Companies start competing for bailout money

For probably the first time ever I agree with Schumer. It does seem kind of ridiculous for companies getting these payouts to keep issuing dividends at the same level or at all.

Anything to present a facade of stability.

I think I read it someplace here on Newsvine....."NO BAILOUT...NOT NOW NOT EVER"

Well I could be wrong. I am just a nobody, with no degree, not wxperience in Banking and Economics, no stock experience. Just a regular father in a family. What could I possibly know.

Why not take the bailout money and divide it equally among the taxpayers to pump into the economy? (Don't make it taxable income like the stimulus checks)  Make the companies "earn" it by earning the business of the little guys (aka taxpayers). The local and state governments will earn some return on the money through sales tax revenues.

Well, Bankers are Bankers - where is Barney Franks and Chris Dodd? Where is Obama's hotline to Paulson? They are playing a game with the economy tanking until they get a majority share of the 700 billion - don't quite understand what the Hedge Fund people stay in line for - here again, they will play the market down until someone will offer money for them to stop.

Where is Schumers buddy Bloomberg? He is in the Hedge Fund business? As long as America is running a lobbyist system, with more Chinese and Indian lobbyist around than US interest - our labor rate and middle class will only go down. Take all the well earning financial people and realators out of the market and your national salary average will go down - same with replacing 7 million manufacturing jobs with burger flippers - it just does not add up. American people wake up - not a democratic supermajority is going to change Wahington - only someone who will really take on the Lobby - Schumer, saying all the time the right thing, but to noble to fight in the trenches - McCain is the man

Deregulation didn't work before and didn't work this time. We should "shoot" any deregulation politicians for treason. (This is sarcasm folks.)

This plan(?) has evolved significantly from what is was supposed to do.  As noted by Propublica.org, the transparency that was required as part of this plan is being ignored or not followed as was required.  Documents of the contract with The Bank of New York - Mellon have had information regarding reimbursement BLACKED OUT by the Department of the Treasury.  If as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act states that reports are to be within the first 60 days (starting from 10-3-08) and every 30 day period thereafter, this plan can be abused until after the election...is that the TRANSPARENCY the American people can expect from the government. 

These detailed financial statements should be available electronically to every American who wants to see them...and not at the convenience of the US Treasury.

As also noted by the New York Times, all is not as it appears with the use of the money given to the BIG NINE Banks, so who is actually going to gain from this $700B, it appears not the American people:  see part of article below,

The JPMorgan executive who was moderating the employee conference call didn’t hesitate to answer a question that was pretty politically sensitive given the events of the previous few weeks.

Given the way, that is, that Treasury Secretary money to recapitalize banks instead of buying up their toxic securities, which he had then sold to Congress and the American people as the best and fastest way to get the banks to start making loans again, and help prevent this recession from getting much, much worse.

In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans. But this executive was the first insider who’s been indiscreet enough to say it within earshot of a journalist.

(He didn’t mean to, of course, but I obtained the call-in number and listened to a recording.)

“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”

Read that answer as many times as you want — you are not going to find a single word in there about making loans to help the American economy. On the contrary: at another point in the conference call, the same executive (who I’m not naming because he didn’t know I would be listening in) explained that “loan dollars are down significantly.” He added, “We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side.” In other words JPMorgan has no intention of turning on the lending spigot.

It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.

And now the US Treasury is considering all other sorts of businesses... if there are no "preferred shares" or other protection measures for we the tax holders, are we just being duped....again by the GOP administrations - who have always supported BIG BUSINESS?

Which leaves me to the final question - why should I pay taxes...I will tell the IRS to attached my income from the preferred stocks purchased from the bailout. 

I am one very frustrated taxpayer!

I am not adverse to a 'bail-out' type of rescue for thes troubled industries - we need them to be viable.  I am adverse to paying ANY member of management of any of these companies more than $100K ( or less), and then only if they achieve some pre-defined prformance objectives. No stock options, no golden parachutes, no company perks that are not available to ALL employees.  They (these companies) have said in the past that they needed the 'super' compensation packages to attract the best talent.  Obviously, the talent they attracted was not the best and did not have the common folk or the best interests of our economy as part of their objectives (I think "personal greed" was their goal). I'm not saying that we should shoot them - but it should certainly be an option.

Why bail any of them out? The big 3 car companies took their bailout money and sent it out of the country to other plants outside the USA..F--K these bailouts..

what about failing manufacturing companies / trading companies looking for trade financing so they can export competitively and get some of the dollars back / restaurants that have and are going under - why only bail out bankers ?
AIG got 85 Bil - after they went on their expensive retreat - and hear they are looking to dip in again for some more ? Surely they must be well connected somewhere ?
Is this America? or Zimbabwe ?
Does anyone justify paying all those taxes only to have them being used to bail out corrupt and failing managers and systems ?
Who is keeping track of where all the money goes and how it is being used ? We are talking Billions here ! Not tens of thousands or even Millions !
All I see is more and deepening Chaos and the message is loud and clear - if you are a big time crook with good connections to the politicos - you can win big !
Its a free for all folks - too late now to stop it
Knowledge is a deadly friend if no one sets the rules / The fate of all mankind I see is in the hands of FOOLS ! (epitaph)

Lawmakers in both parties are starting to gripe that the bailout is turning out to be far different from what the Bush administration sold to Congress.

Lawmakers in both parties worked on and modified the legislation themselves and even added more to it including attaching the pork. Now they are trying to dodge the blame for the confusion and failure of this legislation not accomplisihng its goals. It even made the situation worse by the Treasury changing direction with the bill three times since its inception

Okay, it's only  Bush's fault that lawmakers that this bill went from a few pages to more than 400 pages by the time they got through with it. Sure, our elected leaders had nothing to do additional written language being added to it, after all they're only legislators who write legislation.

They were the ones who included additional options for Paulson to pursue in case the primary assets buying plan didn't work in order to circumvent further legislation.

Right now they have all their pants and skirts are burning like gasoline soaked torches.

An overly simplicitic (and somewhat sarcastic) approach: Divide the bailout money equally among taxpayers (not taxable like the stimulus checks) to pump into the economy and make the companies "earn" the money by catering to the little guy (aka taxpayer).  As an added benefit, local and state governments will receive some return in the form of sales taxes, etc. 

The gov is basically setting a prescendent by bailing out companies and corporations that got burned by being greedy and simply not making good decisions. This is going to snowball into a mess that will take years to untangle, while the execs of these companies spend a week at the spa (for $400K) because they are stressed.

Just rememer to fire every representative who voted for the $700 Billion Bailout Bill the next time you have the opportunity!

Headlines in my local paper "PNC takes over National City".  Article goes on to explain that PNC "is getting $7.7 billion from the government to acquire..."  Being naive and trusting the government/media to be telling the truth, I thought this was to protect those of us who are investors/account holders with these banks.  Looks like Reagan was right when he compared government to prostition.  Guess where those of us who work and pay taxes are "getting it"?

Legislation is need to bailout of every elected official from their offices and mandate they return their wages and kickbacks from the date they started to serve.

Let see, we are supposed to give away billions to save the banks and the stock market and they decide that they can now do business as usual with the middle class paying the bill. Instead of solving the problem they are now getting funds so they can become larger banks and still live the life style they think they are entitledto. And how does a company pay dividends and be broke. Now i know .Our money......sweet . .....We have paid the car companies,investment companies,banks who are not even in trouble but wants to expand. Next will be the Airline,the steel companies and who knows who's next. Frankly I'm getting tired of working my ass off to pay my bills and support my family for this bunch of morons who's letting this happen. Soon the middle class is going to go under, then who's paying the bill? I guess the poor going to have to take over ,they are the only ones left. But wait! they don't have any money. Sorry wall street, Game over.  Depression time , Windows to the left. Roof top to the right.

Hey out there!! Where's mine at? I am part of the biggest coalition in the United States, much bigger than any corporation..its called the American taxpayer or what was once referred to as the American citizen! Where's mine? Where's yours?

As the Treasury now interprets it, these additional groups would not participate in the bank stock program. They could receive help from a separate part of the $700 billion rescue that will buy bad assets from financial institutions.
This is where I stopped reading this article. Why continue?
Why are they still calling them "assets"?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In business and accounting, assets are everything owned by a person or company (all tangible and intangible property) that can be converted into cash [1]. Since this includes intangible valuables such as stocks and accounts and notes receivable whose cash value is not clear until they are sold, assets can also be defined as a probable future economic benefit obtained or controlled by a person or company as a result of a past transaction or event.
What is the "probable future economic benefit" for We The People?

Paulson and Bernanke, you need to be prosecuted to the highest limits of the law. You are no better than the Enron folks. Extortion of the highest degree perpetrated on the U.S Government and the people. All that pushed this bailout bill through congress, the senate and the house should all be recalled, immediately. There is no end to the handouts and Paulson and Bernanke started it all. The United States Attorney General is lax in his duties too. He should bring charges against all that have authored this mess,the bill and those that signed it. There is literally no hope no matter how much money they keep spreading around to keep what is coming down the pike from happening. LET IT FALL. Continuing interference in this mess by the government and the federal reserve is prolonging the problem. This is intentional by all of the parties mentioned in this post and many that are not.

Loans should remain loans until they are repaid.  It is very simple to account for the bail-out money they extracted from the American taxpayer and future genreations.  Who gets how much and what for and what is the time frame for repaying the loan.  We spent 30 years to pay off our mortgage and we know exactly how much we owe during the 30 years and how much interests to deduct from our taxes. It does not take a scientist to figure it out.  Americans are fooled by the Wall Street, the politicians, and the government that we are stupid that we don't understand the complex issues and we should trust them to do what is the best for the people and the country.  In the meantime they help themselves to the money with no accountability  We,the  people should demand straight answers from the government and insist that whoever is abusing the money and the American people's trust should be held accountable for their actions-civil or criminal penalties. 

Say no to the Pork!! Stop the bailouts now!! Speak out!! Speak up for the constitution of the United States.

How can the government choose to give a bailout ONLY to corporate America?? That is not constitutional and there is no provision (that I am aware of) under current U.S. law.

MY wife and I have a plant nursery.You can guess what kind of shap we're in.When people are straped for money they don't buy plants. How about some of that bailout money. The bailout money is not going to solve the problem because the consumer does not have money to spend.He is so far in debt that he can't borrow any more money.MY idea is to have a package to pay off debt(no cash).The banks will get money to lend again .The consumer will have some money to spend and the whole system will start working again.I know it sounds like helping the serfs but it  will help everyone.                               

You Can't fix it if you don't know whats wrong, that's our government for you, that's why We have Managers, Supervisors, then us the one that knows how to do the job .........LOL

Ah, yes the corporate vultures are circling the taxpayer trough of borrowed Chinese money to get their "share."  How can anyone doubt whether we are a socialist state. Socialism seems to have a different definition and focus when it is corporate or individual. No doubt when this mess clears up we'll go right back to that same old stuff from the politicos, lobbyists and their elected clones in congress. Let's hope we don't forget. We will, of course. 

The repubs and their business backers will have a tough time in future trying to spin this welfare grab that is largely the result of their own business failings.

That's my take, what do you folks think?