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What Do the Bailouts Really Mean for America?

[but the big banks need to survive.]

Could someone please explain WHY?

IMO, there has been far too much consolidation in this industry and my feeling is we would be better off dismantling these banks into smaller pieces... although there may be good arguments against my position, I've yet to hear them.

[This group deserves bailout money... The second group does not.]

Yet it's the second group who's getting more assistance than the first, particularly on GSE loans.

[The new phrase would simply read, “Ask not what I can do for my Country, just tell me what my government entitlement looks like.”]

I had been very disgusted with what I thought was an entitlement philosophy of many Americans.

My current thinking is that it's not really entitlement thinking, it's capitulation. SO MUCH MONEY, and so much power flow through Washington, that it's perhaps natural to think that the federal governement is the backstop of the world. "You can't fight city hall" has become more like "You can't fight the White House [or Capitol Hill]."

Any time a dollar moves, a piece of it (often a big piece) goes to federal, state, and in the most egregious form of theft, to local taxes.

The only way left to fight back is to deal in cash. I'm seeing a lot more contractors, businesses, and individuals moving in this direction.

General Motors Bailout: Consider Other Alternatives

[As Ben Franklin observed, “Great haste makes great waste.”]

You could have begun the article with this quote. Why is everyone in such a hurry to "fix" these issues, which have been brewing for decades?

[Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, one of the bill's sponsors.]

She appears to be a good-hearted, well-meaning person, but she is completely clueless on issues regarding the economy.

It's been said that average housing prices are too high relative to average incomes.

The same can be said for automobiles.

The strain that an average car payment places on lower-to-middle income households is steep. While the cost of fuel has backed off significantly (temporarily?), the percentage of net income absorbed by auto-related costs is extraordinary... and unsustainable.

We simply cannot afford cars as they are priced now.

Now, to the hybrid issue...

60% of our electricity is produced by coal-burning plants. "Plugging in" every night will increase that amount substantially. Is this acceptable?

Furthermore, we already see brownouts in major cities when temperatures rise. Will the electrical infrastructure support a massive shift to electric cars?

On (pseudo-) environmentalism: Did you happen to see the 60 Minutes feature on computer disposal? Will China also import our cast-off car batteries in the future?

Whether it's housing, the Big Three or alternative energy, we all seem in a hurry to "fix' things, but we don't seem to be in the mood to think these things through before we act. Not one of these problems will be solved both quickly and effectively. We need to choose which adverb we want to stamp on our "solutions."

Stop the Bail-Outs, I Want to Get Off

[...less than two months ago, six of eight representatives in the Detroit area voted against the first iteration of Tarp [the Bush administration’s Troubled Assets Relief Programme]. Only too happy to play a game of chicken with the global financial system...]

They voted against it because so many voters, like me, bombarded our representatives with calls, letters and e-mails urging them to vote against it.

Contrary to your comment, this wasn't about being "Only too happy to play game of chicken with the global economy."

While i can only speak for myself as to why, I expected that the feds would piss away this money on things that wouldn't "help."

They always... ALWAYS do.

It was clear in the original proposal that their intention was to limit/completely eliminate any oversight. And with the quality and caliber of the people we have in Washington, oversight means very little, anyway.

The second time around, the ill-informed, ignorant reps voted for the bill.

They sold this plan much like they sold the war in Iraq, only faster.

And now, we see the how well that's gone.

Yes, the people in our state are hoping for a bailout. What they don't seem to realize is that bailout or no, we're STILL going to lose a LOT more jobs in the auto industry and by extension, so will many others who think they are safe.

I wonder if the buggy whip industry responded similarly.

Here again, bailout or no, those jobs are going away.

You look at Delphi- they slashed their workforce, re-wrote their contracts, and replaced many of the previous workers with people who were willing to do the work for $14/hr. And there were THRONGS of people lined up for those jobs.

I believe that the Big 3 should follow suit.

To do otherwise is simply to waste more money, and prolong agony on the route to the same end result.

I vote no bailout again.

And I'm sure my rep will vote the other way.

Again.

The Humpty Dumpty Economy

[In a classic case of unintended consequences, the plan will encourage a massive new round of delinquencies and household income reduction ]

What's ironic is that in many cases, homeowners would be better served by the mod they can get on a case-by-case basis than the "streamlined" terms.

[In many cases, dual income families may decide to eliminate one job altogether as reduced mortgage payments combined with lower child care and other work related expenses will likely exceed the after-tax value of the lost paycheck.]

I see this as a good thing. Too many households have one member stuck in a dead-end job so they can pay for their "stuff." The mathemactics of that second job quite often made little sense on a net-after-all-costs basis. If we see a shift to parents spending more time with their children and less money on useless crap, this is a positive, unintended consequence.