OK, Dear Readers, here's your chance to express your delight, outrage, confidence, terror, or anything else in the wake of The House's failure yesterday to agree on The Bailout.Do you agree with the DOOMGLOOM national media that this failure signals the beginning of the End of Days as we know them? Or are you a Contrarian who sees it differently?
Click COMMENTS below and let us know your thoughts!
5 comments:
I am thinking that carboard box sales are going to go up - possibly 1/2" plywood and plastic tarps also. A boon for the commodities market.
I can't help but think that these little disasters seem to come a few months before or after elections lately. It just makes you want to say "hmmmmmm."
This is a critical time for our nation, and we need to call on Congress to enact a recovery plan that will end the economic crisis we are facing.
The truth is that consumers everywhere already are feeling the impact of the credit crisis. Many buyers can no longer find financing they need to buy a home, contracts are being pulled off the table, and sellers are taking their listings down. Without swift and substantial intervention, all consumers will soon face a market where:
* Getting a mortgage, small business, or short-term loan becomes extremely difficult, even for good credit consumers and businesses.
* Consumer and business bankruptcies rise significantly, as refinancing options are shut down.
* Lines of credit are reduced and interest rates on personal and business credit cards rise, adding to the burden on families.
* Consumer and business spending declines, further depressing the economy.
* Unemployment increases significantly.
* Budget deficits increase noticeably due to declining revenue collection at all levels of government.
Like it or not, the housing market can’t rebound until we resolve the problems in the financial markets.
Despite what you may have heard from the news media, the laws and policies that Congress is considering will directly benefit Main Street, by making financing more available and helping to stabilize home sales and prices. Additionally, the cost of such a plan is likely to be below the figures that have been widely reported. In fact, as economist Lawrence Yun has explained, there is a very good chance that taxpayers will reap a positive return on this investment over the long term.
Please take some time to read the National Association of REALTORS point-by-point analysis of the major provisions being discussed in Congress, contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the Emergency Economic Stability Act.
http://takeaction.realtoractioncenter.com/campaign/eesa/explanation
With your help, I believe we can get beyond debate over who is responsible for the current situation and move toward a solution that will benefit all of us.
Prices of houses and food and gasoline and oil are falling and that means we will get back to a reasonable price level. The media are mistaken: prices falling is good news. The sooner prices fall, the quicker we can get on to recovering from this debacle. The bailout was a disasterous attempt to keep prices high. Congress did one great thing. They said "no."
Years before this economic crisis, I made sure that my financial portfolio was fairly well diversified, but I, like so many others, have been impacted by the plummeting stock market -- and, have less time than some to recover financially since I'm a "Senior Citizen." Our WA Governor put it pretty well, I think, when she said that "...this national economic crisis was brought about by greed, irresponsibility, and the failed economic policies of George Bush."
As someone who got a home loan almost two decades ago, until recently I was oblivious to the fact that many mortgage companies were no longer verifying jobs; income; or assets of those requesting loans. To paraphrase what one analyst said the other day on NPR, in too many cases, loan application requirements had devolved to two basics: completing the required forms and having a pulse. (And, in some cases, even the pulse was absent, as a number of deceased individuals received loans!)
I think that we WILL recover economically, but that it will take awhile. Actually, I'm thankful that the House did veto the proposed "bailout" bill, as I think a situation as serious as this needs more intense scrutiny and more thought, rather than a quick band-aid "solution." To mix metaphors, the outcome of the huge "bailout bill" might have been analogous to "jumping from the frying pan into the fire."
Previous crises have demonstrated that when the financial system no longer functions properly, the quicker public money is injected into the system to replace bad assets, the less painful the impact will be on the broader economy, and the faster a recovery can become possible.
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