Why not just give EVERYONE $850B. If every citizen was given $850B, each could pay off his mortgage, etc and there would be plenty of liquidity in the system.

It would be like pushing the reset button on a video game.

New Game!

If spending one bucket of billions is good, then how much better would 300 million more buckets of billions be?

Spending the first bucket of billions is as insane as giving everyone their own bucket of billions.

LOL, E_EX, I hear you!!!

Actually it's $850 billion PLUS $600 billion that was already thrown at this "crisis".

So far the total is $1,450,000,000,000! ( I hope I put in enough zeros )

*looking for the reset button*

funny you mentioned it

during lunch a cpl of co workers and myself talked about it and figured heck why not give every one $50K - liquidity problems would go away. I know that my mortgage would paid off with a portion of it.

The reality of it is that it would be like the movie Bruce Almighty when everyone's prayer to win the lottery was answered.

The tickets would be worthless.

Give everyone buckets of billions and the peso would be worth more than the dollar.

So we had no hurricanes or conflicts during 8 years of Clinton?

AGG

I wasn't singling out Clinton. I said that under Clinton, we had a budget surplus. Yes, it was a combo of a Democratic Prez and a Republican Congress. But why is it that under a Republican Prez/Congress combo, we have huge deficits? And no, 9/11 and Katrina did not cause enough of an expense to explain it. Tax cuts, wars, financial crises are what I see as the more prominent culprits.


I agree completely. We are pouring good money after bad.

AGG

Yes, I also fail to see how printing another trillion bucks is going to do anything other than devalue our currency and increase inflation...

AGG

A good question AGG. The budget deficit has not gone up after every tax cut, SPENDING has. Revenues to the Treasury have increased as a result of tax cuts. Spending is what (along with some other things such as the war against Islamic radicalists and a decimated Military budget under some Administrations) has caused the deficit to go up.

And this latest "bail out" plan passed by the Senate is ANOTHER example of ridiculous spending added onto an already huge bail out plan. Wooden arrows? Study wool? Give me a break.

But if we really want to begin to get spending under some control, then it's high time that the Congress gave the President "Line Item Veto" power rather than the historic "All or Nothing" Veto.

I, for one, am PO'd at the Republicans for "joining" the Democrats in a spending frenzy.

That is why I am a conservative first. But if you really want to see spending get out of control to a level never seen before (as bad as it has been), then elect Obama and his long list of spending intiatives.

Okay, graycloud, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

You said; And we need to reform the way we produce our food.

WHAT about the way we produce our food, that feeds not only our country but provides food to a lot of other countries who can't seem to produce their own (i.e. my reference to Africa)? You implied that we "doing it wrong" in the food production area, so WHAT is it that we are doing wrong and WHAT would you be advocating is a needed change? Perhaps there might be some area of agreement if you get a bit more specific and not so general in your statement.


You said; And we need to reform ...the way we practice medicine.

Okay, WHAT about our practice of medicine needs to be "reformed" and WHAT reform are you advocating in answer to your stated need for reform?

Is your idea of reform Socialized Medicine (ala my reference to Canada and Great Britain) or did you have some other sort of "reform" in mind? Again, let's hear your specifics rather than your generalities. Then perhaps you won't be so apt to accuse me of putting words in your mouth.



Okay, you referenced your preceding statements about FOOD and MEDICINE as THE areas you wanted "efforts" to "dominate," while considering the credit default bail out efforts and the "cruise missiles (an obvious reference to the Military) to be far less "worthy" of our efforts. I responded to what you SAID, and I did not "put words in your mouth."




In your earlier reference to people getting rich.




No doubt. Opinions are fine. But if you want to go around accusing me of putting words in your mouth, then YOU need to give more specifics and less generalities in your stated opinions to avoid "confusion" over what you "meant to say" but didn't say.

Who was in charge of approving the spending if not the Republican Congress?

And please don't tell me that 9/11 and Katrina added up to 4 trillion bucks. With another trillion we need to add now.

AGG

Yep, the Republican Congress and the Democrat Congress.

My point exactly.

And if Obama get in, add ANOTHER trillion bucks for HIS spending proposals that he's outlined in his campaigning.

Term limits! One way to begin to control the spending that is designed to keep getting them reelected.

I thought it was a Republican Congress for the first 7 years... So why did spending go up?


No argument here .

AGG

Very interesting article that speaks of the current crisis.

It was this 36-hour period two weeks ago — from the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 17, to the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 18 — that spooked policy makers by opening fissures in the worldwide financial system.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/b...dxnnlx=1223042650-2sTnnmXR76OlKzLgMQbxNQ

You are so right to be concerned rwinger. I read this article just the other day that details just how close Iran is to building a nuclear weapon. They are 80% of the way there. They still have a lot of work to do, but they are determined to get there.

Ex-weapons hunter: Iran 2-5 years from nuke bomb

Then, you have the top ranking General on the ground in Afghanistan saying we need more troops "AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE." Much of the new resistance is taking safe haven in Pakistan and crossing the border to attack US troops. Which means we are going to have to cross Pakistan's border to get them. Let me tell you just what a scary prospect this is. India and Pakistan or mortal enemies, they have been fighting for hundreds of years. So what did the heads of American business do? They decided to make India the backbone on which our business computer systems are run. Pakistan's support of the US is down to just 12%. They have been looking for a reason to attack India for a long time and a war over cross-border raids to get foreign fighters may be just the thing to make that happen. With a few well placed strikes into India, Pakistan could cripple American business. Just how serious is it? I work in computers for a fortune 500 company. Guess who does our payroll? I'll give you a hint. It's not done in the US. Pretty scary huh? Hey, at least the stockholders are happy with profits after all the jobs we sent over there.

Top U.S. general: More troops needed urgently in Afghanistan

So here we are, already at war on 2 fronts and on the verge of adding a third. Borrowing money from foreign countries to finance it and in some cases, it's with countries that are our enemies. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

In all this, I can't help but see the irony in how things have played out over the past 7 years since 9/11. What was Osama Bin Laden's stated goal with the WTC attacks? He wanted to topple the American economy. From the looks of where we are headed, it sure does appear to me that he was successful. I can just here the video now of him gloating of his success. It is such a shame too. After the attacks on 9/11, the world came together like never before. There was an opportunity to affect real changes for the good of everyone and it was squandered.

In a few hours, the house will vote on a bailout bill that most economists say will not stave off the recession America is about to fall into. I sure hope the politicians know what they are doing because there's no telling just how far down the bottom is.

*** steps off soapbox ***

Want2Stay

Just saw this on CNN - looks like California needs a $7B loan from the Feds.

Apparently a direct result of the credit jam in Wall Street. oy vey


http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/california.loan/index.html

So, with markets tumbling around the world and the DOW set to do the same. I would say the the market will close down about 500 points today. In money terms, that's about $800 billion in lost wealth.

Hey, what's another $800 billion, we'll just print more...


Want2Stay

This is an interesting link to FactCheck.org about the "blame game"



link

.... at least this site lists their sources

Pep,

Thanks for the link. It's a fair assessment of our current situation. There's plenty of blame to spread around.

What concerns me, is how the heck are we going to fix this mess. Our country is in recession and there is no emerging industry to pull us from it. Previously, we counted on manufacturing and then technology in the 80's to spur the economy to recover. Now, I can't think of a single up-and-coming industry that could do that for us. It does not bode well for the American people. I sit right in the middle of this mess because the company that I work for is very prone to recession. I'm holding out hope, but I have my doubts that I will still be employed in 6 months.

Want2Stay