This is not a bad thing... I am only dissapointed because my congressman voted for the measure.

This whole mess is a pig in a snake, and simply needs time to work it out through the system. Granted it may take a few years, but is what needs to happen.

Let a few of the big boys fall, let a few more take the lumps from the bets they made, and allow several new companies/banks and such arise from the ashes better, leaner and more innovative than ever before.

Well, I guess all we need is another world war and our economy will hum along again, since that is what it took to get us out of the depression and Europe's destruction enables our economy to become the backbone for the global economy. Hope that is not how this play's out, but I would be wary of cheering this potentially pyrrhic victory.

MORANS! Our House of Representatives is packed with absolute MORANS! None of these people should leave Washington unless a close relative is dying or injured! Anyone who leaves without a good reason before they do something should be impeached! MORANS!

I hate to say it, but I'll be surprised if there isn't a major war within the next ten years.

It will be a long night until we see what the Asian markets do. MORANS!

That last word is spelled with two "o"s, by the way.

Speaking of which, you may want to check out your spelling... calling these congressional members a popular Irish surname, will do little to humilate them, unless they are anti-irish

I am certain Bugs is poking a little fun at our fellow coolie that has a sign in his avatar than uses the term "morans"

I'll be interested to see greater analysis of what these House Members think needs to be added or deleted from the proposal to make it worthy of their vote. Of course, at least 1 poster here sat in a class last semester that a really smart guy taught, so maybe the erstwhile student should contact the House and go tell them where they are wrong.

I sure hope they aren't holding out until the election, which means no action will take place until at least January. That will probably signal the death knell for several other large banks...

My friends were hit hard then rates went up and have been hanging on by a thread to stay out of foreclosure. They've had to show "good faith" to the mortgage company by injecting 2x the mortgage payment for 4 months now.

They've saved the house, but now they've got to catch-up on everything else. She is a manager for Lowe's and he's a plumber so they make decent money.

It sucks to see people struggle.

but are they struggling because they were duped into something? or are they struggling because they bit off more than they can chew?

Not exactly - Fannie Mae was the from the New Deal - not Freddie. Fannie started out as National Mortgage Association of Washington in 1938 which was created from the National Housing Act of 1934.

Freddie was created by Congress in 1970 so that Thrifts could also sell their mortgages to the securitized markets. Now if you want to say that's from the New Deal.., uh okay - a delayed birth perhaps?

By the way, has anyone heard from Ginnie Mae in all of this?

I will lay even odds that the FDIC never spends a dime on this deal, and is instead richer by the $12 billion in stock and warrants it's getting.

Citi will take the first $42B in losses (assuming not more than $34B the first year and $4B each of the following two years). That's about 13.4% of the $312B in protected assets. If 26% of those loans go to foreclosure and there is only a 50% recovery on those loans, that's still only a net loss ratio of 13% - none of it taken by the taxpayers. Maybe foreclosures will be higher and recoveries lower - but maybe not.

If you count the $12B in stock and warrants, the loss ratio has to get to 17.3% - i.e. 34.6% default w/50% recovery rate - before FDIC pays out anything.

Oh, I spoke with her last week... she and the kids are fine! As a matter of fact, she and our cousin Farmer Mac are planning on coming up for Thanksgiving!

That's like the joke about the examiner in the early 90's who asks a Bank executive what he thought about FDICIA. The executive pauses for a moment and replies "Oh yes! She's the new receptionist on the 2nd floor. Charming girl."

The best analogy that I can think of regarding the "bailout" vs. doing nothing is to compare the current economic/market situation to a balloon that has been blown up.

The markets were inflated by these debt swaps and speculation (aka gambling.... but whatever) until there was no room left to go just like you have blown up a balloon to its capacity. Now if you keep pumping air into the balloon it will break, and recognizing that, you stop which is analogous to this credit freeze.

But you can't hold this balloon forever and you are unable to tie it up completely, so you either control the opening to let the air out or you just let it go in hopes you can find the balloon (credit markets) where ever it might land.

The bailout package is an attempt at a controlled deflation, and doing nothing means letting the balloon fly off with no idea if we can ever recover it.

The sad irony is that a lot of elderly people who survived the Great Depression as children or teenagers are now seeing their retirement evaporate into nothing almost overnight. Most of the Wall Street "fatcats" will probably land on their feet, and today's vote will likely have a far greater negative impact on people who had nothing to do with the situation.

Dang, Bonnie, you're good, girl!

i've never heard that metaphor beore but i love it!


if this were all that would happen, i doubt that there even would be talk of a bailout in the first place. i hope that our economy capitulates and rebounds quickly, but right now, we just knifed our entire economy while it is recovering from a heart attack. i'm not trying to be a fear-mongerer but just remember how you feel right now because you are going to need to carry that feeling with you for the next several years.

^^^^
this should be the final comment on this mess wrt the "victory" that some are claiming today.

Oh no, you're confused - we've always been at war with Eastasia!

i hope that congress has felt like they were able to get some stuff off their chest and can come back and get something done.

If they don't, then they're MORANS! The Democratic leadership couldn't even organize THEIR OWN party members to get on board. If that's "leadership," then I'm Mickey Mouse. MORANS!!!!!

Kinda makes me think that if the Democrats who control Congress can't come together and accomplish something important, what in the [censored] are they going to do when Obama gets elected? We're screwed no matter who wins the election.

Bugs, I knew the Moran's. Nice folks from Huntington. But I don't think any of them ever served in Congress.