im not expecting them to see the future, im expecting them to know human nature enough to know that greedy people exist and will exist, and to count on it while making policies; i expect them to have common sense.

Yah plenty of us are pissed at Bush for "threw away my free market principles" and decided we MUST prop up the top 10%. And we're pissed Obama wants to keep doing it. Bush's rescue bill failed the first vote in the House until the whores got their pork.

You can say that again! [HA HA HA HA!]

>> Zarf BeebleBrix wrote:

>>> DPS wrote:

>>> One question for people saying give money to the banks.  Didn't the government try that already, at the cost of almost 1 trillion dollars if I recall correctly, and it didn't work?

>>Um... you freaking gave it 6 months.  What the hell do you expect in that time?

SOMETHING, hell ANYTHING.  If I was living in a cardboard box eating whatever scraps of food I could find and you gave me $1 million, came back 6 months later, and I was still in that exact same position you would be asking me WTF.  They were given $1 TRILLION and nothing happened.

">>BTW it was the "free market" advocated who lowered the interest rates<<

It was the US Federal Reserve Bank. You have no idea what you're talking about."

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Federal Reserve a PRIVATE bank?  I seem to recall hearing that somewhere.

i dont get how liberals think. Obama wants to get the economy going, i understand that. i can understand him wanting to spend some to make up for the $2 trillion less consumers are expected to spend. what i dont get is, how he thinks that he and the members of congress, knows how everyone needs their money spent better then they do. each person's circumstance is different, and to think you can do the most good by implementing insanely large, inflexible government programs, that ignores the country's needs, instead of letting individuals decide how to best spend their money, its ludicrous.

The Federal Reserve is a quasi official committee of major banks participating in the FDIC program.  The national chairman and half the national board are presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate.  The other half of the national board are elected by the regional boards, who are all made up of private banks.

In 1908 there was no such Federal Reserve.  A monetary crisis hit the US and if JP Morgan hadn't owned most of the banks himself, the depression might have hit 20 years early.  As it was he had the clout to stop runs, force temporary closures and short term loans between banks.  The Republic took note and decided to formalize the practice into the Federal Reserve System.

some right wingers complain that Geithner's "public-private" sharing of risk means destroying solvent banks in order to bail out insolvent ones, to avoid throwing any banks into bankruptcy.  It should be clear that Bush and Paulson made a colossal error in presuming the country didn't have time to let all these corporations file Chapter 11.  However, its also clear that even the best banks are hardly "free-market" vehicles, they have had decades of federal cash pumped into them and have had the federal government wipe out competition.  There are very high hurdles to even use the word "bank" inyour corporate title.  Until about 10 years ago, credit unions were forbidden to recruit from the general public.  The purpose of this protection was precisely to foster strong resources for crisis management.  BofA is SUPPOSED to loan money to shore up other banks.  That's why its in the Federal Reserve, and why it can borrow money cheap fromt he US govt in ways Bill Gates can't.

But it is true that elitism and graft have derailed the system.

Here is what should be done:

1.  Force everybody with "toxic assets" to write them off in 90 days unless they can prove some value.  That will mean most can't prove any value.  That will ruin many banks.  Too bad.  The deposits of citizens are insured.  BUT it will wipe out the toxic assets WITHOUT running up $2 trillion in federal debt and causing inflation.

2.  Force the losers to file Chapter 11.  either prove you can exist on a lower scale, and get protections from creditors, or...die, and become a financial "organ donor" to other banks.

3. THEN, and only then, after the worst is past, start making solid banks share the wealth like JP Morgan saw. 

4.  Our restructured banking system will start drawing foriegn capital because we're still better than the UK which will let you lose it all.