Comments IV

51.
August 20th, 2008 10:04 am
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The continuing display of faith in a Congress that is the most dysfunctional in modern history is akin to whistling past the graveyard. None of the projects you propose will be enacted nor would they resolve the multiple economic problems we are now experiencing if they were enacted.It will be over when it's over folks, along with a few other things. In the meantime, trust in yourselves, not Congress or its surrogates.
— Groucho, NY
Recommend Recommended by 8 Readers
52.
All Editors' Selections » EDITORS' SELECTIONS (what's this?)
August 20th, 2008 10:04 am
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Eventually, and if things keep deteriorating, sooner rather than later, there will be a New Boston Tea Party. They'd have my vote.
— Becca, Memphis
Recommend Recommended by 17 Readers
53.
August 20th, 2008 10:04 am
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Beginning the in 1990s our political leaders began to redefine risk. They changed the banking laws to allow banks and other financial institutions to make more money. At the same time, they allowed LTC to be rescued. In addition, they passed various laws to encourage financial institutions to loan money to people who at other times would not have qualified for a loan. When you give people an opportunity to make money and, at the same time eliminate risk, you get the presest mess and the fault lies at the feet of our political leaders.
— Dr. J. C. Reed, Washington DC
Recommend Recommended by 5 Readers
54.
August 20th, 2008 10:04 am
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No, no, no, we need no stimulus package to support more personal spending. We have past that point. We are on the edge of the precipice and it will be deeper than it was in 1929-1933. Wall Street is killing Main Street. Thousands became multi-millionaires and created nothing of value. Ordinary people, systematically stripped of their safety nets and protections against exactly what is now occurring are suffering. I don’t mean losing profits or stock value or getting a few hundred thousand less in bonuses. I mean they will be hungry, cold, without medical care, a salary and a place to live. For eight years there has been a massive transfer of wealth with the active assistance of a one party extreme right wing government from the U.S. Treasury and the American middle and working classes to large and influential corporate interests and families and individuals of incredible wealth. The disparity of income between the top 10% and the working classes is wider than in 1929. How did we get from the prosperity we had under Bill Clinton to where we are now?A series of awful decisions were made by the Republican ruled government to serve the interests of big business and big money and the public interest be damned. The Republicans, offer an explanation through Phil Gram, the likely Secretary of the Treasury in a McCain administration. We are a nation of whiners and everyone he knows are doing just fine. Bad times is our immagination. McCain promises to stay the course. So stimulus packages are a waste because if Bushonomics is the future, the situation is hopeless.We need now to enact a limit on credit card company abuses, killing interest rates, penalties, late fees, etc. We need to repeal the crushing new Bankruptcy Law and restore the old one. We need to fill our food banks and open free outpatient clinics in trailers or tents. We need laws limiting executive pay unless all pension plans are fully funded. We need government agencies to contract for, manage and supervise necessary public works and we need to fund them. We need to declare certain industries protected. All windmill and photovoltaic devices used in the United States to generate power must be made in this country by American workers earning fair wages. We need industries here to weave cloth, make clothes and shoes, small appliances, televisions and we should protect those companies with tax brakes and tariffs along as they are employing American workers. We need to revive heavy industry, starting with steel for new bridges. American nationalism must take precedence over globalism as long as globalism is a free market race to the bottom of the wage scale. Sorry, this is not what the Republicans want. For them it’s made in China, we can join the army or pick lettuce.
— Sheldon Bunin, Jackson Heights, New York
Recommend Recommended by 19 Readers
55.
August 20th, 2008 10:05 am
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The steps Congress has taken got us into this mess. Why would more steps in the wrong direction be a good thing? Once we realize that most citizens are perfectly capable of living a fulfilling life without the need for constant interference from government, while government is in constant need of more checks and balances, we will start emerge from this morass.
— Bill, San Diego
Recommend Recommended by 4 Readers
56.
August 20th, 2008 10:05 am
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No government has ever "bought" their way out of recession, nor has a government ever produced prosperity.I DO like you attitude regarding a "stimulus package" although am surprised when you tell me a tax cut does not work.And last, I have to laugh when you tell me that redistribution of wealtth, focused in the manner described in this editorial is the way to prosperity. I see that economics 101 was not your strong suit!
— RD, Maryland
Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers
57.
August 20th, 2008 10:06 am
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Headline in today's Toledo Blade: Jobless rate worst since early 1990s; Toledo's 10% unemployment highest of state's large cities. As someone who is living these statistics, I can't even believe this election is a contest. President Bush and his party's leadership don't believe there are any economic problems in the U.S. My question to them: how does God feel about the fact that they have more money than Him?
— Mollace, Toledo, Ohio
Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers
58.
August 20th, 2008 10:07 am
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Hey- How about those 275 Billionaires and High end corporations who pay ZERO taxes while profiting off this Country getting involved? Otherwise, round 'em up; ship 'em off and split up the proceeds...
— PJ, Indiana
Recommend Recommended by 12 Readers
59.
August 20th, 2008 10:08 am
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"Most important, lawmakers should be ready to reform the bankruptcy law so that homeowners can have their mortgages modified under court protection. That is arguably the best way to prevent foreclosures..."This is what you say, but I would argue that the best way to prevent foreclosures is for banks to make sure that someone can actually afford to pay back a loan before proceeding to allow one.I scratch my head every time I read about the "mortgage crisis". The borrowers are just as guilty as the lenders. People bit off more than they can chew. They lived above their means. Then when the piper called, they scream--we were cheated! And the mortgage companies, who made record profits in the hayday, were like, 'oh, those people cannot pay, bail us out'. This is ridiculous. And who will be bailing them out? I will. My taxes will go up. The burden will be the American taxpayers issue. It is sad, but true.As long as consumer spending is up and Wall Street is doing well, politicians say the economy is great. But it is all a facade, as people just charge things and Wall Street cooks the books.Real economic success to me means that ALL people are able to live without fear of the repo man; they have savings in the bank and they can afford food and heat and healthcare, and a roof over their heads. I have to say that even when the economy was purportedly "good", these simple indicators were still failing miserably.Congress, get a clue.
— Janice47, Boston, MA
Recommend Recommended by 12 Readers
60.
August 20th, 2008 10:08 am
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The root cause of this financial crisis is US debt that has permeated the entire society at all levels.Since we, the people, want to continue to live on borrowed money, they, the politicians cannot tell us to do what we will not.
— R., New York
Recommend Recommended by 4 Readers
61.
August 20th, 2008 10:08 am
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After reading this editorial, I realized just how cynical I have become. Have we not figured it out yet? NO amount of editorializing, bad press, FACTS, suffering, bad economic indicators, you name it - will change the mind of the administration. Any idea that GWB will suddenly wake up and do something in the last 4 months of his presidency is ludicrous. Vote for McCain and you will get 4 more years of the same. The fact that he is pulling ahead in the polls creates a profound sense of despair. Once again, the people who have the most to lose are voting for someone who works in total opposition to their interests.I just don't get it.
— Tina, Springfield OH
Recommend Recommended by 22 Readers
62.
August 20th, 2008 10:09 am
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Our government has sold us down the river. Usury laws were repealed, then we were deluged with credit card offers insisting we could have it all and have it now! Phil Graham, who calls us a nation of whiners, brought us the Enron loophole. (Where is my trickle down share of that bonanza?) Banking regulations were relaxed (they must have forgotton the S&L collapse). Bankruptcy laws were changed to favor lenders, then we were barraged with shady loan offers. Now our civil liberties are being eroded in the name of "National Security", and torture and preemtive wars are "legal". This is not the America I was taught to believe in as a child.ASHAMEDOFTHEGOVERNMENT.ORG is being auctioned on GoDaddy, any takers?
— Eric, Bensalem, PA
Recommend Recommended by 11 Readers
63.
August 20th, 2008 11:23 am
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Remind me again, who caused this mess? And who is it that's now stuck with cleaning it up? It must be wonderful to know that you can sit in a back room on Wall Street cooking up arcane financial instruments that no one understands, convince people to buy them, sit back while the money rolls in, and get bailed out when the going gets tough. Nothing like having your cake and eating it too.Hopefully the next administration will understand what we taxpayers know intuitively: that capital markets unfettered may breed wealth, but they also breed greed, and being overleveraged eventually comes back to bite you in the you-know-where. Let's set it up so that when this happens in the future (and it will), the people who caused it are on the hook for it--not us.
— JoanC, Trenton, NJ
Recommend Recommended by 10 Readers
64.
August 20th, 2008 11:23 am
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All of a sudden America is going to look like a very small banana, particularly as the BRIC group reach critical mass with their domestic economies. The US will need all of its youngest and brightest to be in the race. So after decades of erecting barriers in public education, that will have to change. The offspring of the wealthy is not going to be enough, it never was. England did that and lost an empire, the US knew that but lost its way.
— the_munz, sydney
Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers
65.
August 20th, 2008 11:23 am
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The most recent Reuter's poll shows McCain ahead of Obama. I am not sure which candidate would do well regarding the economy but McCain has already admitted that he has a poor knowledge of economics. I find it incomprehensible that Americans would elect someone like McCain."I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."
— John, Houston
Recommend Recommended by 8 Readers
66.
August 20th, 2008 11:23 am
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A solution, no more credit card offers through snail mail or electronic, no more second mortgages to pay off your credit card debt offers. The nation's problem is one giant "PONZI" scheme that almost everyone has bought into. Financial institutions used to be the rock the church of capatalism was built on, now they're just hawkers at the carnival of greed.
— Mark, Alaska
Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers
67.
August 20th, 2008 11:23 am
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That's it! Let's continue the ruse: borrow and consume our way to stability and prosperity. After all, if we spend more than the other guy we're wealthier, right? More stimulus checks. More bailouts. Let's bleed our economy to death - as slowly as possible. Why deal with the pain today? Our generation shouldn't have to. Hey, we're ENTITLED!Or, we could take responsibility for our collective avarice and clean up our playpen. Savings and investment might even make sense. Corrupt institutions may actually reform (or collapse). The backs of special interests and their fat lobbyists may break.Painful? You bet. But putting another finger in the dike doesn't solve any problems.
— William Steding, Crossroads, TX
Recommend Recommended by 1 Reader
68.
August 20th, 2008 11:24 am
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What crisis? You mean some Americans will have to adjust to a new lower standard of living for a few years due to their imprudent spending? A 2 bedroom apartment instead of a house? Giving up a few name brands? Please. They are not being thrown out into the street.Even so, Congress's ineptitude is a huge problem with all of the other things we should be worried about. With all their talk about performance based pay for CEO's and how they should give money back when things go sour, how about we discuss adjusting Congress's pay based on performance? Maybe their salaries should be the first to go when Government funds get tight. I can't think of a better incentive to stop their blind party loyalty that gets in the way of serving the country's best interest.
— William, Philadelphia
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
69.
August 20th, 2008 11:24 am
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Why is it that the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal could handle this problem and we can't do it today. Roosevelt created the Home Owner's Loan Corp. The HOLC bought loans at a negotiated price from lenders giving them an option to foreclosure. About two million borrowers applied for help. One million loans were accepted, modified, and in the long run paid off by the borrower. The HOLC paid off all of its debt and returned a small profit to the government. The HOLC saved one million homes. Why can't our government do this.
— c. perry, Florida
Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers
70.
August 20th, 2008 11:24 am
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I totaly disagree with the assuption that if you throw enough money at it the monster will go away. The government is in the greedy hands of large banks and has been for nearly 100 years. J.P. Morgan = first world war.I do not think some serious belt tightning in the USA would hurt anyone. We have been riding too high a wave for to long and it's time to come down to earth. A little pain and suffering among the wealthy would be a good thing.
— Jerry, St. Louis
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
71.
August 20th, 2008 11:24 am
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I am perplexed. With all this economic dislocation, how can anyone cast a ballot for Senator McCain who admitted that he does not understand economic issues, and whose economic advisor mantained that the down turn was all in the the winner's heads?
— Steve, Kew Gardens NY
Recommend Recommended by 5 Readers
72.
August 20th, 2008 11:25 am
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Without doubt, those who knowingly committed fraud should be prosecuted and, if found guilty, made to do th perp walk.On the other hand, many of us were deeply affected by the go-go '90s, a time that saw the dot.com bubble burst, the stock market begin to collapse in March of 2000, and upward bidding on our homes, driving home prices to unrealistic and untenable heights. Moreover, we all wanted those who were only marginally able to be able to own a nome. Nearly all of us cheered as housing prices soared and as more and more people, including poor people, moved into ever-nicer homes.Ultimately, we are all to blame, so we should stop looking for evil scapegoats and evil systems. Let's step up and accept our share of responsibility.
— I agree, U. S.
Recommend Recommended by 1 Reader
73.
August 20th, 2008 11:25 am
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The Strassian Neo-Cons and their Corporate enablers with the blind support of the brain-washed religious "Right" have allowed the inept, corrupt, criminal political class to destroy the military, steal the treasury, trash our natural wealth, enslave future generations with moutainous debt, make a mockery of our Constitution, exempt themselves from the rule of law, ....Corporatioms have become rapine organizations whose sole purpose is to make its owners wealthy generally by political manipulation and political chicanery; gone is any notion of providing service, needed goods, innovation, or public good.Our oil companies buy our political "leaders" to give them "our" oil to sell back to us at world prices while preaching energy independence as if buying American oil at $140 a barrel is better for American people than buying Russian or Saudi oil at $140 a barrel! WAKE up people! Pumping American oil only makes the oil companies richer...it does nothing for American "consumers"!!!Our finiancial institutions are broken and resemble the mafia loan sharking operation with none of the "protection" offered by these crooks; our crooks only steal and steal some more and then use their government goons to repress any resistance; use their corrupted judges to steal some more, and their congressional cronies to steal from our pockets when their confidence schemes fail! All of our financila institutions need to become strenuously and completely regulated to force conservative business practices to protect our monies and reduce the fraud to an acceptable level; all fees, rates, and other thieving practices must be capped and justified with audited records of tyhe basis for the charges! Interest rates must be capped at no more than 5% over prime; the financial management must be held accountable for their loans; serious jail time is needed to get their attention!Corporations must loose their "super" human status; they must DIE after a SHORT period of time! Corporationsn do not have nor should they be given any right to support any political organization or candidates in any manner! ALL business need to NOT have income taxes paid by the businesses; rather all income should flow to the business owners and be taxed as personal income only!! The effect of trying to tax corporations is the total and complete distortion of tax laws naking them meerly instruments of corporate business practices to restrict competition; extort tax subsidies for dubious business purposes, and it has to be poor basis for making business decisions to minimize taxes rather than for any "real" business purpose!Finally, our "news" organizations must be removed from corporate control; the purchased laws allowing a single owner to have multiple "news" organizations, multiple markets, multiple medias MUST be revoked! Having a villian like Murdock own all sources of information in cooperation with fellow "bosses" is the road to tyranny...it must be stopped!!
— Chaotician, New Mexico
Recommend Recommended by 8 Readers
74.
August 20th, 2008 11:27 am
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Writer of this editorial has no idea how depressing it is to we peasants to see our voices of reason frantically poking at a barrel of troubles which leaks blood from a hundred holes in our economy and military. We hope to hear from someone who goes to basics. McCain claims fearlessness but doesn't understand what is happening. Obama understands but constitutionally cannot bring himself to call for serious reform. Meanwhile death by fruitless hole plugging limps on.
— Paul R Cooper, Yellow Springs Oh
Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers
75.
August 20th, 2008 11:27 am
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I view this man made economic disaster as creepily akin to the non-response response to Hurricane Katrina. The evidence is undeniably clear that no one in our current government concerns themselves much if at all with the actual victims of any sort of disaster. Consequently we see this deepening and mangled economic mess being manipulated by Washington and Wall Street to safeguard Corporate profits only. "HOMEOWNERS? BORROWERS? WHO CARES! THEY ARE JUST THE GRIST FOR MY MONEY MILL."In my opinion FREDDY & FANNIE will absolutely be bailed out by the taxpayer. It's completely unavoidable! BUT...Not just yet! Timing is key here! That bail out will occur and be the agonizing responsibility of the next administration. You know, like Iraq, that war mess!Clever HUH? "Don't look at us. You've got the mess.We call OLD MAID ON YOU HA-HA Now we can criticize!"It disturbs me deeply that I have become so suspiciously cynical of all of our so called government in these past eight years. However only a blind dumb jerk would continue to hold trust with those who behave like uncommon but well tailored silver haired criminals.There are many days now when I dislike myself for my UN-American lack of simply trust in my elected representatives. However it's clear that we are not at present a free country OF, BY and FOR THE PEOPLE.We citizens are now treated as just "THE POPULATION" ripe for scheming manipulation by the currently powerful. In some ways we have already been reduced to modern economic serfdom. Gas stations have become "THE COMPANY STORE"Not so long ago I was a proud and mostly trusting American citizen who respected a bit those elected by us the citizens. It embarrasses me to say I am not proud nor trusting today. I am angry!
— wgm, Southampton, NY
Recommend Recommended by 5 Readers