UPDATE: The bill was defeated by House of Representatives. Stock market dropped 777 points. Methinks that we are in for a roller coaster ride with the economy.
I invite all villagers to download or read the 106-page draft bill documenting the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. The formal name of this legislation is Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
Do you support passage of this legislation? Or would you vote against it?
I've read about half of it already. So far, I don't see much help for the homeowner. I also don't see any assurance that we, the taxpayers, will get this money back.
ReplyDeleteBecause democrats like Cristopher Dodd or Bernie Sanders have been providing most of the leadership on this crisis, democrats could end up being blamed for this bailout of a financial market run by greedy people with no conscience.
I'm only about a third of the way through at this point. Nothing terrifically impressive yet.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I was particularly interested in "Section 114 Market Transparency," so I'm working through that now.
I really want to see just how transparent they are mandated to be.
I'm three-fourth of the way through it. Right now, I would vote against it. It's not strong enough to help homeowners.
ReplyDeleteShelia and MacDaddy - It was a tough read. However, I'm watching Wachovia Bank lose 90% of it's stock value this morning. Likely Wachovia Bank won't exist after this week. That is on top of the run on WAMU last week that resulted in their failure. It seems that something must be done. I'm content that this package is the best of some bad choices...
ReplyDeleteVillager: To get most republicans-- and the remaining number of democrats-- to vote for the bill, it needs to develop stiffer language against parachutes, provide more specific procedures to help homeowners stay in their home (This is what the banks are against. They want the money, but they don't care about the homeowner). They should also put back the bankruptcy clause back into the proposal. You gotta give regular folks something specific.
ReplyDeleteMacDaddy - I imagine that the ideas you propose are being discussed in Washington DC today as they try to put humpty-dumpty back together again...
ReplyDeleteVillager: I think you're right. I think that Pelosi and Bernie Franks thought the proposal was going to past. But due to the resistance of Republicans and a not-to-insignificant number of democrats, I think they're looking to sweeten the pot with something for the folks from Main Street. Let's hope it works.
ReplyDelete