").
If Republicans had voted in the same yes/no proportion as the Democrat, the measure would have passed. Therefore it is unfair to treat the two parties in the same manner. The Democrats voted responsibly, even though the crisis as create by Republicans. The Republicans acted like irresponsible demagogues. But then what's new.

If you look at "the Fed" which is controlled by what 10 foreign banks, printing paper money fiat dollars at ever increasing rates, but there is a money shortage and we need to inject 700 billion?

We have Goldman Sachs and other investment firms not only shorting stocks, but printing extra fake shares by naked shorting, hammering down good companies and withdrawing cash with the promise at some point to "buy the shares back".

With fractional banking, the banks lend out like $10 for every dollar held in their bank and they are running out right? What happens when a naked short has to cover and doesnt have the cash? Do they get taken over by a larger firm or bank? I think so.

I think the 700 billion would only help the system thats printing the fiat dollars. They wish to use the extra cash to buy back in on the lows. I say, give the people the money instead and use our own tax payer money to buy them out at a fraction of the dollar.

Most of us that think for a living, already know this. It is tantamount to treason. We smell the defecation from this bunch of political crooks on both sides of the aisle. Now they want us to pay for the pump and dump phony paper that they have allowed to exist. How much longer will we have to bend over before there is a revolt the likes of which will we have never seen in this nation. This is a direct result of the globalists, socialists, and an evermore oppressive government pigs that continue lining their own pockets with our tax dollars. We don't want the bail out, we need a firing squad.

Marx’s Proposal Number Five seems to be the leading motivation for those backing the Wall Street bailout

Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx proposed 10 measures to be implemented after the proletariat takes power, with the aim of centralizing all instruments of production in the hands of the state. Proposal Number Five was to bring about the “centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

We all know that the Media is controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party. Now they wanttto controll our money.

Thank God that their are some Americans in Congress that defeated this Hoax of a Bail Out. Thank You REPUBLCANS.

And there you have it- proof positive that the ill effects of lobbyist far outweigh their benefits. We must cut the cancers out.

Thank you. It explains a lot.

Why doesn't the FED just loan the ailing banks money to service their own bad debts instead of buying these debts outright? Why not put these banks, mortgage firms etc., on the hook for payback instead of the taxpayer?
Sterling Greenwood

Who can you trust? Each side says I have the solution,and the media says
one thing postive one hour and the next hour negative. So we have to help the
rich, which will enable the middle class to head toward the rich circle. Now who
will help the me the hourly worker that does not know who is telling the truth.
Credit and creditcards are what people like to live on to show twhat?
Every one mentions buying a car and college for our kids. Yea, right buying
a car is so easy, you can buy without a job or downpayment. Now as for education
it is not for the poor working stiff, and not everyone wants to go to college. If a
state want to every kid that wants to could go to a junior college with our sales tax.

Terrific congressional leadership! Mock the opposing party by blaming them and the President for the current financial mess moments before the vote and, to top it off, don't bother to find out if you even have enough votes to pass the bill! CLUELESS!!!

Just think everyone, that $700 billion dollar package failed and the market responded by losing $1.2 trillion dollars in value. Yes, it can get worse if this package isn't passed.

See you all in the unemployment line!

Did the Bailout Plan:
restrict credit to those able to pay it back?
change the way Mortgage Backed Securities are regulated?
change the structures so that we will never hear "...too big to fail..." again?
do ANYTHING to change the mechanisms that caused the problem in the first place?
NO. They can't even point to any rationale as to why they picked 700 Billion, instead of 2, 5, or 10. The whole thing is a joke, trying to patch up a mess that the .gov caused in the first place.

Kudos to Bonnie for pointing out one obvious flaw with this logic. And add to that the fact that a responsible newspaper should not be confusing CORRELATION (a relationship that merely shows things are related not what caused what) with CAUSATION.

You know why God gave Moses the 10 commandments? It wasn't because God was a proponent of deregulation. God knows what's in the hearts of greedy men. We should learn from this lesson. The good old boys are still running the financial institutions. They continue to manipulate the investment markets, money lending and increase their scare tactics in order to convince us that there is a big problem that only giving them more of our money can fix. This greedy bunch need to be given economic commandments to follow. There needs to be stiff punishments for those that don't follow them. This greedy breed of executive good old boys needs have their club desegragated. This includes the folks we elect that only serve those that have control of our almighty dollar.

I'm confused why people who endorse the absolute power of the free market would find these figures anything but appropriate. For those who endorse markets above all else as an ideology and panacea, isn't this the logical conclusion, the market for political representation?

I vaguely recall reading somewhere "virtue lies in the mean, not the extreme." That applies as much to fundamentalism in market ideology a it does to religious fundamentalism. We have a broken system and the only ones who are not hurt buy it right now are those who are completely without need for credit (i.e., the independently wealthy). We cannot hold to extreme ideologies, about invisible hands and the infallibility of markets. We must do something to help re-engage the credit markets for the sake of the rest of America.

i shouldn't be surprised that some moron (read: Ari Zighelboim) blamed the republicans for this mess. hahahaha...i'm not surprised at all...b/c the one guy you can actually point your finger to (with documented proof) is our very own democrat, Barney Frank. I agree that the bailout is tantamount to socialism (or the beginnings of it). We criticize Hugo Chavez for nationalizing his oil production...and then we go and propose nationalizing our bank(s). talk about hypocritical. Let the banks and insurance companies that screwed up suffer (both the little guy and the big guy)...and fail...and let's slim down to the way we should have been all along…before Barney Frank and his democrat pals forced us to lend money to people that never should have had a mortgage in the first place.

You know, I tried to follow the money, and it stopped just short of my neighbor's door. THEY certainly don't have any and yet are being told to contribute to $700 billion to bail out some of their nearest and dearest friends...the ones foreclosing on their homes, charging usuary rates, choking small businesses. Please, will Congress do the right thing and make Wall Street accountable and not throw the tab at Basic Joe? He's at the breaking point. Just think, a couple of months ago, we were naively only concerned with how we were going to pay to heat our homes this winter.....

The 770 point drop was caused by the fed selling securities it owns. Then all the fed tools - like Suzie Orman - were on all the networks last night telling us the sky would fall if we didn't pass the fed's bailout. What a bunch of interrelated criminals. I agree with Gene's comment. I'm running for congress and it's impossible to follow my money trail, because I refuse to accept any money from anyone. Accordingly, the NWO media refuses to cover my campaign. I've been running for congress against the NWO for 5 months, and there hasn't been one word of print in any media about my campaign. The democrats and republicans have everything fixed within their criminal enterprise. Democracy is dead. The globalist killed it!

If we don't act quickly and panic appropriately, the stock market will turn into a smoking gun of a mushroom cloud. Right?

As Fannie Mae’s CEO (1999 to 2003), Franklin Raines pulled in over $90 Million, mostly in bonuses. He was sued by the SEC and OFHEO to recover $50 Million in bonuses due to Enron-like accounting practices overstating their earnings by $10.6 Billion. Franklin took “early retirement”, paid a hefty fine and forfeited stock options valued at $15.6 Million. He is now Obama’s economic advisor for housing policy.

Jamie Gorelick was vice-chairperson at Fannie. In 1998, she received a bonus of $779,625 amidst a scandal where signatures were falsified on accounting transactions to meet earning targets. She is a leading candidate for Attorney General if Obama is elected president.

Jim Johnson was Raines’ predecessor at Fannie. He resigned from Obama’s VP selection committee after revelations he accepted a sweetheart loan from Countrywide Financial while Fannie’s CEO.

As taxpayers, we are now liable for failures in a $5.2 Trillion loan portfolio to include $780 Billion in high-risk “Alt-A” and sub-prime loans.

Thanks to Obama's Friends!!

In contrast, John McCain warned of the coming mortgage crisis as he pressed in
2005 for regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Vote for McCain/ Palin '08.......Our ONLY hope for change!!!!

I didn't lose a dime yesterday. I don't have a 401k or any health insurance or any savings. I work full-time and live paycheck to paycheck. I try to save, but it's impossible. I know lots of people like me, mostly single mothers. I thought we were already in a depression.

I see ds1112 got his talking points. I hope he got paid his 50 cents by McCain campaign. McCain signed on to a bill that never left commitee after it was already dead besides which; I see several 'poison pills' in that bill (S. 190) that would actually hurt oversight. Never mind that Paulson was a partner in Goldman Sachs and will be probably be lobbying for them after he leaves his position. Never mind that McCain advisor Martin Feldstein is currently on the board of AIG. Never mind that Davis who runs the McCain campaign founded Homeownership Alliance, a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac advocacy group. Nevermind Phil Gramm, another McCain guru, wrote the Commodity Futures Modernization Act often refered to as the "Enron Loophole" Also a McCain advisor. (His wife was on the board for Enron during that time.) When all you have left is lies...pretend you supported the side you voted against all along.

Enron during that time.)

GG, I am the real ds1112. So bone-headed idiot with no brain of his/her own has been using my id's (this is the 2nd on now). Of course, whoever it is is an ignorant, stupid, slimy republican. But of course, aren't most of the repubs that blog on here are just that......what was I thinking? I am an Obama supporter, and I won't use any id anymore. Whoever this idiot is, he/she is sickening. I think we definitely have to have some people take an IQ test before they are allowed to vote. These idiots are the reason we have had 8 years of stupidity and misery

Why give loans to companies that will just use it to outsource jobs overseas and who still won't give loans to Black and Latino people (red lining)? Why doesn't the U.S. just nationalize the banks? If this isn't proof positive that the banking industry is too greedy to self-regulate, then I don't know what is.