Feds are considering using part of the bailout $ to buy bank shares. Probably a little late for oversight since the socialist govt reps gave the Treasurt Sec the authority to do whatever the hell he wanted with our $.

This is just great. Just great. Crappy bank stocks are up. Stocks for sound banks like Wells Fargo who did the right thing all along are down. Between this news and the govt intervening in WFB’s purchase of Wachovia… Yeah, this is working out just fine. This is much better than the depression you’ve all been telling me about must be avoided at all costs. Well, folks. The bill is here. It’s time to pay the piper!

Feel the earth moving a little under your feet. It’s called a landslide.

The Flip Side of Foreclosures: Affordable Homes in Lee County Florida

No govt interference; just free enterprise at work.
Mr_Magoo on October 8, 2008 at 9:18 PM

It would have worked if the government stayed out of it but now with the bailout the ones who take the loss on the home aren’t the builder, the former owner, or the bank. The one who takes the loss is US!! You, me and every other tax payer.

I thought about moving up- selling my home in Lee County and getting a “bigger, better” house but this credit crunch isn’t anywhere near finished and I’d hate to see what the electric bill will end up being on a 4000 sq ft home with a pool at the end of this mess.

Conservative has a meaning.

No govt interference; just free enterprise at work.

highhopes on October 8, 2008 at 7:54 PM

Rush isn’t saying that anymore.

Buy Danish on October 8, 2008 at 7:56 PM

Are you saying Rush has changed his position since 3pm today?

highhopes on October 8, 2008 at 7:54 PM

Rush isn’t saying that anymore.

McCain was in Washington when the bailout plan was negotiated, and knew what was in it. Obama was out campaigning at the time, and didn’t know. The political benefits of doing the job one has been elected to do (in this case, as a Senator).

McCain was not in DC when the compromise legislation was negotiated and passed by the Congress and Senate. If you’ve already forgotten, first McCain announced a plan to suspend his campaign and forego the debate. Once he appeared in DC, his role was to champion an alternative bailout proposal put forward by some House Republicans that Paulson and Bernanke quickly dismissed. Within 48 hours McCain had completely reversed his position and resumed his campaign, in addition to a reversal on his economic position- a week prior McCain had said that the economy was ‘fundamentally sound’.

There’s no reason for McCain to try and buy votes with the type of socialist proposal that he floated last night to try and boost home prices.

The McCain camp needs to remember than a large number of white votes will never vote for Obama because of his race. A majority of the undecided voters in this election will vote for McCain on election day. McCain’s team shouldn’t be entering panic mode. Their concerns are overblown.

McCain claims this idea as his own,

Then in some significant way, probably via pressure to keep it in the bill and vamp pressure to insure that it not get swept under the rug and ignored, it probably IS McCain’s own idea. McCain’s been on this for years–check into what all he pressed for in previous unsuccessful legislation re: FM/FM.

MB4 on October 8, 2008 at 5:16 PM

LOL…

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

Einstein…

Trying to borrow your way out of debt… only a politican would think it would work…

Romeo13

Trouble is, with the economy in tatters and a “big-spending” government bailout touted as the only hope for the country’s stability, well-being and future survival, it may be far too late for “liberal big-spending” attack lines to have any effect at all.
- Terence Samuel

Steve Z on October 8, 2008 at 4:35 PM

No, I think McCain wants to go farther than the HOPE initiative takes it. The FHA HOPE program is only applicable to a relatively small number of mortgage holders. It will only finance 90% of the cost of your mortgage after the principal is adjusted. That will disqualify most of the people who are in real trouble because they will not have the means to come up with the 10% downpayment.

The ability to refinance to a fixed rate needs to be given to all homeowners that have a negative equity value. It is bad enough that so many people are taking a bath on their homes, but you need to make it so they can afford to keep their house. Forcing a family into foreclosure over some vaguely perceived notion of responsibility is not in any of our best interests at this point.

If the family loses their home it is likely that the government will end up making up for the 50% or so loss in capital that the bank will suffer. There is not winner in that. It is much better to refinance the mortgage at the new value even if you are financing 100% of the home value. If the homeowner pays off their mortgage over time they will pay at least double the mortgage amount. There is not really a loss of capital, only a reduction in profit.

I do not see why telling the mortgage lenders they need to accept a smaller profit in order to get out of the problem is unacceptable. After all they are complicit in the entire mess to begin with.

A reader directed me to the transcript of his recent appearance on Charlie Rose:

ROSE: …What do you believe could and what do you believe will not get us out of this?

FELDSTEIN: Well, I think I’d come back to the issue that it’s being driven by the fall in house prices. That’s making people poor and forcing them to think twice about spending. It’s hurting the financial institutions. It’s obviously stopped construction. Housing starts are down 40 percent from a year ago. So if we don’t stop that rut, if we don’t stop that decay, it’s hard to see how this process stops.

House prices over shot in the up direction by some 60 percent. What’s to stop them from falling 60 percent below a normal level? Nothing, if we don’t find a way of stopping this process of default and foreclosure. So to me that is key to stopping this.

ROSE: And something that’s not being done so far.

FELDSTEIN: And something that’s not being done. I think that the Treasury proposal will help to take some of the bad impaired assets off the balance sheets. The Barney Frank-Chris Dodd legislation that was passed earlier will help some people with negative equity and are on the verge of defaulting. But none of that will stop this downward spiral in house prices that needs to be stopped. In addition to what has been done and what is proposed by the Treasury and the Congress, I think we need to do a third piece.

Also, here he is on how serious this situation is:

FELDSTEIN: I have not seen, in all of the time that I have watched the economy — I have not seen anything as frightening as this, because in the past — nobody likes a recession. They’re painful. But in the past, when we went into recession, it was pretty clear that we could come out by the Feds cutting interest rates, restarting the housing building and we’d come back out. So the last couple of recessions lasted 18 month, from peak to trough, and weren’t all that deep. They felt painful to the people who were involved, but we quickly got passed it. Now it’s very different.

Agree or disagree, but this isn’t the time for ready, fire, aim at any substantive proposal.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGY1MTNhMGJjYTIxODQwNGYwZDI4ZDA5ZDUzMWFmYWU=

Was I the only one yesterday who heard Obama repeat over and over again that we need to REDUCE our oil consumption and REDUCE our energy consumption?
funky chicken on October 8, 2008 at 2:11 PM

The larger point is that he wants us to make a “personal sacrifices”. Even shopping is sinful (as we discovered last night when he complained about Bush’s response to 9/11) – although I’m sure he’d make an exception if you buy his books (with extra credit if you buy the tall tales inside).

We can’t say we weren’t forewarned of his intentions by his Socialist wife:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

And from The One himself:

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.

Just keep those tires inflated, folks, and you will be travelling down the road to Utopia.

McCain was in Washington when the bailout plan was negotiated, and knew what was in it. Obama was out campaigning at the time, and didn’t know. The political benefits of doing the job one has been elected to do (in this case, as a Senator).

Thanks, That makes sense.

Thus spake the Huckabee supporter.

LevStrauss on October 8, 2008 at 3:21 PM

Refresh my memory and tell me which serious candidate was planning on eliminating the income tax?

That’s right…Mike Huckabee!

If a company needs to borrow money to make payroll, is the fact that money is hard to borrow really their worst problem? Is it just me or has anyone else thought about that?

Guest1.1 on October 8, 2008 at 4:04 PM

No. Accounts receivables are hard to receive on time all the time..almost every business relies on A/R financing.
Without A/R financing millions and millions will be laid off.

The home mortgage buy-up has already been approved; Update: McCain camp confirms no additional fund request

First, lenders already have begun modifiying mortgages, including
principal, and for very good reason. Foreclosures create……