Our so -called leaders in Washington don`t have a clue how the rest of us are struggling.They have taxpayer health insurance.They give themselves a raise evey year instead of taking pay cxuts like most of us and they fly first class with their families on trips around the world on the taxpayers dime .No wonder the public does`nt trust Congress .They think they are entitled to gouge the taxpayer and live large at our expense.Time for a change.I had hoped they would get the message this last election but their arrogance is to enbedded.

There are in a two block area on my street 4 houses in forclosure. Two are empty. These are only the ones I know about. That is out of about 15 houses.

If the Government had given even a fraction of all this wasted TARP money that they have given to the banks, automakers, and AIG etc. Back to the tax payers. We'd all be debt free with the use of our own tax dollars. And the economy would be just fine and booming right now. But that would have been the easiest smartest way to handle this whole economic situation. So, naturally the Government opted to take the more difficult and costly route. Meanwhile, families are still losing their homes, jobs, and business's continue to cut back or close down. The economy will continue to get financially worse. Until such time, as the PEOPLE are once again financially stable.

OK if you divide up the nearly 24 trillion and counting the bankers stole and passed that out to the people we would each have $80,000.00. Now in my family of three that's $240,000.00! Gee, we'd be living on easy street, not as well as David Rockefeller and the Goldman Sachs creeps but comfortable. Wouldn't have a mortgage at all! Of course the real answer would be to do just that bail out the people but they want CONTROL of us slaves otherwise we might wake up and realize we don't need them!(the elite ghouls) Globalists consolidating their power and money(ours) and will have us bent over for those RFID "chips" in about ten years?

Hmm! Let's start with the question of bailing out the banks or the people?

The government had no choice in bailing out the banks or AIG. The car business, it's suppliers, the retail stores are all a result of banking insanity. So are foreclosures, both direct and indirect. By this I mean that direct were those that were issued with no real hope of repayment and indirect being those that are near, or in, due to unemployment.

If anything, anyone that has a complaint or just wishes to understand should start at square one and that is - just how the hell did we all get into this predicament.

The financial industry certainly gets the lion's share of cause, but everyone that participated should also accept a share. Let's not forget Congress, especially my favorites, the House and Senate finance and banking committees. They are supposed to be our watchdogs and overrule bad behavior on our part and the banks as well. They even set up agencies to regulate financial transactions, the SEC, OFHEO and the FDIC to name a few.
EVERYTHING FAILED.

While it is a nice concept to suggest giving a large "dole" to the public to inspire spending and hence, rebuild the economy, those that have this thinking should also be aware that the government is doing the same thing as paying with a credit card. They don't have the money either. If they did not do what they did, unemployment would be a 20+ % and this country, and the world, would be in a massive depression with real estate being near worthless. In other words - as bad as it is - it could have been a lot worse. I agree with the comments before me to the extent that there is a great deal of hardship present, but I also point out that we too share in the blame as we continue to forget and forgive on election day. It is a free society, but one that has to wake up and start to pay attention. Some of these people HAVE TO GO. It is a matter of doing some homework and sorting them out. It's a real problem as the ones at the top of my list don't represent me. If they did I would be on the street with a placard calling for their ouster! There are good people in Congress and we do no want to get rid of them. Term limits are not an answer, but a curse. There is no point in getting rid of those that are doing their job.
Instead of any further banking bailouts and instead of any dole type payments to the public I would suggest that a large portion of the TARP funds be directed to public works projects that could be implemented quickly. It would be better to resort to a form of temporary socialism and get some paychecks rolling which would give the consumer some money to spend and in turn, create some jobs to fill the product demand.
The key is employment. It cannot be a consumer driven economy if the consumer is living on an unemployment check.

WASHINGTON IS PATHETIC..... BAILING OUT THE CREEPS AT GOLDMAN... FUNDING LAVISH VACATIONS FOR POLITICIANS WHILE THEY SCREW PROSTITUTES WITH YOUR TAX MONEY.

GREAT RETIREMENT FOR THEM NO JOBS FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER.... HELL THEY ARE BUYING OUR FORECLOSED HOMES WHILE WE GO HOMELESS....

AMERICA ASK YOURSELF THIS..... HOW HAS THE GOVERNMENT EVER HELPED YOU IN THE LAST 10 YEARS....???

THEY TAX YOU , THEY SPEND YOUR MONEY YOU WORK SO THEY CAN PLAY, DINE AND DO NOTHING TO HELP THE AVERAGE JOE.

INFACT THE ONLY ONES GETTING LOANS ARE THE BANKERS WHO DONT LEND....

BERNANKIE IS NO RONALD REGAN THATS FOR SURE... IF RONNIE WERE ALIVE THIS GUY WOULD BE WORKING AT TACO BELL....

LETS GET REAL PEOPLE REVOLT

I LOVE THE CORRUPT MEDIA THAT MANIPULATES THE STOCK MARKET.....

ONE DAY ITS A BED OF ROSES.... THE MARKET GOES UP, THEN THE TRUTH COMES OUT AND THE MARKET GOES DOWN...

SO JUST WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ECONOMY? IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

PEOPLE THE AVERAGE JOE HASNT A DIME AND THE FORECLOSURE NUMBERS SHADOW THAT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

LOOK MONEY BY DESIGN IS NOTHING MORE THAN A "MEDIUM" OF EXCHANGE......

THATS IT THATS ALL!!!!

WITH OUT IT WE WOULD BE TRADING CHICKENS FOR APPLES AND APPLES FOR MILK..... THESE IDIOTS IN WASHINGTON LIKE BERNANKI ALL HAVE THEIR THEORIES BUT NONE OF THEM ARE WORKING FOR THE AVERAGE JOE.... EVEN THE RICH ARE SUFFERING... WHERE'S THE BENEFIT IN THE BAIL OUT? WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY???

YOUR GOVERNMENT IS OUT TO SCREW YOU... THEY ARE TOO STUPID TO KNOW HOW TO GET THE MONEY IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE.....

WELL ITS NOT THROUGH JOB CREATION... THATS FOR SURE... OUR JOBS ARE ALL GONE OVER SEAS... AND SO IS OUR MONEY...

I THINK I KNOW THAT 10% OR MORE OF AMERICANS ARE OUT OF WORK AND THE REST ARE GETTING IOU'S FOR UNEMPLOYMENT....

BARTER TOWN IS COMING SOON.....

WAKE UP AMERICA REVOLT!

I am losing my property to the banks that the gov. is
giving tax payer money to and the banks are not willing
to reduce my loan balance. even thougt the value has
dropped 45%. I would like to keep the property that i
have oned for 30 years,but unless they reduce the balance with taxpayer money they received for their losses
it doesn't make sense to stay in the home. I can buy reo
at 1/2 the price. When is someone in gov. going to wake-up.

The idea of resurecting a "consumer driven" economy when none of the consumer goods are produced in the U.S. doesn't make sense. The more we buy the more money leaves for foreign shores. What we really need is some new financial model that will work over the long term. I don't know what it is but buying Chinese consumer goods it isn't.

There's an article in this mornings Greenville News (SC) about how the area needs to try to evovle into more of a service economy at the expense of our manufacturing base. WTF? I think they should consider the fact that the transformation from manufacturing to service has been a big factor in our county's demise.

Shoudn't we be trying to fgure out ways to manufacture more of our own products of consumption instead of sending all our money to China?

it's no surprise that foreclosures are at a record high in July. The foreclosure moratoriums are ending.

As for you don mchaney, you've owned the home for 30 years and you still have a mortage? Not only that, but you are needing a loan modification?

You've already taken your free money bailout. Now take a hike.