Stupid DictatorTricks?

EMERGENCY! MARSHALL LAW!
There is nothing like an emergency to get policymakers to suspend the usual rule or to override basic economic freedoms. Dictators use the trick all the time, then they never give the power back to people.

I am getting a really odd feeling about what is going on with this BAIL OUT PLAN.

The GRIFTERS...
No one can value these assets, so it has become a game of 'get what you can'. Some banks want the purchase prices for assets to be used to determine value; THE PURCHASE price not current price.What the heck is going on?

Everyone has a new bargaining trick for MY MONEY and YOUR MONEY!

IF it's so bad why was the stock market so resilient?
EVEN at its worst the DJIA was above 10,000. I don't know why if banks problems are this deep were were able to see the markets trade as well as they did. THE DJIA and S&P and NASDAQ each fell from their respective peaks by about 20% but until last week not by much more (including last week, not by much more either).

THIS IS NOT A PORK BARREL
I do not want tricks or gimmicks used to funnel tax dollars base on capricious schemes. But we do not have a good way to set value for the assets the government plans to buy. Moreover, it is clear that this plan is intended to funnel money to banks. Banks view it as a hand out. As I have repeatedly argued, if Government buys their assets at true value, how do you help them? Everyone assumes that government is going to overpay for them so banks are now trying to construct formulas most advantageous to them for a payout. The discussant/lobbyists say time is too short to worry over details. Only thing is that the main detail is how is this: ONE TRILLION DOLLARS of my tax money going to be spent and what am I going to get for it?

The world is a changed place again
I am having a hard time reconciling prebail-out market behavior with post bail out financial demands.

While I do not mean to diminish the attacks of 9/11 there is something about this that is like that, at least to me.

The day those planes crashed into the World Trade Towers, the world changed. I was in disbelief. And the day the government offered this huge bail out something changed too. I am still shaking my head in disbelief as I read of some of the proposals. Are these people serious?

You can't pull the planes out of the trade center and bring them back up and restore the lives that were lost. But you can be more careful of the monies you funnel to banks in this instance. You can void making this another sort of day that will live in infamy.

Are you just GIVING our money away??
I am no partisan but the democrats are on to something when they want to restrict CEO payouts. Paulson says this is not about being punitive. But everything up to this point has been punitive: Bear Stearns, Lehman, Fannie, Freddie shareholders lost all or most of their equity and CEOS were replaced. So now if you are part of the PACK you get a prize at the bottom of your Cracker Jacks along with your bail out money? How are those vanquished firms different from the ones you are going to gift with my money now? Aren't you going to get any restriction on them? NOT PUNITIVE!!??

WE WANT STRICTURES: Let them SIGN ON OR STAY OUT
The 'BAILOUT' should be a participatory plan. Firms should be able to sign on or avoid it. If they sign on there should be conditions. You do not just transfer a trillion dollars of the public's money and put no strings on it.

Penny wise and TRILLION DOLLAR FOOLISH
This plan is fast becoming a huge boondoggle. The assets that are being set up to get funded are no longer going to be (necessarily) mortgage related apparently. Language that was going to restrict payouts to US firms is apparently being changed, too.

Are we propping up foreign firms? Is it because US financial firms created this mess? Are BUYERS of this paper not responsible for anything? Caveat Emptor- nevermind.

It's as if there were this white rabbit and we were chasing it down the rabbit hole and down here the rules are not what they used to be.

THIS PLAN MUST BE STOPPED before it gains more momentum.

What are they bailing out? bad credit cards? auto loans/ Mortgages? mortgage derivatives? Credit swaps? is there any end? is there a purpose?

AND you thought we went into VIETNAM WITHOUT A PLAN!!

THIS IS A PLAN?

If firms are this troubled LET THEM GO DOWN one by one and employ the rules to save depositors. Do not bailout everything,