Quote:
Originally Posted by Overdog
It seems to me the best way to address the economic problem we now face is for the government to buy up the foreclosures and sell the properties back...
The current financial rescue plan just passed by the senate will not stop it, and will just be a huge waste of money.
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Well, actually, that *is* the plan. The only issue is that the holders of the mortgages will only sell the most "toxic" (i.e. over-valued) mortgages to the government. That's why the Senate bill included provisions for acquisition of *equity* in the firms that are selling these mortgages: they have to give up some of their equity in order to have the privilege of getting more for those mortgages than they're worth.
It's definitely *far* from ideal, but this is Governmental Sausage Making in action: its better than the alternative!
Those that are against the plan are simply not seeing the fact that credit in this country is drying up faster than spit on the asphalt in August. For those of us who have small businesses, the lucky ones don't need lines of credit to make payroll, but those are in the minority. If this thing fails, it will be all of about 60 days before unemployment and business failures shoots through the roof.
Its not about "letting the fatcats off the hook" or "small government" or even "Nancy Pelosi is being mean to us!" Its all about *survival*.
We desperately need to roll back the elimination of government oversight and regulation of financial institutions, and more importantly, start collecting the statistics that the Bush Administration *stopped* in order to hide how much money those fatcats were
stealing earning!
The hidden crisis in the latest round is that because only the biggest banks and institutions can buy up the banks that are failing, we're headed toward the same sort of mindless consolidation that leads to dysfunctional markets. Just like with Oil or Pharmaceuticals, when you have consolidated down to a handful of participants that dominate the market, there's no need for collusion to ensure that markets aren't "efficient" (meaning that prices don't go down when demand drops or supply increases because its not in the "interests" of the participants to do so, and they can *assume* that the few other players will find mutual benefit in doing nothing).
With only 3 banks left in the whole country, are you *sure* you're ever going to get a good deal? Why should they not charge you $5 for every withdrawl? There'll be no pressure not to!
And folks think that this doesn't affect them....
So, trust busting big time: That's why I'm a Republican, Teddy R's massive "restructuring" of the Oil and all those other horrid so-called "natural" monopolies of a century ago....
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others,
Buffy
