Comments on: Feds Dip Into Bailout Package To Help AIG

New $40B Infusion Boosts Total Aid To Troubled Financial Giant To $150B

[lovegetpeace]

They are updating all world Dictionary with the New Definition of Capitalism:

A system where the Gains or Profit is Privatized and the Losses is Socialized. The system where the head of the Corporations are not responsible for their mistakes. The system where Greed is King and nobody including the Government can Regulate it. The system where everyone looks the other way when they see Corruption.

[hypnotoad72]

More Dems voted for this than Repubs--including Obama.

Sheesh....
Posted by easeup at 04:24 PM : Nov 10, 2008
----

Ah, but who could have vetoed it?

[swin5]

Forget Paulson, Bernanke, and Greenspan. Let this retired physics teacher fill you in on the 4 rules for creating a sound economy.

1. There is to be no buildup of debt. That which can not be paid back in a reasonable period (say 7-10 years) should never be lent and debt that can''t be repaid should be forgiven and forgotten.

2. Wealth does not come from spending, or even saving, but from investing.

3. No wealth is to be passed on from one generation to the next - no permanent group of aristocrats. Each generation, and each child, is to make his or her own way. No more Kennedy''s, Rockefellers, etc. who never had to work a day in their life.

4. There is to be no concentration of wealth. Ultimately, the world''s riches belong to us all, not to a select few. You are paid if you develope the earth''s resources, but you don''t own them. Therefore, ALL working people deserve a fair share of the world''s wealth if they are willing to work. No billionaires paying minimum wages in America or sweatshop wages in foreign countries - or bringing in so-called ''guest'' workers to this country for exploitation.

If these 4 principles make any sense to you, then just ask and you may be surprised where they came from.

[txgrouch2007]

You cant have it both ways!
Posted by legacyABQ at 05:15 PM : Nov 10, 2008

The "both ways" doctrine was born after the panic of 1907, when collapse of our economy was narrowly averted by ONE wealthy person, J.P. Morgan, pledging half of his fortune to back up the entire banking system, which was suffering a series of chain-reaction bank failures. It worked, barely, and economic collapse was prevented.

After that, it was generally recognized that the nation could not go on relying on the wealth of one benevolent person to prevent loss of confidence. After the crash of 1929, FDR established the SEC and the FDIC in an effort to preserve confidence in the stock market and the banking system.

This is what started the public reliance on the federal government to lend a sense of security, because they experienced what happened from the lack of government regulation.

This crisis occurred because somebody meddled with the system. Banks were deregulated, and new kinds of financial vehicles were invented (derivatives and credit default swaps) without any corresponding regulation. This upset the system to the point of returning us to the panic/crash scenarios that played out in 1907 and 1929.

Those who fail to learn from history are destined to become extremely wealthy, powerful, and successful by dooming the REST OF US to repeat it.

[txgrouch2007]

From now on I will never let my vote indicate that I approve of the flub-a-dub who got elected.
Posted by swin5 at 03:32 PM : Nov 10, 2008

Aww, come on! Don''t let the trolls get you down.

EVERYBODY knows that almost NOBODY votes FOR a candidate. They vote to make a political statement, which usually is "I don''t like the other candidate," so they''re voting AGAINST the other guy.

[txgrouch2007]

How exactly is it that we generate wealth anymore?
Where is the economic sanity?
Posted by legacyABQ at 05:09 PM : Nov 10, 2008

ANSWERS, IN ORDER:

1: We borrow it.
2: I think we outsourced it sometime around 1994.

[legacyabq]

What really pisses me off is all the people who rant and rave about "free-market" economics.. Let the "market" decide. Let the money decide..
Well, the economics have spoken: these companies screwed up, so where''s the call to apply this "market medicine"?? Where is it?
Let them fall!
THAT would be along the lines of this market philosophy people rave about..
Let the market correct itself, by letting top-heavy risk-taking insolvent companies DIE like they should.
Otherwise,
PLEASE STOP WITH THE ALL-KNOWING MARKET RULING EVERYTHING PHILOSOPHY, unless you think that capitalists should put there monbey where there mouth has been: and let these companies fall!!
the market has spoken!!
You cant have it both ways!

[legacyabq]

swin5
avoice

EXACTLY.. Thank you..

This economy is fundamentally unsound because it is tipped vastly towards consumerism and retail.
We import EVERYTHING now.
How exactly is it that we generate wealth anymore?
Where is the economic sanity?

[fredrey-2009]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! americans are soooo stupid!

[easeup-2009]

Now the fascists can give even more of our money away to their CEOs and friend before they go under.

Posted by noloyalisti at 04:11 PM : Nov 10, 2008

More Dems voted for this than Repubs--including Obama.

Sheesh....

[swin5]

When Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush destroyed organized labor and the middle class, also lost was the buying power of the American public. The financial system kept things going for awhile by allowing people to borrow until they couldn''t afford the payments anymore. If I lend you a million dollars and you go out and spend it, you''ll feel rich - until the bill comes due. An economy falsely inflated due to borrowing is on the verge of collapse and a depression is now inevitable.

It only makes sense that in this economic climate, the first effects would be felt by the financial industry. But these are only small waves. Just wait for the big seismic wave of lost jobs, lost wages, personal, corporate, and governmental bankruptcies, and deep drops in disposable income and buying power that is yet to occur in the next few months. When all this happens, a government already $11 trillion in debt that has spent trillions to bail out the financial industry (to no avail), will be totally impotent to do anything to help. God help us then.

[noloyalisti]

Now the fascists can give even more of our money away to their CEOs and friend before they go under.

[brianbwb-2009]

"...Or do you ask first if the water used would deplete YOUR reservoir and what the effort would cost and WHETHER THE CONTRACTOR WHO BUILT IT CAUSED THE FIRE BY SHODDY ELECTRICAL WORK?" Posted by brundage3

To stay with your analogy, yes, I would. If I see the neighbor still lighting things ablaze while his roof is already burning, I say to heck with him, let him burn.

AIG is going to default on anything they owe you anyway, so why waste your own good "water"?

[brianbwb-2009]

Well, we gave them $85 billion, and we were supposed to own 70% of the company, now we have almost doubled that, but we cannot own more than the company is worth. Someone is out and out stealing money at this point.

Time to step up, CBS, put your top investigative reporter on this, follow that money to see where it goes.

[swin5]

To ''avoice''
I hear you about the pork. One day,instead of throwing it away, I looked over Congressman Mike Doyle''s ''Look at me, I''m really cute'' mailing (that I paid for). I looked to see if there were any in depth discussions on our Middle East policy, the war, or the impending financial collapse of our country. Nope. Just pictures of Mike with his big checks bringing home the bacon. Remember, for every dollar your congressman brings home, there are 534 other senators and representatives doing the same thing. End result - $11 trillion national debt. That is, on paper. I''ve read estimates as high as $50 trillion if honest bookkeeping was followed.

[swin5]

To txgrouch

I understand what you say about wasting my vote - other people have also made that comment to me. But I went that route before, constantly voting for who I considered the lesser of 2 evils. Then I decided in 2002 - NEVER AGAIN. From now on I will never let my vote indicate that I approve of the flub-a-dub who got elected. From now on, somebody in the election office will have to record my vote, by hand, in a separate column, indicating that there''s at least one person out there who has had enough and is fed up. Just remember, any avalanche, no matter how large, started with one rock.

[brundage3]

"We the people" out here in the country MUST cease in our insistance in simplistic "shouting."

I am furious at the "corporate-think" thiefs who went on a mega-thousands junkett AFTER they got the initial Government aid. To allow them and the many others like them to continue to run so much of our economy is unthinkable. That said......

Read the full news stories you see. Note that AIG businesses operate the retirement funds of MILLIONS of you fellow citizens. AIG insurance policies cover millions more. The companies their businesses work WITH employ many thousands if not millions more.

The "bail out" program may or may not be a well considered well written law. But certainly the intent of the Congress was to make this disaster less harmfuil for those millions of people who are impacted badly by these corporate morally challenged "business leaders."

When your neighbor''s house has flames coming through the roof, do you help? Or do you ask first if the water used would deplete YOUR reservoir and what the effort would cost and WHETHER THE CONTRACTOR WHO BUILT IT CAUSED THE FIRE BY SHODDY ELECTRICAL WORK?

[swin5]

To txgrouch

Seems like a lot of us got those form letters. You know what really irks me. Guess who paid to have those letters sent out? They vote to screw you and then they charge you to send you a letter telling you why they voted to screw you. I hate to say this but I think that things will have to get really really bad in this country before the citizens put down their ''People'' and ''National Enquirer'' magazines, pick up Newsweek or U. S. News & World Report, and start to really pay attention and scrutinize what''s going on. And how ''really bad'' do I mean? Well, how about the bankruptcy of the U.S. government, the end of medicare, medicaid, welfare, social security and pensions, the end of America being any more a player on the global scene. Do you think we''re headed anywhere else?

[txgrouch2007]

don''''t blame me, I voted for Ralph Nader in 2004 and Ron Paul in 2008.
Posted by swin5 at 03:01 PM : Nov 10, 2008

I blame you for wasting your vote when you COULD have used it to vote for someone who COULD WIN. :-)

[txgrouch2007]

When I wrote my representative telling him not to vote for the bailout, all I got in response was a form letter.
Posted by avoice at 02:40 PM : Nov 10, 2008

Me, too. And I READ IT. It said, he promised to vote against it. HE PROMISED.

Then the ba$**** voted FOR IT. You bet I voted against HIM on election day.

But he got RE-ELECTED ANYWAY. It just goes to show what IDIOTS the voters are in this country.

I''m telling you, this government is up for grabs. The first person who rolls a tank up Pennsylvania Avenue...