Originally Posted by tryreading

Investment in America?

Originally Posted by MC.no.spin

Originally Posted by MC.no.spin

With all due respect, I believe you are implying you have a hither-to unannounced phD in Economics that guides your analysis of this situation, rather than listening to economic experts like the gentleman on this video, who predicted a Great Depression scenario for this country over six months ago because of this crisis he saw coming:

YouTube - 3/1 CNN Your Money: Talks of Great Depression Coming

I'm sure in your chosen profession you don't rely on the plumber to give you advice on painting. If you need advice, you seek it from someone who has the knowledge and experience to tell you what's going on. I'm sure there is a lot of clamor for such action as you recommend out there, but I've yet to hear it from one economist that has my respect.

Originally Posted by Willravel

I hadn't thought about it that way, but do you suppose allowing them to continue could drive down outrageous prices of goods and services that have traditionally required loans? One of the biggest problems facing the average American is debt. Can you imagine $5,000 cars and $30,000 homes? Maybe I'm nuts (okay, definitely), but there could be a very theoretical silver lining: reverse inflation, which could bring value back to the dollar.

Of course economics aren't my strong suit, so I could be way off base. And also, it would be a really tough transition period.

Originally Posted by John1234

I respect your post.
And if we did hit something similar to a great depression where even the middle class are starving, i fully understand how bad it would be.
Living through many hurricanes has taught me a lot about just how fragile we have become and dependant on gas, power, and money.

We would not survive a real Great Depression.
That is one reason i am more concerned about Foriegn Policy, (A World War would cause a Great Depression) but i will toss that aside for now.
We've become too dependent and too fragile.

But i am also not convinced that letting bad businesses fail would cause a "Great Depression".
A Depression yes.
But things are very different now. We have the economic infrastructure in place. The equipment, the training and education.
All of these things were lacking within our Country during the Great Depression.
It is my opinion that once we hit bottom we would not stay there for long.
People who were pumped up on credit will simply have to face reality.
People who are used to paying with cash, might also not be affected as much as you think by the collapse.

Also some of the candidates have plans to put Americans to work that are already in existance.
I am not familiar with McCain's plan for this, but I know Obama intends to put 5 million Americans to work through Government money for alternate energy.
If we did fail to do the bailout, there are still mutiple ways that the Government can help the economy and the American worker.
Stable businesses will still find credit if they deserve it.

I do not see it as a Great Depression as much as I see it as a Great bubble bursting that will equalize wealth.
If we do recover quickly, then the poor would not be effected but the middle and upper class would be forced to live within their means instead of off the backs of the labor of others.

I can not put my finger on "why".
But something seems terribly wrong to have a society where most money is made by shuffling paper.
Especially when the CEO to worker rate of pay is 2000:1.
And when over 80% of our society is living on borrowed credit.

It might be that this crisis is the natural result of the above and that a bailout will do nothing without changing those things along with it.
And there is no one even remotely considering changing any of those things.
So it might be that we have to learn from failing before we can do anything about this.

Originally Posted by oregontrail

Whoever wins will have their agenda severely limited by the lack of oversight by this administration. The war and now this economic crisis have drained our resources and distracted the country from our focus on growth. It is time to pay the bills and that is never any fun.

Originally Posted by Cephus

The problem is, Paulson is arguing that if we force the CEOs to give up their golden parachutes, they'll refuse to be bailed out. I say fine, if they don't need the help, by all means, we shouldn't help them. What we can't do is reward these morons who caused the problem in the first place by giving them tens of millions of dollars to get rid of them. What we should be doing is investigating them all for fraud.