The first steps to the bailout bill

The first 250 billion is now being allocated. So far I have mixed feelings about this.

I am elated that they are not buying up garbage (toxic) mortgages and instead using the money to inject the banks with liquidity. This is important as it guarantees their solvency and that banks will continue to operate. This should alleviate the credit crunch that is precisely what is grinding our economy into a halt. I assume however that this ownership is a temporary measure. We do not want our govt to dictate the bank’s policies – that will be a disaster. If they plan to do the same thing as Japan did, at the very least they can learn from Japan’s mistakes. Nationalizing banks must be a swift and temporary measure to provide confidence and a source of security to the ailing banks.

Buying up mortages is the worst thing they can do because it just rewards bad behavior. I heard talks that some Democrats proposed refinancing loans to a new lower adjusted rate. This is horse shit and if I ever hear McCain propose anything like this again, then I will never say one good word about him.

I am NOT elated to hear that no regulation is being proposed to prevent the market conditions that got us here in the first place. What should be done is a combination of the following:
- Income verification should be mandatory for mortages
- 15% minimum downpayment
- Privatize Fannie and Freddie, they should no longer be GSEs (as we can see government sponsored enterprises are crap). They should operate just like any other business.
- Revoke the Community Reinvestment Act. This is obsolete, gives ACORN and other filty community-organizing groups too much leverage and creates a lot of extra overhead for banks.

Democrats harped on and on and on about lack of regulation, yet they have introduced none of it! We are left paying for banks and no guarantee that the problem has been solved.

The government continues to impress us with their inability to solve anything. A sign that we should lay off some of them…permanently. History to me has shown time and time again that the best a government can do in such a crisis, is to stay the hell out.