Hey Boss, you want I should break his kneecaps?

[Stinky The Clown]

I watched 60 Minutes tonight. The spoke about these credit default swaps (or whatever) and called it unregulated gambling. Gambling of a type that is no allowed even in places where gambling is legal.

Why not just let them welch on their bets? Maybe a few gangland guys get some night work. Maybe a few pretty boys get their thousand dollar suits wrinkled. Ya know what I mean?

My point is, so what if none of these greedy fucks pays off on bad bets? How would that hurt me or you? Did the bailout got to cover bad bets between rich, greedy fucks?

[tjwash]

1. THANK GOD IT PASSED!!

Of course the bailout went to cover the "bad bets"...why da fug do you think so many of us were out before so vocally against that steaming pile of horeshit they shoved down our collective throats?

It's almost the exact same deal they gave the S&L's and junk bond kings in '88...which we are still paying for by the way.

Add it up, and Bush family have handed their criminal buddies on wall street 1.2 trillion dollars, and that's not counting the extra hundreds of billions that got snuck though in the dead of night and barely reported on.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. But what woud happen to affect you or me if they just didn't pay the bets?

So what if a few investment banks go floating down the river ass up and face down?

How does that affect affect ordinary people?

Not arguing ..... asking.

[wtmusic]

7. You wouldn't be able to cash checks, your lawn would die

and the sky would fall. Or so they would have you think.

Banks are in business to lend money. They are being very careful, but the bottom line is they not only want to lend money, they HAVE to lend money to stay in business. So IMO these doomsday scenarios are horsesh*t.

[tjwash]

8. Then other banks buy up their debt. It's like cannibalism...the big ones feast on the small ones.

First I should say, that I am not against the bailout...I am against WHO THEY ARE GIVING THE BAIL OUT MONEY TO! Our very incompetent government's response thus far has been to lower interest rates and hand more money to the same mother-fuckers who broke the bank.

The whole reason for this crash was the neutering of Glass-Steagall. The reason the Government enacted Glass-Steagall, was to regulate the amount of speculation banks are involved with. The result was that if you just kept your money in the bank you would earn low returns but those returns were relatively safe. All of this nonsense happened because government failed to regulate heat of the moment risk taking by bankers whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs.

Now, in a nutshell- it depends on what happens to regular folks when this goes on:

If you don't have any loans, CC's, mortgages, etc...it will just be extremely hard to get loan in the future, or the interest rate will be very large. That means car loans, mortgages, student loans credit cards, lines of credit...etc. So if you want to buy a car, or a house you will actually have to have a good credit score, and come up with a 20 percent or more down payment and prove that you are capable of making the payments in advance. Plus it will be more difficult to come up with loans to start your own small business if that's what you were planning. Access to Credit...which is one of the engines that drives capitalism, will be very difficult and slow the economy to a crawl.

There was a stretch in the 60's where the stock market absolutely did not budge for a whole decade...we may be poised to go through that again.

If you owe money on a mortgage, or loans, or CC's that are backed by a bank that goes under, the loans will get sold off to larger banks that have not. An example is Wachovia and WAMU getting bought out by Chase and other monster sized banks that have a lot of capital, like BOFA which is poised to gobble up a lot of mortgage brokers. They may then sneak in special provisions on your loan. You know those little envelopes that get mailed to your house that banks send you when something is about to change? A hell of a lot of people ignore those, but those are additional bits of "small print" that are getting added to your loan. They may sneak an interest rate hike on you, or change the terms of your loan completely. Credit cards can be pretty harry on this. They may tell inform you that your loan has been sold, and that if you are late on a payment your rate gets jacked up to 27 percent.

That means a hell of a lot of homes foreclosed on, new groups of homeless and displaced people, and wages being garnished (for those still fortunate enough to be employed).

Like I said...government's response thus far has been to lower interest rates and hand more money to the same assholes who fucked everything up in the first place. At the same time there is no money for education, technology, or industry. Obama has mentioned this and immediately been branded a socialist, and a commie. Meanwhile a whole lot of people with debts (pretty much the entire middle class) are going down hard right now.

A possible silver lining...is it also means no more rampant consumerism, no more "I want I want I want-here's my plastic" that has been driving the economy for the last 25 years as well.

[Demeter]

2. Lehman Bros. Did Just That

because Paulson wouldn't throw them a lifeline. The consensus is that this was a big mistake on Hank's part.

He did rescue AIG though. And in their gratitude, AIG continued to party hard. Paulson doesn't know what he's doing. He makes it up as he goes along. And he plays favorites. And he wants to reward his business buddies. And all that crony stuff.

I expect we will arrive at that kind of massive repudiation after Obama is inaugurated. It may be too little, too late, but there it is.

Just because Pelosi couldn't be bothered to do her job.....

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Where's Moose and Rocko when you need them?

[Cresent City Kid]

4. I wonder what the mob thought about payday loans at 500%

The difference between legal and illegal loansharking? Apparently, doing it in a strip mall instead of the back room of a restaurant.

[TomInTib]

5. This is bullshit.

We should be circling 1600 Pennsylvania, rifles, torches and axes in hand.

Fuck these bastards.

But, unfortunately, we are living in Chickenshit America.

I am listening to it, as I type.

There is a special crunch, when teeth grind through tracheae.

[lonestarnot]

9. You better get them packed. We may need them come Nov. 5.

Just say'n. :shrug: Warming fires, we can chop down the Cherry trees. LOL (I'm just kidding Agent Mike! Geeze)