TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!

ANOTHER PRECEDENT.

The Feds refused to bailout Lehman Brothers, that is a good thing. Darwin seems to be active here and one would expect that from an administration that proclaims that the market shall prevail. The nationalization of Fannie and Freddie brought the intended results: by all accounts, the interest rates came down, and that is also good. The loan to AIG was followed by almost 80% equity position in the company. taxpayers may benefit from this action because they are the majority owners of the company. So far so good.

LONG TERM TAXATION.

The proposed $700 billion banks bailout does not follow any of the previous actions.In its current form, it adds to our national debt for one, it gives no ownership into the companies that will benefit from our largess, it pays some of the sames companies to dispose of the toxic trash that they generated and, basically does nothing to help those homeowners who are losing their homes and jobs.
This country rebelled against the king of England for the very reasons present in this proposal. Not long ago, congress voted for a similar bill that resulted in the costly war of Iraq. Rushing to dole out the money or the power has dire consequences. Do we want to see this happen again? Ask your elected officials the point in approving a bill that will tie a noose around our necks.

NATIONALIZE THE BAD BANKS DEBT.

A less costly option, it will spare $700 billion, would be to simply nationalize the debt, or buy it for what it is worth and pass the savings to the struggling homeowners through discounted mortgage balances. If a $250,000 mortgage can be bought for $100,000, rewrite that mortgage at the new value and set up a new payment plan.
The outcome will be the same at little or no cost to the taxpayers: the banks will get rid toxic mortgages, the taxpayers will not be on the hook for $700 billion, people will be able to keep their homes. After that, the government can lend to selective institutions the money they need to beef up their shaky capital base.

In summary, the bailout plan in its current form amounts to rewarding those who were at the origin of the problem with a huge windfall profit while the taxpayers are left to pay for the mess. What ever happened to the saying "you break it, you own it"?