Chasman007

Bailouts: Misunderstanding the Moral Hazard

FINALLY, someone who understands! The people who work for the Government - both the legisalative and executive branches- seem to forget that they work for US - the taxpayers. Congress, the Treeasury and the Fed shouldn't even be negotiating because they are supposed to be on the same side, getting the taxpayers the deal of a lifetime. We should be offering rock-bottom, 20 cents on the dollar prices for the crap securities, and getting preferred shares for all the extra capital they need -- zero out the shareholders or dilute them to near-zero. I don;t want to have to "hope" the taxpayers will profit; I want a 10-bagger that will pay off ALL the debt Bush has run up. Paulsen's threat that companies won't "participate" if the terms are punitive is either a bluff, or the whole crisis is a con. If the company is going to collapse, they won't have a choice. Frankly, if they really are threatening to collapse the entire system, the Government has the authority to simply seize the assets by eminent domain, and then pay REAL market value., not some phoney "mark to market" price dreamed up by Givernment officials who seem to think they still work for Wall Street.