Bailout: Good or bad?

With so many bailouts these days, it was hard for me to narrow it all down to make for a blog post. So I've decided to bring them all to your attention for some reaction.

First of all, you may have seen President Bush's national address last night about the current economic crisis facing our country. With the recent crumbling of AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions, many people are feeling a sense of panic. And various people and groups have been prompted to act fast. The Bush Administration proposed a $700 billion bailout to infuse money into the financial markets. But that proposal has been met with certain resistance by certain leaders for a variety of reasons. (Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, for example, has taken the lead in opposing the bailout because of the burden it will ultimately place on the taxpayer. Philosophically, he challenged what he believes is an inconsistency, that we employ capitalism when the market is going up, but switch to socialism when the market goes down.) What do you think? Is the bailout the right thing to do?

Secondly, there is the bailout of one of the presidential campaigns. In light of this current economic crisis, Senator John McCain has effectively suspended his presidential campaign in order to return to Washington D.C. to focus on this issue. He has recommended that the Obama Camp do the same. So far, there is no indication that Obama will follow McCain's lead. What do you think? Is McCain's suspension of his campaign the right thing to do in this situation?

Finally, Senator McCain has also suggested that the candidates bail out on the presidential debate, which has been scheduled for this Friday evening. He recommends that the debate be postoned so that the country can focus on weathering this crisis. Obama does not share that opinion, saying that a president should be able to focus on more than one thing at a time, and that now especially is the time that the American people need to see the person who will be the next president of the United States. What do you think? Should the debate go on as scheduled?

Well, there's a lot to weigh in on, and by the looks of the comment boards, you all always have a lot of thoughtful things to say. So this whole issue should be no exception. :)

Comments

[Greg]

I think the bail-out is wrong, for the tax payer, but it is probably the only thing that can be done. What they need to do next is investigate. Franklin Reins made $95 million in 6 years from Fannie May. There are several others also and they are on Obamah's financial advisory committee. I don't want to go into the whole thing, but someone needs to be held accountable. Someone IS responsible.

[andy]

icky poo, i don't like it. it smells to high heaven.

so we want to hand the reigns of our financial markets over to the federal government.......

can anyone point to one thing the government does well?

anyone....

anyone....

bueler....?

so who thinks this is a good idea?

[Ben]

I asked myself months ago - what is the next thing to hit us. I felt like I should have seen or predicted the dot.com bubble. Remember when the NASDAQ peaked @ 4700 in 2000. It should have been obvious, companies with inflated values that didn't sell anything - valued on the promise of the future. The reckoning day came and the market corrected. Lots of failed companies, lots of folks out of jobs, many "paper" millionaires were no more. Everyone felt it to an extent.

Then comes easy mortgages and credit. As long as you were breathing and new someone that had a job, you were good. Crazy CA house prices, interest only loans, crazy APR's - and perhaps the federal gov't artifically keeping interests rates low to prepetuate this part of the American Dream. Again, this current crisis should not have been a surprise or difficult to predict.

This time however the creativity of AIG and others to insure these cleverly created mortgage backed securities is way bigger than the foot print of the dot.com.

This just seems too big to let correct on it's own. Isn't it amazing that the biggest retail bank in the US was seized and sold last night - incredible.

Many fixes/suggestion have been floated around and they all seem appealing and have merit in some way or another. We just have to put faith in the ones who know way more. In this case to a man (men)that were appointed by a president who I don't think anyone would claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. It all stinks. We'll have a new Tresury Secretary, Fed Chairman, and SEC chief soon enough - together with a new President. What a mess to inherit.

My prayer for all of us is that this works itself out with the least amount of pain. These guys are rushing to get closure on the "deal" before the Asian markets open on Sunday night. Goodness - this just is mind blowing.

Not sure what my point is, just rambling thoughts. This is where you really appreciate a christian worldview. We have nothing to despair!