Anyone watching/listening to the news?

[erinm]

96.9 TKK talk radio passed on a take about splitting the whatever trillion to only taxpaying citizens and supposedly it came out to 600,000 therabouts. i would take that. my husbands business has slowed considerably in the past month and the hospital i work at is talking layoffs. Layoffs of nurses? They do not have enough as it is!!!! ErinM
1much yes and children. they all need to have a roof and food and clothes.

 

[the1much]

we have so many jobs here,,, we cant get enough workers,,,i have an extra lot on my land,,,,hint hint,,,anyone that NEEDS it,,,let me know.has water septic,i need to put a pole in for electric,, but thats nothin,is great for a trailer or a camper.

 

[Reinbeau]

Well, they're (Congress and anyone else who's involved in passing this bailout) getting bombarded with e-mails and phone calls running 50:1 against any kind of a bailout. I've been hearing all about Jeffrey Miron's take on all of this, so I searched out his commentary. A small snippet from that commentary:

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.

Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

In contrast, a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This "moral hazard" generates enormous distortions in an economy's allocation of its financial resources.

Sounds right to me! The thought of the failure of thse companies and what happens to the economy then is scary, but the thought of giving all these corporations and their fat-cat executives (who get huge rewards for driving corporations into the ground, for pete's sake!) is far scarier. Where is the incentive to succeed if all you have to do is run up huge bills and cry for a handout?

This thought just occurred to me - this is the epitome of the 'no one fails' BS that the intelligencia has been spouting for years now. Look where it's got us? We need failure to force people to succeed. Without bailouts!!!​

 

[mom'sfolly]

Again, math people math

1 billion = 1000 million or 1,000,000,000
1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000

US population is about 300 million or 300,000,000

The total bailout will be about a trillion dollars:

1,000,000,000,000 divided by 3,000,000,000 = 10,000/3 = ~$3333 per every man, woman and child in the US.

Does this make me happy, no. Is it necessary, probably. Could this have been prevented, certainly. But the rumors that are flying around show that most Americans can't even do simple division....why would they understand mortgages, compound interest, ARMs, ballloon payments, credit, housing bubbles etc.

If I have a contractor do work on my house, he isn't paid until the work is finished, but he has to provide the materials for the job. He borrows against the payment I will be making to buy the materials. The materials are paid for when he gets paid. Many, maybe even most small business work this way. Short term credit relies on the long term credit to finance it. Even if a company is only billed once a month for the supplies, it is still using credit for that 30 days. Long ago I worked for an environment testing firm. It got paid when large contracts were completed. It relied on credit for supplies and salary, because it only got paid every six months or so on the big contracts; small, repeating contracts kept the company solvent between the big payouts.

 

[Reinbeau]

Yes, that's the norm today, everything on credit, but it's a bad norm, and believe it or not, there are business people out there building their businesses without that typical credit usage. And there are people out there living their lives within their means. I'm sorry, but I feel no compulsion whatsoever to bail out people who live outside their means. I don't care if they were supposedly duped by a mortgage company - they should have read the fine print (and not bought that $40k car and all the other accouterments so many think are essential nowadays - paid for with a credit card). If they can't read and understand the fine print, then should they be making adult decisions like buying a house? Should an exec who heads up a multibillion dollar investment company be able to make stupid, greedy decisions, get fired yet leave with a 268 million dollar package (Lehman, there are other bad examples in AIG and others). And now due to their misuse of business and credit the rest of us have to pay through our noses to fix it? I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. Or should I say I'm not willing to pay for the bailout. They'll do it anyways, but the ill will this is generating is going to show up in the voting booth this November. Small comfort, that.

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

Quote:
if DH doesnt go back to work soon we might need it, LOL
I'm selling his corvette parts on ebay to pay for rent this month!
But I think Texas is to far for us to try and move our chickens and their coop! LMAO

~Tiff~

btw-hows the construction jobs in Texas? DH is a union carpenter.

 

[mtnhomechick]

This government has gotten by with this Hysteria for too many years. I can think of other examples when we were scared into believing certain things to be true when in fact it never materialized and WERE NOT true. Trying to keep us living in fear. Sheeeeesh!!!

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
if you have the money allready it is a fantastic time to be buying a home,many of them you can get for naming your own price..banks are needing to drop those forclosed homes fast..

 

[BeardedChick]

The odd thing here about homes on the brink of foreclosure (supposedly): people are asking a LOT of money for them.

Take the double wide trailer down the street sitting on 35 ac, he paid $140k for it, but now has it listed at $285k. Most of the homes in my area are like that.

Yes, people are selling but it sure doesn't look like firesales are happening in my area.

Another home for sale on my street was built by the owner, he borrowed about $250k to build it. He is supposedly way behind on his payments, and has it on the market for $480k.

???? I don't get it.

 

[the1much]

because it takes 480 thous this year to equal what 140 did lat year ,,, the real estate people know this,,and by next year it will take 750 thous to equal that same 140.