Politics and Indecision

My vow to you, from the start, was to tell it like I see it with no baloney. A nice idea, but when politics enter into the deal, there is a LOT of baloney, but sometimes it is hard to say who is spreading lies, who is telling the truth, and does anyone know?

This seems to be the case with the big bailout… At first, the big banks had to be rescued so they would start lending again. The money (Our money) was to be used to buy up troubled bank assets, mostly securities backed by bad home loans, better known as sub prime mortgages. Loans were being made to the same banks who created this crap, sold them to anyone who was foolish enough to buy them, then held on to too many of these dogs after the market was gone, and convinced the government that they were going belly-up if we didn’t come to the rescue! And both parties DID it.

There was no plan, but a bunch of Wall streeters got billions overnight. Chase was given the money to buy out poor Wacovia Bank. Now, I see Wacovia is buying full page color advertisements! The brokers and investment bankers had the mother load, and did they ever load up! AIG was given a complete bail out, and then started giving parties in exotic places to celebrate the fleecing of the U.S. Treasury (Mainly US!) Still no plan.

Then we had a presidential election, and the politics really started. Mainly, each side wanted to blame the other for the lack of a plan, and the billions that have been given without understandable rules, oversight, or regulators.

Secretary Paulson said, “The facts have changed and the situation worsened.” Now, the administration wants to bail out not only big banks, but also credit card issuers (Banks again), auto loan companies (GMAC) and other huge non-bank businesses as well. Hey, it is all still the banks! Their big borrowers might as well feed at the public though, too!

Now, the Democrats want to include the ailing American auto industry, as well! Trouble is,the dems aren’t in power just yet, so they will have to fight to get their projects included, and we get to pick up the tab for this monumental mess.

A side note here. My garage contains a Prius and a Lexus. I feel guilty as hell, but most of the people I know have gone to foreign manufacturers. Why? That is food for another blog.

We are just in the beginning of the mess, and it must be solved by the incoming administration and congress, AFTER over two months of Bush and the guys running things their way!

Last week, a friend asked me where all this money was coming from. Good question. Do you know? We will print it, mostly in bonds, and hope to sell it in the market, because, at the time being U.S. Government bonds are still salable most everywhere. Trouble is we have to pay it back, hopefully without so much inflation, it will wipe us all out!

Glad we elected a smart guy to figure this out.

Everyone has their hand out, and we haven’t even gotten to the people who need it. They are WAY down the list. Most will never get anywhere near the front of the line.

Bless us all.