A full page (A17) in this morning's Washington Post suggests a plan for assisting the distressed homeowners directly. It bears discussion.

Despite the calls to "Let the Market Handle It", there is a crisis out there. So $700b is alot of money but can we afford to do nothing?

I can't see that the banks who made the "toxic" loans are moally superior to the lenders who received them. But I do assert that a homeowner who comes close to losing his home will act much more cautiously in the future, where a banker whose bad deals are bailed out by the Government is not as likely to be more cautious where the chance of profits rolls around again.

Real as in real fiat money printed by the Fed.

Seriously, they printed $4 trillion for the war, then can print $1 trillion more for this. Of course if China and Japan stop buying US treasury then we're hosed. It silly to think its tax payer money anymore. The only reason people are taxed is to make them think money is valuable or something.

Not that I agree with the methods, but anyone upset that the government is spending "their money" doesn't realize that the Fed just prints more when they need it anyways. Really, all they are asking for is to get their debt limit increased.

Yes, real, very real.
It costs 500 billion to fund Medicare.
It would cost about (estimated) to build the imagined Bering Sea Bridge between the U.S. and Russia.
for 700 Billion we could re build the entire inter state highway system.
If the members of congress that sit on the banking and finance committees had acted sooner - we would not be here.
The root cause is certainly in housing and it's collapse caused the dollar to lose value. This in turn sent oil prices skyrocketing. It is a cancer spreading though our entire economy - it is also terminal and no amount of surgery can correct it. We are a nation of imports and inflation will soon return - in force.
I am now hearing daily, like all else, about the hearings on the hill and I do watch a bit. So far it tells me that our leaders still do no understand the full ramifications and how this crisis will impact both the U.S. and the world.
I would like to see some new hearings - ones in which the public gets to send some knowledgeable questioners to represent them and ask our elected representatives - how they could miss such blatant signs of catastrophe!!
I assume most that sit in Congress own homes and that theirs increased in value the same as the rest of the U.S. This, along with all of the advertising saying 100% finance, "0" down, no income check and luxury construction in a frenzy mode should have been enough to be a warning. I can only wonder if these people can see a fire truck, with it's lights and siren whooping,on a perfectly clear day.
With that pack in charge - the taxpayer is in deep trouble.

Actually this is nothing - wait until 2010 when the senior population finds out that the 700 billion being spent in 2008 -
bankrupted Medicare.
They all vote - but it will be too late to get those that are now setting it in motion.

This is the biggest waste of money I have heard of in all my 50 years. Not to mention wanting to help financial institutes that are not even American companies. If congress approves this I will personally work to get someone else elected.

Why not just help the people with the mortgage issues. Not that I don't think there were some bad calls there as well, but at least if they get them refinanced the people might be able to afford the payments and make them.

Why not use this money to help the people who are without jobs to get retrained for some job that is available here.

If they think this is such a wonderful idea, then perhaps they should part with their pork, stop spending a fortune on a war that has already done whatever it is going to accomplish, take a little pay cut perhaps, like a lot of Americans have had to do, and put their money where their mouths are!

It seems to me that if we don't quit bailing out companies we might as well be a socialist country. No sense making rules just to deregulate them later.

We have given them big tax breaks, overlooked bad management issues, bailed out who industries and allowed laws to be severly bent if not broken.

Take a look at the companies/industries that we have bailed out. The auto industry for one. How many americans have lost the jobs in the industry. How many jobs after the bail out got shipped out of this country?

Who will we really be helping with a 700 billion dollar bailout? Not the American taxpayer.

My question is about the $700 Billion Bailout.

Instead of giving the Banks all of this money, why not pass a bill to have the Banks freeze the rates for 5 years.

The majority of homeowners are losing their homes due to their rates are adjusting and they can not afford the adjusted payment. They are ending up foreclosing on thier homes.

The homeowner's are current on their mortgage payments until this adjustment happens.

If the rate is frozen, the Banks are still receiving their payments and not having REO's on their books. The Banks then can charge the differenced in interest on the back end. This is a win/win situation for the Homeowner and for the Bank. This will give time for values/economy to level out.

There should also be another Bill passed that all Real Estate taxes be reduced to the current value of homes.

Homeowner's are still paying property taxes on the value from 2 or more years ago with a difference in the hundred of thousand of dollars.

This will also save money.

Why has this not been considered???

Well, maybe I was labeled a cynic about 2 years ago when I said the Fed is in a "check-mate" situation, where they will have to choose between saving the stock market, real estate market, or the dollar, but it most likely fail at all three. I don't think I am a cynic, just a realist, and it looks like I was right. Another thing I will say is massive greed, ignorance, arrogance and our willingness to believe in fantasies allowed this to happen. Maybe when a "cynic" questions some of the well known "facts", like the "buy & hold" theory, people should listen & give it some thought, before they believe the "historical data" they are given.

Why don't we have some of these big spenders CEO's, CFO's, and Whatever O's dig into their retirement fund or severance pay they have walked away and been paid from companies like United Air Lines Countrywide etc. These guys walk around with so much money they don't know what to do with it. Why do we spend billions of dollars on freakn Mars digging up Mars dirt when we are broke here in the states. Politicans and others mismanage our money cause this economic fallout. My dad always said to use common sense. I am pulling all my money out of the bank until these numskulls find out what to do. Broke country and we got a 4billion dollar probe on Mars come on. So when there is a depression what are they going to do with there money? Buy something? It will not be nothing to buy because companies will not have anything to by. Money will be of no object.