Government Bail-Out: Live Video Coverage from Senate Floor

[KillBill]

CBSNews.com Live Video Video - CBSNews.com

[ThisBitch]

Some days, I hate my job.

What really pisses me off is all of the moron senators asking stupid questions for the sake of asking questions.

[KillBill]

Some days, I hate my job.

What really pisses me off is all of the moron senators asking stupid questions for the sake of asking questions.

Well, they have to justify their inflated salaries and lifestyle somehow.

The people who are analyzing this action/decision are economists...NOT politicians. They are suggesting this based on it's overall positive effect on
our economic situation.

[Pittenger5]

What frightens me is I have little confidence on any LONG-TERM plan the government puts into effect. I have zero confidence on the long term effects of any short term plan the government puts into effect.

[ThisBitch]

This is a lose/lose and sets a terrible precident. "Too big to fail" is bullshit. What they are doing is slowly peeling off a bandaid. They need to rip it off and let the chips fall as they may. The only positive I see in this whole mess is that there's a recognition of the need for some type of regulation and oversight.

[bigred875]

this is bad news..

[Pittenger5]

I cant wait for the day in the hopefully not too distant future when we are no longer oil dependent, or at least not as much as we are now, and the government needs to bail out Exxon Mobil cause they're too big of a company to let fail.

[R1]

nationalize the economy



next thing you know is the oil companies

[Degsy]

The fuckwits who signed up for cheapo startoff mortgages and didn't think about 3 years down the line when the real interest kicks in are being bailed out for thei stupidity.

The fuckwits who FINANCED those mortgages are being bailed out for their greed.

When am I being bailed out? That's what i'd like to know. Who's going to hand me a couple of trillion dollars?

I'm sick of paying for losers, morons, baby factories, crackheads, people who "can't find a job", people who don't pay their mortgages, warmongers who spend billions of dollars a day and thousands of young lives trying to educate and 'save' savages in the middle east who don't know a good thing when they see it and fatcat bankers who gamble every day on other people's money.

rant over. back to normal service.

[ChrisNoF4i]

America: Land of the Free
Gimme my free money!

[bigred875]

The fuckwits who signed up for cheapo startoff mortgages and didn't think about 3 years down the line when the real interest kicks in are being bailed out for thei stupidity.

The fuckwits who FINANCED those mortgages are being bailed out for their greed.

When am I being bailed out? That's what i'd like to know. Who's going to hand me a couple of trillion dollars?

I'm sick of paying for losers, morons, baby factories, crackheads, people who "can't find a job", people who don't pay their mortgages, warmongers who spend billions of dollars a day and thousands of young lives trying to educate and 'save' savages in the middle east who don't know a good thing when they see it and fatcat bankers who gamble every day on other people's money.

rant over. back to normal service.

i heard on the radio that 96% of all mortgage holders pay them on time...socialism is awesome

[Pittenger5]

I knew I shoulda bought a house when I couldnt have afford it.

[R1]

ooh ooh ooh

nationalized healthcare too please i dont think our govt has enough control over us yet....

BTW this isnt socialism yet, we still pay for all these fucked up services, now when they are provided to us at no cost other than our freedoms then its socialism....

oh wait oops

[TheIglu]

the need for some type of regulation and oversight.

This is EXACTLY what got us into this mess.

Government mandated programs to give people who CAN'T afford a home a chance at one.

[TheIglu]

Remember everyone in MA, vote YES on Question 1.

Will I fuck our budget in the ass? YES!

Only way to trim the fat is to starve the cutter.....

[TheIglu]

Commentary: Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride - CNN.com

[ThisBitch]

This is EXACTLY what got us into this mess.

Government mandated programs to give people who CAN'T afford a home a chance at one.

I disagree. What got us into this problem is ZERO regulation in the mortgage industry. Liar loans, balloon notes (not knots, notes ), etc. Had there been some type of regulation on the actual loans them selves, much less the colatoralization of them, this could have been avoided.

Did people knowingly take loans they couldn't afford? Absolutely. But... in 2003 I worked with a guy at a retail store and he had quit his job as a mortgage processor because he couldn't stand that his reps were conning elderly and mentally challenged people into loans with points, adjustable rates, etc.

I'm not trying to say that the blame falls any one place, I'm just saying that there need to be rules in place to prevent some of this. The government can't save us from ourselves, but what happened to truth in lending?

[newgixxerchic]

although I agree with pretty much everything people have said, the "too big to fail" concept has validity in that if the government had allowed these large companies to fail, the aftermath would have been far worse and trickled down to even the smallest sectors.

[ThisBitch]

although I agree with pretty much everything people have said, the "too big to fail" concept has validity in that if the government had allowed these large companies to fail, the aftermath would have been far worse and trickled down to even the smallest sectors.

But where does that end? Is there a market cap? The government can't decide that Lehman is worth saving, but Merrill is not. How do you decide who lives and who dies?

[joeswamp]

Mantra of Wall Street: Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

OK I hate the thought of bailing out all these idiots (both from a fairness standpoint and because of the precedent it sets), but isn't it true that if they don't the whole system kind of collapses?

I always thought that most "money" is sort of created by the banks lending it out... For instance: I deposit $100 in the bank, the bank lends out $70 to somebody who spends it, and the recipient deposits $70 in another bank. Both me and this other guy together "have" $170, which has been created from $100, and the banks keep doing this until tons of fictional money is created. It works because everybody doesn't withdraw all their money at the same time.

If the big banks fail, isn't this going to create a big chain reaction that destroys all this fake money? Like all our bank accounts disappear, and everyone runs to the bank to get as much money as they can and we start storing it in mattresses?

[newgixxerchic]

O I agree that there should have been some way of determing what the reasoning was and where it ends, and it's not there, but it had to be done to protect the others too, but I do believe that the CEOs of these companies should be held partially monetarily responsible.

[bigred875]

giving money to people they knew wouldnt pay it back is what got us into this mess....fannie may....freddie mac etc.... and i wonder which political party pushed that along? hhmmmm....equal oppurtunity lenders...this is what happens

the de-regulation may have made the problem worse...but it didnt cause the problem

[TheIglu]

I disagree. What got us into this problem is ZERO regulation in the mortgage industry. Liar loans, balloon notes (not knots, notes ), etc. Had there been some type of regulation on the actual loans them selves, much less the colatoralization of them, this could have been avoided.

Did people knowingly take loans they couldn't afford? Absolutely. But... in 2003 I worked with a guy at a retail store and he had quit his job as a mortgage processor because he couldn't stand that his reps were conning elderly and mentally challenged people into loans with points, adjustable rates, etc.

I'm not trying to say that the blame falls any one place, I'm just saying that there need to be rules in place to prevent some of this. The government can't save us from ourselves, but what happened to truth in lending?

Every last person signed THEIR name on the dotted line.

Have you bought a house recently?

All the terms are spelled out due to the "TRUTH IN LENDING" law. You SIGN a contract that states exactly what will happen. Go look them up on the registry of deeds and see the signatures of the people on the mortgage document.

While we are at it, why don't we have laws against people buying things they can't afford? Like fancy cars?


And yes, government regulation is exactly what got us into this mess. Do you think that banks make any money on people buying an overpriced (at the time) house only to have it be forclosed on when the home is now only worth 60% of the loan amount?

If they were making so much money, then tell me who the government is bailing out?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack were government non-profits setup for the sole reason of providing affordable mortgages to at risk or less qualified people. Combine the inflated house prices with our entire nations huge issue of entitlement and you get what we have right here, which is how I'd love to have it other than my tax dollars going to more government handouts.

Welcome to socialism folks.

[Degsy]

If the big banks fail, isn't this going to create a big chain reaction that destroys all this fake money? Like all our bank accounts disappear, and everyone runs to the bank to get as much money as they can and we start storing it in mattresses?

That's what they are afraid of. That's what happened in the great depression. Get ready for your bike to be worth more as scrap metal than as a bike. LOL

Pensions are pretty safe, investments are risky because you are banking on the investment company doing well AND the company where the money is actually invested doing well also. it's a crapshoot right now.

if people panic and take out savings to keep at home in shoeboxes, the whole system will collapse and we will be living in the world of the million dollar chocolate bar.

[TheIglu]

Stop fighting the damn recession and take it on the chin. This entire shitshow is another example of both sides wanting to make the general population think they have everything under control.

Last I checked, we were supposed to be a capitalist society. Laissez-faire is the only way.