TARP 2nd Half - Relief or Squandering Waste?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Senate Republicans have not yet consented to the bailout vote on Thursday afternoon but they likely will agree, a congressional aide said. At least one Democrat believed the resolution against freeing the funds would be blocked.

"It will be close, I think," Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said on National Public Radio. "It's not going to be an overwhelming vote because people are, rightfully, angry and frustrated over how they perceive the first $350 billion was managed by the Bush administration."

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1551250420090115

Why spend any money?  I believe the nation is in a depression and there is little that continuing government spending can do to 'shock' it all better.   

From what I remember of history, the Great Depression lasted for years.  Bread and soup lines did not form overnight...why isn't government preparing for the homeless?  The hungry?  Where is the money allocated to those relief efforts? 

Can government bring back prosperity?  All those jobs sent offshore during the past 30 years?  Fix the problem lending practices?  BTW - I've seen some commercials on TV for mortages for those with no credit, bad credit...are these really new invitations for wasting taxpayer money?  The next taxpayer ripoff?

New serial borrowers that go to bankruptcy court to renegotiate for a reduction of an inflated house price (or other asset) - with taxpayers 'eating' the difference?  A new generation of ripoff and con artists?

Are American's upset with management by the Bush administration?  Has the media done a good job of educating Americans about the seeds of the problem? 

IIRC, some on Capitol HIll tried to reform Fannie / Freddie and other problems back in 2005 - a Bush administration call to action.  The call to action was ignorned by many on Capitol Hill and here we are today.  Some of those same people that failed to reform Fannie / Freddie and the credit markets in 2005 want to 'FIX' the problem by throwing more money at it - the black hole of taxpayer dollars.

An attorney once told me there was no such thing as an "honest businessman".  What about those people that regulate business?  Who is guarding the hen house?  Who is looking out for the American taxpayers?  Ensuring that savings and retirement funds do not continue to erode? 

At this point, I have to wonder if there is any amount of money that will close of the Black Hole opened by Wall Street and past administrations (30 years)?  Is that sucking sound just getting louder?  A new Pied Piper on the horizon?

Has there been any reform of the lending practices?  Fannie?  Freddie?  CRA?  Anything since the drain on taxpayer dollars started?

Any plans for fees on short term or day trades?  Fees to pay for all these bailouts?  Any plan for something like a VAT tax on imports?  Help lower the trade imbalance?  Encourage job growth at home?

Global Corporate Carpetbaggers seem to suck the money out of countries, taxpayers, bailouts, and what do they offer in return?  Do global corporations build communities?  Provide sustainable jobs and opportunities?  Do they leave behind 'clean fields' where their factories once stood?  Do they pay taxes and support communities?

I believe there has to be a better way to a sustainable economy, I just don't see anything coming from the new administration.  Just the black hole enlarging and creating a larger sucking sound...to be satisfied with taxpayer dollars.  A continued squandering and wasting of the future.

Where is the REFORM?  Where is the CHANGE?

just my humble opinions

[WhiskeyGirl]

Another world view - "existing losses must be recognized, and failing institutions allowed to fail"

U.K. bailout a model - with flaws
Loan guarantees won't help the economy unless Obama makes banks come clean on their books.

Colin Barr, senior writer
Last Updated: January 19, 2009: 3:39 PM ET

Banks must write off bad loans and raise new capital, Mason said. Otherwise, he added, any taxpayer funds used in support of the financial system merely serve to prop up existing institutions, including troubled ones -- at great expense to Americans whose own finances are coming under substantial stress.

"Until we start recognizing the losses, we're just engaging in crony capitalism," said Mason, who is also a banking industry consultant. Executives of banks that get federal support without being force to take adequate writedowns, he adds, are "using Congress as a piggybank."

piggybank = taxpayers & taxpayers are overextended - imho

...David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that Obama would emphasize that lenders need to keep funds flowing to keep an already sputtering economy from slowing even further.

"I think he is going to have strong message for the bankers," Axelrod said. "We don't want them to sit on any money that they get from taxpayers."

But Ed Gainor, a structured finance lawyer at McKee Nelson in Washington, said dictating that lenders must lend - as Monday's U.K. plan does - could be counterproductive. One reason lenders are conserving capital, he noted, is that the economy is slumping -- which raises the odds that even good borrowers will default as they lose their jobs.

"Demanding that they make loans is somewhat silly on a grand scale," says Gainor. "If the lenders can lend and make a profit, that's what they will do."

Mason said the strong message the government needs to send is that existing losses must be recognized, and failing institutions allowed to fail.

These processes will be painful...

How much more can taxpayers bear?  Will Obama break the bank?  Is that the final solution for America?

"Socially we've reached a point in this country where we act like there are no losers," said Mason. "But this isn't the kids' soccer game. There are losers here, and we have to deal with that."

Are bad debts/losses the childish things that must be put aside?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/19/news/loans.banks.fortune/?postversion=2009011915

Shifting ground?

[landlubber]

Huge squandering waste!   The new president was sworn in today and the dow is down 300+ points so far!  (I thought he was going to save the world).

If we look back on history to the great depression, government programs compounded the problem- up until WWII, when there was massive amounts of government spending AND the drafting of tens of thousands of men into the armed forces- which certainly made unemployment go down.

My parents were small business owners and I believe that it is up to people like them- the people that actually EMPLOY people- to fix this.  I do NOT believe government is the answer.  We need to go back to being a nation of do-ers, and not sitting back with our hands out.

Why throw billions, trillions even, of dollars at people that have already proven that they do not know what they are doing?  Why involve the government with who should get mortgages?

It is all a mess and it all makes me MAD!

/rant off.

[flamom]

Let's just keep tossing more money at the problems and demand absolutely NO ACCOUNTABILITY... I can't even get away with that on my direct tv bill........