In response to my previous post about the bailout, I received a ton of e-mails and comments with questions and clarifications about the bailout. Unfortunately, I am not a financial expert. But now I am offering you the chance to e-mail me your question, and I will pose it to one of the VPs of Citigroup.
Just e-mail me at southtotheleft “at” gmail “dot” com and I’ll do my best to get your bailout-related question answered by one of the world’s leading financial experts. Cut through the political talking head stuff, and go right to an expert.
How are ordinary people with home mortgages going to helped by this bailout?
By: David English on 9 October 2008
at 6.45 pm
What’s in all this for renters who couldn’t afford the house while it was still being bid up by these ladlords and speculators?
Why should I bail them out now? I knew these houses will fall and I was waiting to find one that is at the right price. Now the government wants to prevent the price adjustment. why? and I should pay for that too?
By: Ange Tekam on 9 October 2008
at 8.54 pm
I wrote ladlords. I meat LandLords and speculators, who may be the same poeple or not.
I want a bail out for the homeless and those who have not bought a house because it was too expensive. This crisis is affecting them too. They are the ones with the least influence in washington, they are the ones no one is speaking out for.
By: Ange Tekam on 9 October 2008
at 8.58 pm
How can we make the bailout process transparent to everybody: Put it all on a website.
My question is how do make this happen.
If it does, then experts and everybody will have all the information. We can share our expertise and answers using reliable data.
By: Calvin Leman on 9 October 2008
at 10.27 pm
I disagree with the premise of the bailout. Why through good money after bad. Let the banks that bought bad mortgages and sold sub-prime loans go under for their bad business decisions. Give the money to an independant commission that can buy foreclosed houses and allow the owners to have a fixed loan that is affordable for their budget. That takes care of one part of the problem. If the owners lied or bought the houses to be flipped let them suffer the consequences of their decisions also.
No Bailout for the banks no bailout for the crooks and the speculators.
By: Donald DePasquale on 10 October 2008
at 1.21 am
I’m also a renter waiting and watching home priced drop.
If banks or the government intervene with the market correction and “stabilize” house prices, do you really think that will prevent a future, worse correction?
How do you prevent a moral hazard* for anyone who doesn’t need a bailout (bank or homeowner) but could just go out and be irresponsible and claim help from the government?
* “Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not bear the full consequences of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to bear some responsibility for the consequences of those actions.”
By: Joshua Blake on 10 October 2008
at 1.15 pm
I’ve heard and seen very convincing arguments that the US is inevitably heading towards hyperinflation, either directly or first through a depression. The unprecedented amount of outstanding institutional debt, personal debt, and negative savings rates make it very unlikely that the government can get us out of the current economic crisis by anything other than printing money. (Traditionally, governments deep in debt can tax or inflate, and inflate is the sneaky way to do it without becoming unpopular, at least initially.) Are the bankers aware of this, and what steps would you recommend for preparing for an inflation or hyperinflation scenario?
By: Joshua Blake on 10 October 2008
at 1.24 pm
I think that the bailout is necessary to keep the wheels of the economy from falling off the car. If something is not done to stabilize the markets, then people are going to start loosing their retirement funds. Probably the two largest sources of our wealth is split between real estate and stock holdings.
By: salebargainhunter on 10 October 2008
at 4.00 pm
The criminal managers should be punished very hard! Justice is important in a good world. Politicians and managers must be made out of good quality otherwise they are in the wrong position.
Bailout is a joke!
By: yokosuna on 10 October 2008
at 5.51 pm
how can we stop the big payoffs to the outgoing upper managment that is responsible for the demise?
and use this
to help restructure some of how business is paid for? all the $ at the top. and those excessive retirement benefits ; even current salaries often have no ties to profits.
isnt it time USA AND THE WORLD FIGURED OUT the short term greed isnt sustainable and while a few risk takers get in and out with big bucks the strategy that makes fast bucks fro them causes longer term suffering for many
so many things occupy the far right – but
isnt it time gov’t gets in the board room and out of the bedroom.
food clothing housing utilities transport med care
things fro all the people is what gov’t needs to concentrate on.
and who isn’t glad they weren’t able to privatize social security?!
By: darlene matthews on 11 October 2008
at 10.04 pm
I’m a single mother who’s been raising her daughter for the past 17 years. I’m 50 years old and am back in the job market after staying home to focus on my family unlike Sarah Palin I might add. I can’t get a job, despite excellent evaluations and a Masters degree, because my experience and pay grade could go towards hiring four twelve year olds instead. I live in a modest 1200 square foot house and have never missed a mortgage payment in my life. There are so many factors that have contributed to our current mess including irresponsible adults who agreed to adjustable rate mortgages without any thought for the future and a society based on blame. Why should I have to bail out anyone when I may not be able to send my daughter to college or pay my medical bills from emergency surgery last year. A friend of mine proposed a sensible idea, an uneducated one, but it sounded good to me. Rather than bailing out everyone and their dog, divide the bail-out money between all tax paying citizens who pay their mortgages and give a smaller percentage to irresponsible homeowners to get them started. The economy would be stimulated, people would keep their homes, and bills, such as mine, would be paid off. All of us, including the govenment, need to get out of living on credit and living beyond our means. I’m tired of our middle-class being poorly paid yet expected to continue to be the “backbone” of America. I’m supporting Barack Obama because he represents many of my values including his empathy for the current situation I’m in.
By: Margaret Murphy on 11 October 2008
at 11.37 pm
I’d love to know more about why AIG is being saved, while Lehmann Bros was not. Is it true that this has to do with insurance policies written for foreign purchasers of mortgage-based investments that are not guaranteed by the US treasury? And is/was there a dimension of foreign government investors calling in their markers, so to speak?
By: Kathleen on 15 October 2008
at 11.29 pm