Ignore Washington -- keep saving; General Patton makes a point

Isn't that the truth! You can't spend yourself into prosperity; if that's your method, you're just going to dig that hole deeper.

Does anybody in government even vaguely understand basic economics?

What I find insufferably galling is when the guy next door who purchased the 2,600 s.f., two story home that is 100 s.f. larger than my home . . . and they are ten months behind in their mortgage payments on the $529K "grossly overpriced" home, have three fairly new cars in the driveway, go shopping frequently, coming home with all sorts of packages . . . and I am supposed to "contribute" to bailing them out of THEIR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS???

I do NOT think so . . . this is simly INSANE.

There are simply too many of these FREELOADER "gamers" who are working the system. They haven't moderated their spending except by quiting to pay their mortgages . . . and they are hanging on to every word about how they may be bailed out.

Even my daughter's sister-in-law's family is "plotting this" with an attorney guiding them (for a $3,000.00 fee). They were planning on maxing out their credit cards and then filing for bankruptcy . . . fools that they are. And their problems started long before the economic meltdown . . . they simply spent more than they earned.

It is time for the responsible people to DEMAND that Congress halt these types of bail outs at the EXPENSE of the people who were responsible and prudent to live within their means.

Now these irresponsible peope are a root cause of the economic melt down that is now unemploying millions of others, and thereby threatening foreclosures on those peoples' homes. This is unconscionable.

it is time to let these parasitic "gamers" drown in their indebtedness and "game playing". They did this to themselves, hoping to get a lot for very little . . . well, let them contend with the results of their irresponsibility. I have nothing more to give them.

Sorry guys, but I hate to tell you this. Rich people are set to make losses if we responsible people are not given the shaft in the form of paying for the irresponsibility of others, or inflation eat every little time you have saved up. You know that rich people cannot be allowed to make losses.

What should happen, if all the blowhards that touted capitalizm for all these years actually believed what they said, is all the houses should go into foreclosure if they cannot be paid for and those who are smart and responsible will buy them up or they could be re-bought by the people that could not afford them at the inflated prices. The problem with that, you ask. Rich people would take all the losses when the $500,000 house they are invested in is really only worth about $180,000; and we can't have that, can we!

Hedge your savings against inflation. What the USA owes is unpayable and the baby boomers are sure as heck not going to change their singleminded, selfish attitude and realize they need to pay for the expenses they incurred.

Good point, but I don't think that it will work well under the present circumstances.
Having a reserve and not over extending are simple, but sound policies. It also falls under the heading of being conservative. You are in Cal., the State with the largest budget crisis and home to the most liberals in the nation. You must feel like an outcast.
I agree that these are certainly confusing times and this is due to being where none have been before. Everything is new and unique with no known counter measures from the past, therefore trying to encourage spending to re-boot the economy looks viable. Government has taken the no action approach under Herbert Hoover and we all know the result.
Today is straight out of the old cartoon of the flying geese with the caption - lead, follow, do something!
Hannibal crossed the alps and surprised Rome. It took years to get rid of him.

"Does anybody in government even vaguely understand basic economics? ..."

Well, definitely nobody high up in the Bush administration did.

A basic principle of capitalism has been "growth" via the use of credit; BUT that was only successful in limited incremental amounts that limited the risks to a point or level that could be acceptably and reasonably handled.

Due to a gross lack of, and relaxing of regulations, Congress enabled almost anyone to fraudulently use credit (by falsifying mortgage applicantion information, or "valuing" "derivatives" and pseudo-"drivatives" at grossly inflated values.

In hindsight, it was the Harvard and Princeton type MBAs and PhDs who perverted the basic principles and standards of capitalism as a way to boost the almighty "quarterly profits" without regard to anything else. Just like Alan Greenspan, they all became "intellectual IDIOTS" of sorts, thinking that "the impossible" economic collapse could never occur, or that they would make out financially in any economic calamity. (Ergo the government "bailout" and now the STIMULUS plans that are pumping HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars into the failing FIs and the corporations.)


The only person that YOU can depend on is YOURSELF and your spouse, if you have one. The American people MUST DEMAND that INTEGRITY be restored and INSTILLed in our business enterprises and regulation/oversight of these businesses. All Congressmen should be required to be audited annually to deter undue political influence and corruption also.

if the American people do not vehemently and vocally rise up to demand this from Congress, then the "recovery" is gong to be long and painful.

As noted on NPR - national Public Radio this morning, there is absolutely no way to get around or to minimize the costs of all of these "FRAUDS" and over indebtedness. The financial "pain" cannot be minimized. The BEST APPROACH is to let the REGULATED Free Market Conomy just work all fo this out. yes that will be extremely painful . . . However, "dragging it out" will merely greatly exacerbate the financial pain and impact of it all.

Right now, the net result of the "bail out"
package and the STIMULUS package is that the American people are, or will, LITERALLY PAY at least twice as much, and perhaps more, than the economic losses that have been incurred to date.

It is like people who have abused their credit indebtedness, going into deeper and deeper indebtedness in trying to manipulate their original indebtedness . . . it doesn't make "common sense" to do this.

The quickest and most efficient way to handle this economic debacle is to "bite the bullet" and suffer through whatever it takes to let everything settle out and to rebalance. These bailouts, which may have been necessary to some degree initially, are now merely exacerbating the economic problems by wasting enorous amounts of money on the wrong issues.

"Pay the costs NOW, or pay two, three, or more times that costs in the future.

People simply do not want to face the reality of it all, especially for the future of their children and grand children. THAT is WRONG! That is STUPID! THAT is how we got into this economic mess in the first place. Everyone must take personal responsibility for what they have done and are doing. There isn't "anyone else" to bail YOU out . . . they (Congress) is putting YOU IN DEBT to bail YOU out . . . and Congress' "solutions" ALWAYS benefits the special interests versus YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS.

Quit being duped and niave about all of this. Most of you are suckers for empty promises by politicians; promises that never materialize, at least not to YOUR BENEFIT. Quit being a sucker!