This bailout plan is the worst thing we could have done

I'm three or four months away from finishing off the credit card debt I built from '93-'04 or so. I actually had most of it paid off in 2000 but then I lost my jobs and went back into hock. Been paying $350-$400 a month for three-plus years now.

I, too, am wondering why I even bothered.

 

Anyone see this graphic on CNN? It explains how this huge collapse affects YOU most.

For anyone confused, I drew it (as best I could). Here's how it works:

Banks get money from investors and investors get money from banks. Banks lend investors' money, investors invest money borrowed from the bank. Investors put some of their money - including the borrowed - into corporations, which in turn pay you, your neighboor, mom and pop shops, etc. which keep America working. Meanwhile, banks loan their money - investors' money included - to "other people" so they can buy your home, your used car, shit at your garage sale, or maybe the product you produce at your own small business. Oh, and you, in turn, borrow money from the bank to buy a home, put kids in college, buy a car, pay your employees, credit cards, etc.

Pretty fucked.

I know that there will be people on here who know this. I know some are as confused as my wife as to why this crisis matters.

I'm off tonight. Wife's asleep. And I was bored. So here's the graphic.

------------------- Bank<--------------------->Major Investor
l l \/
l l Corporations
\/ \/ l
Other People----------->YOU <-----------------------------

 

Pelosi is living up to my expectations.

This bill did not have the full-time examiners it would take to keep the system accountable. That was the worst thing about it. Part-time overseers, full-time politicians playing police and we'd be facing another $700 billion request in this generation.

 

the same folks who brought you the Roger Clemens hearings are now deciding our economic fate.

 

Ran...no, Randall, wait. Now wait...now listen...now listen to me. I, I beg of ya not to do this thing. If Potter gets a hold of this Building and Loan, there'll never be another decent house built in this town. He's already got charge of the bank. He's got the bus line. He got the department stores, and now he's after us. Why? Well, it's very simple. Because we're cuttin' in on his business, that's why. And because he wants to keep you livin' in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides.

Joe, you had one of those Potter houses, didn't you? Well, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack? Here, Ed. You know, you remember last year when things weren't going so well, and you couldn't make your payments. Well, you didn't lose your house, did you? You think Potter would have let you keep it?

Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's pickin' up some bargain. Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've, we've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other.

 

Government should give anyone who makes all 12 mortgage payments on time in a year a $2000 tax credit.

 

For the record Slappy, I'm staying put. I'm lucky. I have good credit. Don't have a mortgage, yet. I just got a car loan at a VERY low rate. And I'm 30 years away from retirement.

I was just illustrating how this shit (supposedly) works. More because I was bored, and listening to my kid cry.

 

Don't know about that particular curse, but you can find some good Mandarin profanity here:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Firefly#Chinese_translations
http://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/index.html

 

What happens to the hookers, you ask?
http://www.slate.com/id/2200640/

And yet it all falls in the hands of these people:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/2008/09/debating_the_bailout_torturing.html