Wall Street: 1, Us: -800,000,000,000

It's ok! We'll just make more money!

New Zealand dollars are actually looking really good right now.

I sincerely hope it doesn't pass.... the opposition appears to be going pretty strong on this one. It's time to reintroduce accountability into the American vocabulary. You took all these bad financial agreements. You voted in the politicians that deregulated the markets.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. I hope, as you sell your cake and cake tin, that you learn better next time.

BTW, the Peso was doing great until about a month ago. Still, if you had put ALL YOUR MONEY in Pesos last year, you would be UP 0.34%

If you followed conventional wisdom and put all your money in an S&P 500 mutual fund, you would have LOST 23.9%. This is a very common thing for people in their 30s and 40s to have all their money in.

Still, it's a small price to pay if it keeps poor people in their Government Subsidized McMansions!

Reamworks: You and I must have different definitions of the word "poor."

I don't know any poor people in mansions.

@mizzchelle! I know people with net worths of NEGATIVE 200,000 living in 5 bedroom houses in Florida. They have $200,000 dollars LESS than your typical homeless person on the streets of SF.

I wonder if anyone else is making the same face I am right now.

Here is the letter I sent to my Senators and Representative before the votes:

This bill will not work. The housing market, during its peak, ballooned to a point where housing costs were 10x annual median income. Housing costs should be no more than 2-3x annual median income. This bill does nothing to address that. Unfortunately, I do not think ANY legislation can address this problem. Housing costs were artificially inflated to levels that were unsustainable. With that in mind, there is no way that the mortgages purchased under this bill will ever regain their value to the American taxpayer. In fact, until housing prices stabilize at their proper target level (2x median income), the economy will continue to decline. In the meantime, there will be trillions more dollars in defaulted mortgages, as people continue to walk away from houses that will never regain the value of their original mortgage.

Because of this fact, it is impossible for this or any other bill, to con the investment market into the belief that the banking industry is OK. It's not. It has failed, and it will need to be rebuilt from scratch. Millions of people are going to lose their jobs. I know you don't want to admit that is the case, but it is the truth, and no amount of money that you throw at the banks will change it.

Instead of wasting a trillion dollars of taxpayer money on a failed plan, I suggest instead that you use that money to invest DIRECTLY into the growth of American industries. For example, increase the federal spending for alternative energy by an order of magnitude (from $3 billion to $300 billion) and make it a national directive to completely replace the energy infrastructure of America with clean, renewable energy within the next 5 years, ala 1960 NASA. It can be done, and it would do a lot more to help restore the economy than giving the money to banks in the HOPES that some of it will trickle down to those who need it most (it won't).

Eliminate the privatized health insurance industry and replace it with a smart, modernized socialized healthcare system. This will stimulate small business by eliminating the disincentive for individuals to leave their employers to start small businesses with out risking losing their healthcare.

This bill simply will not work. The banking industry has failed, and you cannot save it, no matter how many tax dollars you spend to do so.

None of the money in this bill goes directly to those who need the credit. It is all based on an assumption that the money MAY trickle down from the banks to individuals and small businesses. However, this is an incredibly ignorant assumption. And even if it did work, there is nothing in the bill preventing the continued predatory practices that affect the budgets of most Americans. Things like 30% interest rates and $40 late fees on payments that are a single day overdue. THIS is what is truly hurting the American family, and this bill does nothing to correct that.

The wording isn't perfect (it was a rough draft), but I didn't have time to improve it before the votes.

It's kind of nice how the bailout gives folks of all political views something to disagree on. Together.

@mizzchelle: Yes, you have an ability to earn enough money to pay off your debt (hopefully), but @Reamworks' point is that a mortgage is not an asset, it is a liability. Most people would be better off renting than purchasing a home. However, that is not what is taught by most financial advisors. And, due to ridiculously unfair tax laws, it is also encouraged by the government.

Your debt was an investment - one with a potentially high return on investment. Most homes do not have a very good ROI.

@Ilikedginger: It does. Both of my Democratic senators voted for the bill, but my douchebag Republican representative voted against it.

(And yes, he is a douchebag - all of his campaign flyers contain silhouettes of families climbing over fences, and he voted against the SCHIP, claiming it would increase the number of smokers in the country, even though it was his own party that fought against any other source of funding other than an increased tax on cigarettes).

How can you blame this on Obama when both candidates support it?

fuuuuuuck I just read about this. My life has been sucked dry by 16hr work days

Alright. I'm going to spout my thoughts on this exactly once.

1.) I hope they don't bail ANYTHING out, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Why? What happens when OJ Simpson allegedly kills two people, and Johnny Cochrane bails him out of the predicament? NOTHING IS LEARNED, AND JACKASSERY CONTINUES. There is a reason why the word "consequence" is in the dictionary.

2.) This is not any one groups fault. It is THREE GROUPS fault. Those groups are:

A - The politicians who have allowed or encouraged predatory and / or ill-conceived financial offerings, mortgages, and economic manipulations. This includes aspects that were endorsed by BOTH Democrats and Republicans (although not necessarily at the same time). So perhaps it's about time that the politicians got this particular kick in the pants.

B - The banking / finance industry. When you engage in predatory and / or ill-conceived financial offerings, mortgages, and economic manipulations, you should just automatically ASSUME it is going to bite you in the ass badly, sooner or later. Just, from the get-go, expect that you will one day have lynchmobs, or some modern equivalent thereof, after you. Karma's a bitch like that.

C - The consumers. Hello? "I know I can't afford this mortgage, I know I'm not likely to be making enough to afford it anytime in the next ten years either, but the bank is being stupid enough to offer it to me anyway? Sure! I'll take it! Because at least then I can look like hot sh*t for my neighbours, family and the girl at the bar... (at least until I die or am foreclosed upon)" Mental midgets, pay attention: EDUCATE YOURSELF REGARDING PERSONAL FINANCE, PRACTICE FRUGALITY AND / OR SIMPLE LIVING, QUIT TRYING TO COMPETE ON SUCH A MATERIALISTIC LEVEL AND TRY MORE TO COMPETE WITH YOUR ACTUAL SKILLS AND OTHER INHERENT ASSETS, AND HAVE THE GOD-GIVEN GOOD SENSE AND JUDGEMENT TO *LIVE*WITHIN*YOUR*MEANS. If you cannot or will not practice these basic things, then you pretty much deserve whatever ends up coming to you. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

Some of us are not in a great economic position, nor have we necessarily ever been, but we're not in ANY of this pickle and are hardly being affected by it in any meaningful way. In my own case, I have less than $7K in debt, and $6K of that is university student loans that are being repaid. I have no car payment; I'll be buying one in cold, hard cash later this month. I have no mortgage payment, and don't plan on setting up for one until I can afford to pay at least 25% down in cash... after running projections for several scenarios based on some impending fluctuations, by my estimate I should have 25% down payment for a reasonable house within the next 3 years.... on an income of less than $40K/yr and while raising three kids. And this is because... my annual expenses are generally kept under $20K. Which, by the way, is why I have a cute little diversified portfolio, that has barely been impacted by ANY of this mess. Oh, and I do not own any credit cards, nor do I use any payday loans, lines of credit (outside of those student loans), or any of that other garbage with the ridiculous interest rates.

I'm not saying everybody should live their life or handle their money exactly like I do. That would just be stupid. But the fact is that I can credit most of that for why this is having pretty much no bearing on me whatsoever. I suspect if more people lived their economic lives *similarly* (not necessarily *same*), we wouldn't be experiencing a lot of this crap.

/rant

Amen.

I'm actually making $20,000 a year more than I have at any point in my life. I'm in better financial shape than I've ever been, despite the crisis. But my only debt is the 10 grand is student loans I'm paying off. Well, I'm giving my sister money for her car, but that's not got loans involved or anything.