remeber folks: both Obama AND McCain backed this bill that falls far small on these issues:
1. THE PLAN MISSES THE KEY ISSUE – WE SIMPLY GIVE MONEY BACK TO WALL STREET AND CROSS OUR FINGERS THAT SUCH FIRMS WILL RETURN LIQUIDITY TO MARKETS. Financial institutions who receive government support are under no obligation whatsoever to use such funds to provide liquidity to the financial markets. Thus this aid package fundamentally misses the real conundrum and may not provide liquidity of trading we need. Instead, such financial institutions could simply distribute the cash to shareholders and partners, and provide no further help to the economy.
2. TAX LOSS CARRYFORWARDS WILL MEAN THEY DO NOT ACTUALLY PAY TAXES. Significantly, any tax levy in 5 being on troubled financial institutions will be avoided by such bailed out firms. Financial institutions holding troubled assets will incur TAX LOSSES today from the sale of such assets to government and thus will be exempt from paying taxes for very long periods of time as a result of tax loss carryforward rules (the amount of such tax losses will depend upon how they originally accounted for the assets in their financial statements – some firms may record massive tax enter downs). In fact in 5 being they may still have sufficient tax shelter from the sale of these troubled assets that they will not be subject to the special tax on financial institutions. Ironically, the financial institutions that avoided these troubled assets and thus did not incur tax losses will be the ones who carry the burden of the new tax since they will not have tax shield available.
3. The total exposure of government is maybe $3.131-TRILLION – well in excess of $700 bn since this is simply an upper ceiling on the maximum outstanding at any one time (per notes on page 40 of the Act). The plot is designed to absorb substantially more troubled assets – as government sells such assets the proceeds from sale can then be used by the Secretary to buy more troubled assets. This establishes a "revolving" loan facility which can be used over and over again to buy troubled assets and then sell such assets. The right exposure of government debt is illustrated by the requested increase in the statutory limits of total debt allowed. This new bill requests to increase the allowed debt by $3.131-trillion (from $8.184-trillion to $11.315-trillion, per pp. 68, line 8). See http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode31/usc_sec_31_00003101—-000-.html for current wording and regulate on government debt.
4. Credit card loans and car loans that are open by a home loan (very common in USA) are built-in in the bail out package. See pp. 14, line 18. Any type of buy on a credit line open by a home can be bought or guaranteed by the government. Since such loans are very common this means virtually any type of debt can be taken over by the Secretary. This package goes well beyond subprime mortgage loans.
5. There is practically no cap on what a financial institution can sell to the government. The cap has been set at $100,000,000 (pp 38, line 24). Thus a small number of huge-time offenders can dump their terrible debts onto government. If it is only a small number of firms that hold large amounts of such paper then the government should consider allowing them to fail. Government intervention is appropriate to stop systematic broadly-based risk. Not a handful of firms. The private sector could easily buy up a handful of firms with such troubled assets (e.g. JP Morgan easily absorbed WaMu and additional institutions like Barclays are seeking opportunistic acquisitions)
6. There is no clarity on the type of deals the Secretary can structure. He has a free hand to deem what is appropriate – even if such deals are not at honest market value. pp 35 line 10 outlines the means for how government takes an equity or debt position in the selling financial institution. Significantly, there is no mention or requirement for the Secretary to use honest market value in determining the value of debt bought by the government. As mentioned earlier the selling financial institutions can flip debt bought from additional struggling financial institutions to the government. There is no consent requirement for the Secretary from any oversight group. Suggested improvements:
(a) Have Secretary establish honest market value for consideration paid when buying, insuring or guaranteeing troubled assets.
(b) Have Selling/insured financial institution indemnify government against any and all losses ensuing from the troubled assets bought, insured or guaranteed. Thus the downside risk of loss will be mitigated.
(c) Have government receive equity partaking IN ADDITION to the indemnification.
(d) Place limitations on distributions/dividends to shareholders until the loans are repaid. There is no limitation on dividends and additional distributions to partners/shareholders from the financial institutions. Repayment of government obl
Why do people reckon that because clueless George said we need a bailout (Really it was more like "Gimme gimme right now. Shut up, no strings. Gimme gimme gimme).
Now that common significance has survived the first spate of Bush and Paulsen crying "wolf". it is time to reckon. Just because Bush loudly and hysterically proclaimed that the only way to prevent the depression he has been leading us into for 8 being is to throw hundreds of billions of our tax dollars at it does not mean that is the only or best or even a excellent "fix".
Additional nations are responding with more cool and wisdom. There are additional equipment that can and should be done.
Trading on the stock markets should be suspended until strict set of laws can be place in place to regulate the hurt that can be done by reckless speculation and panic.
Those financial institutions that are in distress should be nationalized, set in order and sold to new owners. Bush has had no conundrum violating the Bill of Rights when it comes to the People, he shouldn’t be cowardly about a small thing like nationalization of companies that are a threat to national welfare, hence security.
The Centralized Reserve needs to either be attenuated or dissolved.
Just as starting points.
You expect real solutions from politicians?
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I agree with you that these are issues at flaw with the plot. What is the alternative? I don’t see anyone coming up with a solution.
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Screw Obama and McCain . No bail out . Wall street is bouncing back quick . Excellent try though but your tactics aren’t working . Sorry you lost a BUNDLE The poor that can now afford stock like Bush for this. Do you really reckon they want to go back to the same ancient same ancient .
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Why do people reckon that because clueless George said we need a bailout (Really it was more like "Gimme gimme right now. Shut up, no strings. Gimme gimme gimme).
Now that common significance has survived the first spate of Bush and Paulsen crying "wolf". it is time to reckon. Just because Bush loudly and hysterically proclaimed that the only way to prevent the depression he has been leading us into for 8 being is to throw hundreds of billions of our tax dollars at it does not mean that is the only or best or even a excellent "fix".
Additional nations are responding with more cool and wisdom. There are additional equipment that can and should be done.
Trading on the stock markets should be suspended until strict set of laws can be place in place to regulate the hurt that can be done by reckless speculation and panic.
Those financial institutions that are in distress should be nationalized, set in order and sold to new owners. Bush has had no conundrum violating the Bill of Rights when it comes to the People, he shouldn’t be cowardly about a small thing like nationalization of companies that are a threat to national welfare, hence security.
The Centralized Reserve needs to either be attenuated or dissolved.
Just as starting points.
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Lets hope there is NO BAILOUT.
In case people bought the propaganda about the bailout, they can read the bill here to verify the issues you raise were not covered.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/amend_001_xml.pdf
I am a conservative and loathe welfare of any kind. Having said that, IF (and that is a huge IF) it is truly necessary to spend taxpayer dollars to fix the mess, I say start at the bottom and let the repayment trickle UP for a change.
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This is the worst plot ever in the history of this country. This is serious corruption by certain parts of government, and the scary part is only congress and the house of Representatives stands between us and this terrible fate.
Where are we headed as a nation? This scares me.
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Thank You for this "Question".
I appreciate the information and knowledge provided.
I am NOT in favor of this bailout, by any means.
Politicians are sneaky and obviously have their own agenda. They could care about THE PEOPLE.
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All fantastic points. Points 3-6 really stood out to me, especially point 6. As I read through the act that thought immediately jumped out at me. You also bring up excellent points about financial institutions using this as a means to make money off of failing financial institutions. Excellent point there.
I noticed the act tried to cover certain tracks with somewhat obscure jargon. For instance it hints to a board that will oversee the secretaries spending, but when you get to reports you find out the secretary doesn’t have to submit a report until after he makes a buy. Appealing.
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