Re: THE BLAME

The effort to privatize social security is now vaporized. That idea is now banished, & will never come back!!

Re: THE BLAME

Fed Worker, you're comparing apples to oranges. The social security debate involved investing in safe and well diversified broad indexes. The current crisis was caused by concentrated investing in a single high risk sector.

Your response, while emotionally understandable is a knee jerk reaction that doesn't hold up to a critical examination of the facts.

Re: Bailout

And, I'll take my home into foreclosure so I can have my home loan paid off too!

I don't agree with the bail out, nor do I agree that the money should pay off the foreclosed homes. Doing so hurts taxpayers who are PAYING their bills and who used common sense when they purchased homes - they bought within their means!

Re: Bailouts and Blame

I wholeheartedly agree. Regardless of your income, YOUR decisions should affect YOUR livelihood, not the livelihood of others who are fiscally responsible, that includes the clowns on Wallstreet, who are afraid that their former decisions are now haunting them. How can you blame someone else for your mistakes? I, too, would like the taxpayers to pay for my mortgage and other investments, but that is not reality, nor should it be for the folks who have screwed the country and want a bailout. Get a life!

Re: Hello

Maybe we should all understand that the response from Paulson Bernanke Cox underlies the real show stopper here. While mainstreet focuses on blaming the defaulting mortgage holders via irresponsible lenders the issuance of Credit Default Swaps [CDS] by the likes of AIG, Lehman, etc. is the true devil. We are being asked to collateralize leveraged purchases of to 40 to 1 ratios so Wall Street will be made whole under the hubris of saving the little guy. Brilliant!! As an American I ask you to stop drinking the Kool aid of the Media left and right. Do your home work. Google Credit Default Swaps and see how both Parties have totally failed us. Yes lending money to people too easily, a mistake. No regulation of what Warren Buffet termed 'Economic WMDs', a mistake. Should you and I bail either out? Never

Re: Hello

Actually, the sawdust is doing fine. I chose "undecided". While a bailout may be necessary to keep the wheels of commerce turning, the succuss or failure of the buyout will depend on who well it is done. If someone just opens up a 7 billion dollar account with no oversight then it will fail. If the bailout supports the big companies and investors without care for the average guy (and taxpayer,) then it will fail.

So, I hope, (I do, I do, I do,) that congress and the president and the banking wizards all do something that will be historic in its ability to turn around this situation.

Alas, I fear they will simply continue to make their political and commercial buddies rich.

Therefore, this sawdust-filled head cannot tell yet if a bailout is a good idea or not.

Re: Root Causes

Here, here on the decline of the educational system! Let's get back to teaching soft skills like the ability to balance your own checkbook and how to properly use credit.

Re: Root Causes

Totally agree - HR Specialist, you are right on target! The morality (or lack thereof) comes into play among the rich and the poor alike - corrupt/overpaid CEOs on one side, people who are perfectly fit to work, yet live off of welfare on the other.

Re: Home Ownership

Exactly which administration are you talking about? From my perspective, this is an issue caused and exacerbated by members of both parties and over multiple presidential administrations.