Bomb the Blogosphere -- We Don't Need No Water Let the Mutha Burn!!!

WASHINGTON - In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. The Dow Jones industrials plunged 778 points, the most ever for a single day."


--Associated Press

It is not "shocking" that the American people would ask their representatives to vote down giving the richest corporations in our country taxpayer money. Why wouldn't we?

The citizens of the United States do not deserve to be stepped all over to help the corporations that took gargantuan risks to make billions of dollars. Their risks did not pay off, they took all the money from borrowers, tried to invest it and make more money, but now they're losing it all. This financial crisis did not materialize suddenly. It is the result of years of reckless investments, and already-wealthy bankers trying to get even richer.

Why should struggling US taxpayers take on this massive economic burden?

All of us bought houses, boats, cars, land, educations, and computers on credit, because we were to impatient to save and the banks and lenders were to greedy to wait for fixed capital. Then these lenders tried to capitalize on the boom of a technology based market.

Does this sound familiar?

The most famous crash, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, happened on October 29, 1929. The economy had been growing robustly for most of the so-called Roaring Twenties. It was a technological golden age as innovations such as radio, automobiles, aviation, telephone and the power grid were deployed and adopted. Companies who had pioneered these advances like Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and General Motors saw their stocks soar. Financial corporations also did well as Wall Street bankers floated mutual fund companies (then known as investment trusts) like the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation. Investors were infatuated with the returns available in the stock market especially with the use of leverage through margin debt. On August 24, 1921, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at a value of 63.9. By September 3, 1929, it had risen more than sixfold, touching 381.2. It would not regain this level for another twenty five years. By the summer of 1929, it was clear that the economy was contracting and the stock market went through a series of unsettling price declines. These declines fed investor anxiety and events soon came to a head. October 24 (known as Black Thursday) was the first in a number of increasingly shocking market drops. This was followed swiftly by Black Monday on October 28 and Black Tuesday on October 29.

--Wikipedia ( I know, and I'm sorry everyone for citing Wikipedia.)

Publicly traded companies and those who buy stock take a calculated risk to make money. That is what the stock market is, with the number one rule being, "buy low, sell high". Individuals can choose which way they want to go right now, hence "free market economy". Those who are selling out on the market, are going to lose money. But, if you choose to be a buyer, the stocks are on clearance. 17% off!

Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico stated that this is not a "bailout" it is a "buyout" the United States Government will be buying "things" and then selling them at a higher value, making the bill less than 700 billion dollars.

What? The United States Government is going to BUY privately? The bill doesn't even say WHAT they would be buying?

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said that the government plans on buying bad mortgages and selling them at an equal or higher rate. The government making money off of the free market is no longer a free market. If they have control of the the regulations, interest rates, import/export tariffs, trade agreements, and they have money invested in the market, everything they do could be considered insider trading. The greatest example of Government led economic activity with ownership of property and a vested interest in the value of things like gas, homes and bread, would be Soviet Russia.

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The people don't trust the government, 18% approval for the legislative branch and 20% for the executive, and the fact that this bill has not been publicly debated or published on the floor doesn't help the people trust the government in this particular matter.

If they want 700 billion dollars, the American people deserve a press conference, a fireside chat, a public debate, anything. Not just a bunch of talking-head-opinion-windbags on cable, telling us how much we "need" this bailout.

Forest fires are a natural way for the nutrients to be recycled and dispersed to new and fresh growth. When the national forest service tried to stop fires in the 1970's across America, the dead undergrowth began to build, in the 1990's and 2000's we've had some of the worst fires in history across our nation.

The free market was never guaranteed to always succeed, it always has a chance to fail. In fact it needs to fail. The corporations that have spent the past three decades monopolizing the market stand to lose trillions of dollars, of course they want to be given money. But they need to burn, so that they little guy can buy up the pieces that are left, using capital to invest and get money to fund new ideas and companies.

Until the senate or house share what exactly they need 700 billion dollars for, I will not support the bill being passed. Don't tell me that we "need" to pass it, tell me why.