As our great and venerable (throat clears) leaders continue to debate the bailout of banks and millions who cannot afford their homes, I thought that I’d share some quotes that might bring some perspective to the issue:

On the value of money nowadays:

And to think, $50 billion use to sound like an unimaginable amount of money. Now the way people throw around the world billion, $50 billion sounds like milk money.

I bet with the inflation our country is going to go through after this bailout, you will actually need close to that for milk. - Jason F.

On WaMu failure and Funding of the FDIC:

WOW! The FDIC prefers to move in and take over at 5pm on Fridays to give them the weekend to clear things up and so people can’t panic as much-that shows just how bad things were for WaMu if they couldn’t wait 24 hours.

On a WaMu side note-we just got a new client at my firm in the past month, her father passed away and surprisingly left her 2.5 million. 750k of that was in WaMu CD’s. I was trying to get my boss to really press them to get the money out asap, regardless of penalties, but they wanted to wait on the “death put” (in case of death a cd can be paid out without penalty) to avoid losing out on any money. Talk about Penny smart, Pound foolish! Please people, DO NOT keep more than the FDIC limits in your bank accounts. I know that may be hard for some business accounts but you never know who and when this is going to happen to next.

Next order of business for congress-bailing out the FDIC. With all the talk about ‘bailouts’, you’d think there was a sinking ship around here… - Bob H.

On the bailout stall in Congress:

Good. I am glad the House Republicans are stalling this. We need serious debate over this issue, before we hand over 700 billion dollars of our money. This reminds me of the Patriot Act. Legislation was rammed through Congress so fast that watchdog groups had little time to examine the bill.

Extraordinary legislation deserves extraordinary due diligence. - Matthew G.

On the Bailout:

An outright bailout of people and institutions reinforces bad patterns that emerge again down the road in a new set of clothes. I’m not sure if nothing can be done now, but it seems like there must be some sort of middle road where financial solutions can be reached while still keeping the people on the hook that made poor decisions. - Scott S.

On the Consequences of a Bailout:

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Unfortunately the reaction isn’t always obvious. This bailout will cause problems that can’t be foreseen now. How often has the government done something only to have it backfire? - Richard W.

On government intervention aka. Bailout:

I think it’s preposterous and tampering with the free market. I believe that one of the reasons we’re in this mess is because the Fed forced rates to stay low for so long after they were due to increase, which led to the buying spree, inflated prices, and further blowing the bubble. - Alan B.

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Tags: bailout, congress, Foreclosures, housing, housing bailout, Mortgages, paulson

Last week I opened my big mouth and said I’d present another solution to the foreclosure problem we are facing today. Before I do, I happened across this law:

“every insolvency of a bank shall be deemed fraudulent, and the president and directors shall be severally punished by imprisonment and labor in the penitentiary . . . provided that the defendant . . . may repel the presumption of fraud by showing that the affairs of the bank have been fairly and legally administered, and generally with the same care and diligence, that agents receiving a commission for their services are required and bound by law to observe. . . .”

as I was researching information on bills of credit. I thought a few of you might like to see that law on the books today. I know I would. I bet the CEOs of IndyMac Bank, Countrywide, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and a few others would have done business a bit differently if this law actually existed and was enforced.

By the way, it did exist as Section 28, Art. XX, of the Georgia Banking Act [State Banking Act of 1919 (Acts Ga.1919, p. 219)]. I say did in the past tense because as you might guess, it has been watered down over the years by the courts. Today defaults and insolvencies are blamed on the borrowers and especially the sub prime borrowers.

But that is a different tale and I’m not marching down that avenue today. I posted the above because I thought you would like to see what life used to be like for irresponsible banksters.

Here is what life is like now for irresponsible banksters. It is a snippet from an online AP story of July 14, 2008:

Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at Global Insight, called the troubles at Fannie and Freddie a “potentially dangerous turn of events” for the U.S. economy. He said they needed to be addressed quickly with an infusion from the government — read “taxpayers” — of as much as $20 billion in new capital for both institutions.

Notice who the goat is in the second paragraph. You and me, laughingly called the taxpayer. The jokesters running these two scams draw not only their paychecks but bonuses. Every year they go before Congress and weep and whine about how tough they have it and Congress keeps letting them run barefoot through the treasury.

My solution for today is to have the U.S. Marshals do to the banksters what they do to organized crime bosses. Haul them away in handcuffs. I’m not totally heartless. I’d give them $300 to put on their books in the joint. That way they can at least visit the commissary once a month.

I don’t believe it will ever happen because it appears all of the marshals, US attorneys and the like are really cloned Mike Nifongs. But, I can still hope it will happen.

Tags: bankers, congress, default, foreclosure, Foreclosures, Mortgages, subprime

Today is the big day! If you’re reading this and haven’t hit the polls yet, get up and do so!

From PBS:

It’s a puzzle — voter registration in the United States is at an all-time high but voter participation is nearing an all-time low. In the 1964 presidential elections 69.3 percent of the voting age population cast a ballot. In 2002, that number was only 54.7 percent, up 0.3 percent from 1996. The numbers for midterm elections are worse. During the midterm election in 1998, only 36.4 percent of the voting age population made it to the polls.

I have to say that I understand why people sometime don’t make it to the polls. I spent a few hours last night reading through all the material the State of California provided to its citizens. Sadly, while it covered the many propositions that were up for vote, there was something lacking. Less then half of the candidates that were running for office had their positions or even a one sentence bio in the election materials provided.

After conferring with some friends and family, I felt better informed and finished making my choices. I had to take the time to do some research, but I realize that it is my duty to do so. There are two sites that I use to help educate me on the candidates and issues: vote411.org, and smartvoter.org. These are fantastic resources, and I recommend you go through them before hitting the polls.

I realize that all the choices may be confusing, and it takes a fair amount of time to go through all the materials and information you can dig up online, but it is important enough that we all do it.

Don’t just vote for anyone. Do your homework. Do some research. Be informed. The United States has been a model for democracy for decades, and we need to start learning what the rest of the world envy’s us for. Our voice matters. Every individual has the opportunity to make a difference.

I’m disappointed that so few Americans vote, but it is never too late. Lets prove to the world that we care about what’s going on here in the greatest country around. Lets prove to the rest of the world that we care what the United States does around the world. Lets stop complaining about why politicians stink. Lets stop talking about how our government doesn’t properly represent us. Lets prove to ourselves that we can do it. Lets get out and vote . . .

. . . and if you really care, why not start thinking about running for office yourself!

See you at the polls!

Tags: congress, democrat, election, house, polls, republican, senate, states, united, vote

According to 89.7 WKSU out of Kent State University, certain members of Congress discussed the extremly high rate of foreclosures in the Cleveland Area today - there was 1 foreclosure for every 71 families, with the highest number in Cuyahoga County.

Tags: cleveland, congress, foreclosure, ohio