Bailout Deal Breaks Down -- video incl.

atprm

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/...937/index.html


Bailout Deal Breaks Down
Paulson, Bernanke Head To Capitol Hill

POSTED: 5:41 am EDT September 25, 2008
UPDATED: 8:09 pm EDT September 25, 2008

Is the financial meltdown plan in danger of melting down?

http://www.clickondetroit.com/save-m...02/detail.html

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went back to Capitol Hill Thursday night to try to revive or rework the $700 billion financial rescue plan.

Their return follows a White House meeting between President George W. Bush and key members of Congress that broke up with conflicts in plain view.

Earlier Thursday, key lawmakers claimed agreement on an outline and crucial details of the plan aimed at staving off national economic disaster.

Congressional aides said the tentative accord gave the Bush administration just a fraction of the money it wanted up front, with half the $700 billion total subject to a congressional veto.

But conservatives were still in revolt, balking at the astonishing price tag and the heavy hand of government that it would place on private markets.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, emerged from the meeting to say the announced agreement "is obviously no agreement."

Both of Congress' Republican leaders, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell, also denied there was any deal.

McCain, Obama React After Meeting

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama both spoke after emerging from a meeting at the White House with Bush and other key lawmakers.

Obama said Congress needs to do more work to reach a deal to address the financial crisis.

The Democratic presidential nominee told CNN that jobs, economic growth, retirement accounts and financial markets will all be at risk without a bailout plan.

Obama said he came out thinking they will reach a deal, but some work still needs to be done.

While other Democrats said McCain is part of the problem keeping a deal from being reached, Obama would not criticize McCain. He said he and McCain must be careful not to "start injecting presidential politics into delicate negotiations."

Meanwhile, McCain said Congress and the Bush administration are making progress toward an agreement.

McCain said some in Congress have "legitimate concerns" about the big price tag for taxpayers. But he said those critics also are aware of the crisis situation the country faces.

He said he is hopeful that an agreement will be reached so he can attend Friday's presidential debate in Mississippi.

Stocks Close Higher

Stocks closed higher after word that congressional leaders had agreed on the financial rescue plan aimed at heading off a national economic disaster.

Marking its first positive close this week, the Dow gained about 197 points to 11,022.

The S&P 500 added 23 points to 1,209.

And the Nasdaq composite surged nearly 31 points to 2,186.

Advancing issues topped decliners by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

NYSE volume came to 5.7 billion shares. Nasdaq stock market volume was 1.8 billion shares.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $2.29 to settle at $108.02 a barrel.

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to my dh: share everything sans your sinus infection, your flu or your cold -- no need to regift.

atprm

In English: Government's $700B Bailout Plan

POSTED: 10:43 am EDT September 25, 2008
UPDATED: 6:01 pm EDT September 25, 2008

At the urging of leaders at the top, Congress is likely to soon sign a deal to pump $700 billion into the sagging U.S. economy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have offered dire economic warnings to Congress if they fail to pass their bailout plan.

Paulson wants to use $700 billion of taxpayer money to buy distressed bonds that have flooded the American banking market as a result of defunct mortgages. He proposes to put them into a federal-backed fund, which would be controlled by the Treasury. He hopes that once the market recovers, the fund can sell the bonds back into the market and regain some of the $700 billion.

President George W. Bush is pushing for immediate approval of the plan, saying without it, "our country could experience a long and painful recession."

For many Americans, the proposed $700 billion price-tag is staggering to the point of incomprehension. Even government officials seemed confused by the astronomical number.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Using the latest information available from the U.S. Census Bureau along with some basic math, here is what the government plan equals out to:

# $700 billion estimated cost of proposed plan

# 305 million estimated number of Americans

# $2,295 estimated cost per American

# 151 million estimated work force (excluding retirees, kids, etc.)

# $4,635 per working American

The U.S. government has already taken actions that required more than $600 billion of taxpayers' money: Up to $200 billion overall was made available to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when the government seized them earlier this month; insurer American International Group Inc. was given an $85 billion, two-year loan, in exchange for giving the government the right to a nearly 80 percent stake in AIG.

Also, as part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s takeover of Bear Stearns Cos. in March, the Federal Reserve provided a $29 billion loan.

And in a new "Hope for Homeowners" program starting Oct. 1, the Federal Housing Administration can insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages for troubled borrowers -- if the existing investor voluntarily agrees to take a loss on the loan.

Paulson will likely only oversee the early stages of the plan. The presidential winner in November most certainly will appoint their own Treasury Secretary and thus take on the task of trying to diminish America's trillion-dollar deficit.

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to my dh: share everything sans your sinus infection, your flu or your cold -- no need to regift.

DrHolliday

We all need to literally thank God almighty for people like Senator Shelby, the House GOP and Senator McCain.

The bailout proposed by Bush and the Democrats is a piece of socialist crap.

No wonder Obama likes it.