The House Rejected the Bailout ...

Record setting drops in the DOW (778 point drop) and the TSX (841 point drop).   Yikes.

I have such mixed feelings about the whole thing, but on a selfish level I just want them to stop the hemorrhaging that I keep seeing on my retirement investments. I just honestly can't believe what a massive mess we've got now. I hope the delay is because they're being cautious and not because they're playing politics.

On a side note - don't you wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to take over running this country right now??

cakana

On a side note - don't you wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to take over running this country right now??

To hopefully be the "hero" that saves the US from the dark days ahead of us? Only in our dreams right?

 From everything I have read, they don't HAVE time...and it has me concerned that it didn't pass. 

marty_ga

 From everything I have read, they don't HAVE time...and it has me concerned that it didn't pass. 

That's what scares me too. I don't think the doom and gloom they're projecting is hyperbole. What scares me is that it might be much worse than they're actually telling us. I've been listening to financial advisors say "hang in there" for many months now, but no one is saying it lately. Even Jim Cramer sounds really deflated and depressed.

I think the bureaucrats and the media did a huge disservice by continually labeling this a Wall Street bailout.  It's so much more than that, and I think many people who called and e-mailed their representatives and urged them to vote against the bailout very likely didn't have a good understanding at all of the repercussions that we'll all have to deal with.  I'm guessing many of those people won't understand how responsible they are when their employer can't cover their payroll, and the grocery stores and gas stations they shop at start closing up.

That is what I'm hearing too! As one analyst pointed out if your investments drop by 50%, it needs to gain 100% to break even. Although things aren't quite as dire north of the border we are certainly feeling the repercussions. I guess DH's retirement and DS's home ownership are on hold for the foreseeable future. Scary times indeed!

I'm not so sure I wanted it to pass. I'm sorry, but I felt it was a reward for people who take risks they never should have in the first place. I really felt that this was only going to shift the blow on our economy, not fix it.

I have been holding cash back from my paychecks for the past 3 months, I'm going to tighten our belts and hold even more back if I can. I feel for the people that have invested in this kind of venture or had their money invested for them.

I look at it this way, people wanted homes, so they found a way by lying and exploiting things to get people in homes, which meant they needed to build even more homes, which meant that they needed to find new people to put into the homes and so on. Then came the moment when all these homes suddenly had people in them that could not meet their mortgages, so now there is no money flow, the people lose, the banks lose and the building sector shuts down.

Really, and I mean really, do people need to live in 5000 sq feet of home?? Do we really need new shopping malls? More homes? And $500,000 for a home? Face it, alot of people will never see that kind of money in their lifet time, and they sure should not have been allowed to purchase such a home.

The housing market has been overblown for years. It needed a reality check. Unfortunately the average American will once again foot the bill, in blood, sweat and tears.

And don't even get me started on Wall Street and Oil companies. The rich get richer, the poor get even more poor, how that statement keeps coming up all the time.

And, the finger pointing that is going on??? OMG I am so sick of the people we elect lying to our faces. How long before we wake up and smell the coffee. I am so so so wanting to get involved in changing policy for terms of office. But I am so afraid I would turn into one of them.

OK, I'm done ranting now.

I believe the democrats are strong in the House. They are the majority. I wonder how that affected this bill and if it was political in regards to McCain's desire to pass the bail-out but with strict controls.

Nancy Pelosi gave quite a speech, frankly telling Wall St. that the party is over, along with the days of the Golden Parachute.  I'd like to see the mess fixed without putting the burden of pay-back on the taxpayers. Our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids will be paying for it big time.  I keep thinking (yeah, I know it can't be done and why ) that someone should just have the mint print up whatever money they need and give it to the fools. Could that result in any more of a mess than we have now?

Joyce

I am disgusted. Just plain sick.

I cannot believe that the republicans are blaming Nancy P. This was a plan touted by a sitting republican president. What a bunch of whining snot nosed bullies we have elected to speak and act for us as American's.

I am not happy with either camp right now to be honest.

And Ron, not to harp on you but........

and if it was political in regards to McCain's desire to pass the bail out with strict controls.

Neither Obama or McCain had anything to do with it, nothing. But I do find it sad that McCain felt he was hitting the heart of America by saying he was going to stop his campaign and head to Washington to save the day, pure comic strip material. Honestly, I was waiting for him to hit a phone booth and don a cape!  And Obama? Saying it would pass? Before it did? Boy was that premature. I don't think either one of them showed any kind of leadership in this at all. The fact that the POTUS could not even get the votes from his own is even sadder.

Right now the only people I do think have anything to be proud of are those that actually voted what they heard from the people they represent. No bail out.

Here is one D-Ky John Yarmouth saying why he did not vote for the plan.

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/politics/2008/09/yarmuth-explains-his-vote-against.html

And R-Ky Ed Whitfield saying why he did not vote for the plan.

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/politics/2008/09/whitfield-explains-his-opposition-to.html

Seems to me they both had the same misgivings.

I see a slew of new people getting elected to office, if I was an incumbent I would be scared, very very scared.

Truley

Right now the only people I do think have anything to be proud of are those that actually voted what they heard from the people they represent. No bail out.

I don't believe for a second they would've listened to their constituents on this were we not a few weeks from an election.

The economy took a hit yesterday to the tune of $1.1 trillion dollars.  That's 1.5 times what the bailout would have cost.  And who knows how much more will be lost before it bottoms out?

Of course some of those losses came from the Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts and fat-cat Wall Street CEOs of the country.  But a lot of it came straight out of the IRAs and 401Ks of us very ordinary people who weren't taking any unusual risks, just trying to save for our retirement and our kids' college.  Sure we can recoup it, or some of it.  Eventually.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.

Most likely our economy has lost over a trillion dollars and we'll still end up footing the bill for a bailout.  Great . . . .

Truley

And Ron, not to harp on you but......

You ever notice when people use a phrase like this, it is the very next thing they do? Just exactly, you are doing it, so why say you are not? There is deceit built into some of our prhases.

You're going to harp on me because I asked a question?  I simply asked or wondered if politics had anything to do with it and I wasn't meaning anything said by McCain or Obama but perhaps actions of others within the party. And yes, that stuff does happen. And a slew of new faces in office would yield the same results.

For example, I hear lots of tough talk. Let Fannie Mae crumble. Okay. What if Fannie Mae insured your house in Galveston? Or guaranteed to loan on you sister's very own house, small and quaint as it might be? As well as insuring the money market fund your mother's retirement is linked to?

I dare to support a candidate that is republican, evidently considered gauche here. That's political. And this is just a dog forum, let alone the Senate House. If we could stop the conservative-hating bile for a brief second, my question involved the partisan make-up of the senate. For example, the House Majority Leader is democrat. Could such things have an effect? I think so. .

Fact is, they'll probably raise taxes to buy the bail-out because neither party wants to give up anything. But, for the sake of the country, we need to solve this problem without raising taxes.

Because I'm going to ask you another question, one I didn't think of but wished I had,  and then you can browbeat me some more because I'm just a stupid guy. And you've got the know-it-all source of the internet, Google, or whichever search engine you prefer. Name a nation in the history of the world, through all recorded time, that was able to tax itself into prosperity. Here's the challenge. Every nation that instituted taxes took a slippery slope into bankruptcy and failure. Runaway taxation has the same effect as socialism, the fantasy that you can get 8 ounces of water out of a 6 ounce glass.

Yet, at the same time, can we afford to just do nothing about it? Insurance companies like Fannie Mae also offer actual investments, such as lifetime annuities. You pay in $100,000 and they pay back $1,000 a month for the rest of your natural life. So, you or your relative who spent the last half of their career paying into this account now have nothing. Which now means that you or your relative will now need public assistance, have to go back to work, or both.

Along with the bailout is the need for stricter controls. Wow, that sounds familiar. Who said that?