A ‘silver lining’ of sorts

The democrat housing relief bill is laughable, I really don't understand how anyone can take it seriously. Passed or not passed, it's meaningless

The white house objections to the random pork in the bill are actually well founded.

I don't understand why most of the press doesn't analyze the programs laid out in the bill, and instead takes the title at face value

I think this is a great thing - kudos to President Bush!

I really, really, dont like government intervention on these topics, being a small government guy. Usually the solution causes more problems than it solves. However, confidence is (rationally or irrationally) eording fast in the US economy, and a loss of faith can quickly lead to a deflationary depression that will halt economic growth for years. Fear leads to hysteria, and that is the risk right now.

Idiots and Buffoons think this bailout is a great idea. We will double the national debt while devaluing the dollar. Ding bats like Barney Frank think there is an endless supply of money to be spent any way they see fit to get re-elected. The dollar is sinking fast and once the Federal Reserve starts printing more money to save these 2 and the upcoming bank failures, the dollar is dead.

The bailout will only help big banks at the expense of the American public who did not act irresponsibly.

The dumbed-down reporters of the New York Globe do not care to look deep into the bailout to see the future catastrophe it will cause. Just stay in line and do not ruffle any feathers.

Our country as we know it is dying and the press (Both liberal and conservative) is standing by and watching it happen. Where are the hard questions for Barney Frank on where the 5 trillion dollars will come from?

Dopes!

how cool - tell me - if losing money as individuals and corporations is now shared among all taxholders, can I get a piece of the pie if those individuals and corporations make money in the future? I sure hope so!

the handwriting on the housing wall had been there for years and years - nothing appreciates like that when incomes weren't doing the same - without going way down. Congress didn't do anything to stop it then....and now we all get to pay for it! Thanks, knuckleheads!

I vote for a full fledged meltdown rather than a big huge bailout that just concentrates yet morepower in the federal government. Meltdowns tend to be over quicker....look at the great depression...20 years to get the stock market back to where it was. We are on 10 years and counting since the Internet bubble - then the artificial greenspan-created housing bubble. And since noone is accountable for their mistakes, what bubble will we create to replace this one - or is the government finally at the end of its bag of tricks and we can finally have our long overdue depression??

some of you above seem to be making the same assumption the press is - which is that the housing bill will do something. Look at it, it will do just about nothing. The only relief for anyone is in the title.

Whether or not you think housing relief is a good thing, it won't happen through this bill.

What people on here aren't understanding is that it's not like the government is going to reach into your pockets today to pull out the cash to bail out these borrowers and lenders who, frankly, made their own beds. The government is going to borrow yet again from your kids and grandkids to pay for it. No wonder the dollar is losing ground to every other currency on the planet - we're simultaneously fighting two ridiculous and never ending wars, trying to bail out the very morons who got us into this housing mess, AND bailing out the quasi-governmental agencies (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) who dropped the ball along with everyone else.

What a colossal waste our entire government is. You'd think that by mortgaging our future we'd at least be able to pay for a healthy and productive economy today. Honestly, how long can we keep financing this mess our country is in with loans from overseas? You'd have to think that eventually we'll get a margin call and someone will turn on the lights and break up this childish party - and brother, when that happens, I hope I'm somewhere else...

Although many industry observers might be loath to characterize US real estate as a particularly pretty sight this week, homeowners have been paying careful attention to several recent, and extraordinary interventions taken by the federal government. The housing and credit crunch was the product of a free market economy, largely out of the control of individual homeowners. RealtyTrac reports that 50% of 2008 foreclosure filings occurred in just four states: California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. I doubt that you or I were polled to see whether we had concerns that thousands and thousands of new homes constructed and financed were actually being purchased by qualified buyers or knowledgeable investors.

Were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allowed to fail, I expect eager investors would step up to the plate - but at a premium. Higher mortgage rates would subsequently drive home prices down, perhaps in a free fall. This model might have some appeal to sophisticated investors who sold out at the peak. I'm not sure that the average homeowner shares the same view.

But Jim,

It was nice on the way up right? 20% a year. Party like rock stars. You had no problem with the super low; no doc loans since it ARTIFICIALLY drove up the price of houses.
House prices need to fall to historiclly averaged pices (Not the past 6 years of bogus increases) so that Joe and Jane making 75K a year can buy into a livable community.

Now Jim , go back to tyring to sell houses. Enjoy the decline in your standard of living.

speaking as a sophisticated investor who sold at the peak, Fannie and Freddie have to be rescued. I've no urge to see the american economy collapse.

Of course, any rescue should be like Bear, and kill the stockholders - something people keep missing about Bear.

Barney Frank's bill still does nothing!!! Good or Bad! Or to do with Fannie/Freddie, unless that's where the amendment happens to end up.

Read what the bill does. It requires mortgage loan issuers to A) give money to borrowers B) Realize and write down what are no doubt level 3 assets. Oh sure, there's going to be a rush to do that... A few drops in the bucket if they can pass the trash.

Speaking a more sophisticated investor than Charles; when the bailout happens, stuffing your mattress with dollars will not be to hide it; but rather the only good use for the devalued currency.

Fannie and Freddie are private institutions and the stockholdersare already dead. Let Freddie and Fannie die.

Now back to my more lavish lifestyle then Chuckee. Pip Pip

Winthorp, you are quite accurate about dollars in a complete collapse. Same would be true of gold of course. A useful holder of value would be plows, oxen, and firewood in such a situation.

I'd say most of my friends are significantly more financially sophisticated then I am, which is why they run hedge funds and I mess around with real estate - pretty clear who made the better decisions back in the 90s and it wasn't me.

A bailout of Fannie and Freddie could be done in many ways, most of which would destroy equity a la Bear Sterns. But losing the market maker for mortgages would put us into the great depression, something most understand. Doesn't necessarily mean its a good system, but currently its the one we have.