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United we stand, divided we will fall.

These words echo so true to me in this time of partisan-politics. Even as the House of Representatives did not pass the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout plan, within minutes both sides of the aisle were attempting to put the blame on the other party. They’re missing the point, the American people did not want the bailout and the House, wary of angry voters with elections coming up in five weeks, didn’t want to lose their jobs.

What the point is: Rather than focus on the failed bailout plan and petty reasons why it didn’t pass, we need to focus on where we’re going from here.

I was strongly against this bailout, but that’s not to say that we don’t need some form of relief. Congress does need to do something, and fairly quickly, or else a lot of Americans are going to suffer. Not feeling the pinch yet? Ask anyone with a 401K who’s lost thousands of dollars in the last week and a half.

I’ve played the blame game for this recession. I still stand by my words, that the Federal Reserve and Wall Street deserve credit for the situation we’re in. Many others have their own theories for how we ended up in this state too. Regardless of who’s to blame, America needs now, more than ever, to move forward together. We need a bailout plan that will not only help the situation now, but will improve our economic strategies as we move forward as well.

How do I propose doing this? Sheesh come on guys, this is only a blog, and I’m only a college student, what do you want from me? :)

One proposal that has been floated back and forth is raising the FDIC limit on bank deposit insurance (currently at 100,000). This would be a good idea as it would increase confidence in banks. John McCain and Barack Obama both support this measure. Another proposal being tossed around is for the Treasury to use its exchange stabilization fund (ESF) to help backstop the market. The ESF allows the government to influence currency rates without affecting the money supply from the Federal Reserve. If used creatively though, it could serve as a tool to help guide us through this recession.

Whatever plan of action Congress decides to take, they need to be careful. Americans will be paying close attention to the details of the new proposal. If our legislation fails to produce something that people can see will help Main Street as well as Wall Street’s woes, it’s entirely possible that the new proposal will fall as well.

One candidate in particular is saying what the country needs to hear.

“While there is plenty of blame to go around and many in Washington and on Wall Street who deserve it, all of us now have a responsibility to solve this crisis because it affects the financial well-being of every single American,” Obama said. “There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out.”

So this bailout, which I’ve posted plenty about, was all rushed through the weekend so that the Asian stock market would improve… well it fell anyways. Good going on that one.

Please congress please, pay attention to the people who elect you, DON’T PASS THE BAILOUT.

It’s rumored that McCain may not attend the vote. If he doesn’t, he’ll at least have gained a little more of my respect. Not enough to get my vote, but at least the man would be listening to America.

I found this quote that amused me:

“For the average person, $700 billion sounds like a whole heck of a lot of money,” said John Silvia, chief economist for Wachovia. “It’s reasonable to look at that number and be scared about it, but in the end, the Treasury may actually make money from the deal.”

You think? Of course the treasury is going to make money! How much of that do you expect to trickle its way back to our pockets though?

Listen up government, we know you need to do something. We get that, so quit saying it. This bailout, however, is not the right thing to do.

“I’m tired of rewarding institutions and people for the bad decisions they have made,” said Dean from Madison, Wis. “Sure, it will hurt tax payers if/when some of these institutions fail, but perhaps we need to let that happen. We do not need more big government involved in our lives. Enough is enough.”

Couldn’t agree more.

“This is robbery pure and simple,” Anna from Denver posted on CNNMoney.com’s TalkBack blog this weekend.

Pretty much!

“Companies, like individuals, should be held responsible for their decisions,” wrote Jorge from El Paso, Texas. “This buyout does not address the other problems in the pipeline such as personal credit default and market slowdowns in most industries. No new jobs will be created.”

Exactly. And to boot, the Wall Street Investment firms are now all gone, merged, or regular banks, so what is Paulsen going to do with this money?

“Once I invested in something and lost money. Maybe I could just change the rules of investing so that my loss turns into a gain? Oh, I forgot only banks can do that!” Said Jordan from Charlestown, Ind.

Oh and btw those golden parachutes? Yeah those aren’t limited in the bill at all either.

“I will be watching to see which of our representatives vote for this bailout,” said R. Kidd in Troy, N.C. “Let the American people see how many we can fire come election time.”

Listen Congress, your jobs are on the line, Americans all over are pissed.

“Call your Congressman. Stop blogging, posting comments, and call your congressman. This is the patriotic thing to do. Let them hear your opinion, show them this is still America and that you will not stand for this!!” Said Danny from Texas.

List of the congressional switchboard toll-free numbers provided here:
1-800-833-6354
1-866-340-9281
1-877-762-8762
1-866-808-0065
1-888-355-3588
1-866-220-0044

“There is nothing in the bailout that will mitigate widespread damage caused by foreclosures,” said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “The bill includes a vague provision that calls for the government to buy mortgages and securities and then try to modify them, but this will have very limited impact. It doesn’t stop the epidemic that will continue to drag down property values for everyone.”

A full draft (100-something pages) can be found here:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/28/news/pdf/index2.htm

Argh, I’ll do more of this later…

Needless to say, when I read the headlines today that an agreement on the bailout had been reached (supposedly thanks to Nancy Pelosi) my mood turned a little bit sour. Both John McCain and Barack Obama seem to be reluctantly supportive of the bailout.

“This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with,” said John McCain, “The option of doing nothing is simply not an acceptable option.”

Tucker Bounds, McCain’s top economic advisor, told Politico that it was “impossible to know until the vote has been announced” when asked whether or not McCain will be at the vote.

Hrmmm… and what does Obama think about the plan?

“It is an outrage — an outrage — that we are now being forced to clean up their mess,” said Obama at a rally in Detroit, “But we have to act. We have to act now. We have to act responsibly because now that we’re in this situation, your jobs, your life savings, your home, entire sectors of the economy, the stability of this nation, are at risk.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, normally a U.S. supporter, was speaking at a banquet with Wall Street financiers and had this to say:

“You cannot demand to lead and then say that you are not responsible when things do not work out. You cannot accept only the rewards and duck the bad consequences of your actions,” said Sarkozy.

Something tells me he wasn’t just directing those words at Wall Street.

The House is expected to vote on the bailout Monday, and the Senate would follow later in the week.

What started as a three page document has swelled to over 100 pages, and there are still 15 or so issues to resolve, according to democratic senator Harry Reid. Reid expects an agreement to be reached by Sunday and that a vote would come later in the week.

President Bush at least acknowledged that it leaves a foul taste in people’s mouths to bail out Wall Street after finding out how they’ve been screwing us over.

According to Fox News:

The president says in his Saturday radio address to the nation that he knows many people are frustrated by the economic situation. He says that when the government asks taxpayers to pay for Wall Street’s mistakes, it doesn’t seem fair. And he says if it were possible to let every irresponsible Wall Street firm fail without affecting Americans and their families, he would do it. But Bush says that is not possible in the current situation.

He also noted that the bailout plan was for Main Street, not Wall Street. Then why is the money going to Wall Street? Don’t even give me that trickle-down BS, I don’t want to pay money so that failed CEO’s can get second chances or golden parachutes.

Perhaps the reason Congress feels the need to act so quickly now is because at least 50 members of Congress have investments in one of the companies involved in the economic turmoil.

Look, I realise something needs to be done, but I just don’t like what they’re doing right now. It’s more of the same, as the popular line goes. Here’s what I want to see, accountability. Especially on the part of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve helped create this situation, much like they created plenty of other American crisis throughout the years.

The Federal Reserve was created on December 23, 1913, with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by President Woodrow Wilson. Later on in his life Wilson was quoted as saying:

“A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

Why was Wilson so unhappy? Because of the actions of this small group of dominant men. Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. When you give this much control over our money without any supervision, what do you expect?

“From now on, depressions will be scientifically created.” — Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. , 1913.

And they were. And still are. Before we got into this crisis the Federal Reserve artificially lowered interest rates, allowing banks to begin accepting bad mortgages. This crisis was designed, and a handful of men are going to get filthy rich afterwards.

This is why both McCain and Obama are missing the point on this bailout. This is why neither one is truly for change.

“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford

“The Federal Reserve bank buys government bonds without one penny…”
— Congressman Wright Patman, Congressional Record, Sept 30, 1941

“We are completely dependant on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system…. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.” –Robert H. Hamphill

“Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.” — James A. Garfield

“[Every circulating Federal Reserve Note] represents a one dollar debt to the Federal Reserve system.” — Money Facts, House Banking and Currency Committee

“The modern Banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banks can in fact inflate, mint and unmint the modern ledger-entry currency”.- MAJOR L .L. B. ANGUS.

“While boasting of our noble deeds were careful to conceal the ugly fact that by an iniquitous money system we have nationalized a system of oppression which, though more refined, is not less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.” - Horace Greeley

“By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.”–John Maynard Keynes

“…the increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks.” — Eustace Mullins.

“I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs….I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and unforgiveable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart, we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected.” — John Danforth (R-Mo)

“The [Federal Reserve Act] as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency… I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency.” — Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., 1913

“Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States” — Sen. Barry Goldwater

“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people’s money” — Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1923

“The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers” — Congressman Louis T. McFadden

“To expose a 15 Trillion dollar ripoff of the American people by the stockholders of the 1000 largest corporations over the last 100 years will be a tall order of business.” — Buckminster Fuller

The system that we have now is exactly what our forefather’s fought against.

“If Congress has the right [it doesn’t] to issue paper money [currency], it was given to them to be used by…[the government] and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations” — President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”–Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it’s issuance”. — James Madison

From the Federal Reserve’s own admissions: “When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in out account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money.” –Boston Federal Reserve Bank.

Even Ben Bernanke, currently a Federal Reserve Board Member, admitted that the Federal Reserve created the great depression, the worst economic crisis of the last century, during Milton Friedman’s 90th birthday.

“Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.”

Do you trust them? Men so obsessed with power and money that they lose all sight of morals and goodwill? One last quote before I sign off.

“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws” — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild.

How true this rings. When you control the money, the inflation, and the debt of a country, you have all the power. No candidate is truly for change unless if they start by changing this system. The Federal Reserve’s stronghold over the American people has to end. If they get more oversight from this bailout, then it will only hurt the American people. Politicians aren’t going to end this on their own, it’s going to take a lot of angry Americans doing what they do best.

The AP conducted a new poll today that I hope Congress pays real close attention to.

45% of people oppose the bailout compared to 30% who do. 25% are undecided.

Fewer than four in 10 Republicans, three in 10 Democrats and one in 10 independents said they support the package.

While 57% agreed that a bailout of some form was needed to prevent serious recession, only 35% believed that the plan was the answer to the financial crisis that we’re in.

The AP-Knowledge Networks poll was conducted Sept. 25 and involved online interviews with 671 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I take polls for what they are, especially one that only interviewed 671 adults, but I have a feeling numbers would be about the same in a larger poll. We can read between the lines, and giving up that much power to the Federal Reserve, lining the pockets of failed CEO’s, and interjecting the government into places it shouldn’t be is NOT what the American people want.

Please Congress, pay attention!

In other news: The debate is on… At least for now.

Congress moved closer today to approving the 700 billion dollar bailout plan proposed by President George W. Bush. Terms of the deal are being tossed around and each side is using the bill as a chance to further their own political agenda.

What’s going on in Washington right now shows just how out of touch our political leaders really are with the people of the United States.

Voters say the number one issue in this election is the economy. Why is this? They want to have more money because a lot of people are struggling. They’re sick of paying $4.00 a gallon at the pump and watching oil companies thrive while the market crashes around them. They’re sick of watching friends and sometimes family struggle with mortgage payments and hearing about the housing crisis. They want to see this country climb its way out of debt and end this recession. What they don’t want is to give away even more of our constitutional rights and fund a second chance for the greedy and corrupt people who screwed this up in the first place.

In a nation of roughly 300 million men, women and children, the bailout averages out to about $2,600 per person (consequently that’s close to the average amount of money each person paid for gas and oil in 2006 and also close to the average tax burden placed on U.S. citizens). It is essentially 12 Bill Gates…es… worth of money they’re proposing.

President Bush lets us know that the world is watching, awaiting our move. He wants us to rush into this solution because apparently the time to act is now.

Remember, there were multiple warnings that this was going to happen and actions were not taken by our government. They ignored the signs and now they want you, the taxpayer, to foot the bill. The Federal Reserve is especially guilty in this process.

For those of you who don’t know about it (I admit I didn’t know that much until I looked into it more a few months ago) the Federal Reserve is an unelected, government-licensed agency that inflates the U.S. economy. They control and regulate inflation by pumping in money to the economy at random points. When the Federal Reserve artificially lowered interest rates major banks and corporations began accepting bad mortgages. This, among other things, led us to the crisis that we are in today.

Now, as the Federal Reserve squeezes as much out of your dollar as they can, they’re also lobbying for Congress to make the taxpayers bail out Wall Street. One of the reasons we got into this problem was because of us pumping in money that wasn’t there. So their solution to the problem is to throw more money at it?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results.

Another problem with the buyout is how much power the Federal Reserve would yield should it be passed. The fact it was put in the buyout that anything the Federal Reserve does is not be able to be reviewed in court is a downright blasphemy. How much trust do you have in this group? How much power should you give them after the mess they’ve already made?

Let’s talk for a second about our National Debt, which stands roughly around $9,785,866,165,910.40.

A good $5,613,059,030,493.40 of that is public debt, while the other $4,172,807,135,417 of it is in intra-governal holdings. Where is most of this debt saddled? Other countries.

“The Chinese government, for example, holds billions of dollars in U.S government bonds,” professor of economics Thomas Grennes said, “They have bought these bonds and, maybe one year from now, the U.S. government has agreed to pay all money, plus 5 percent more.”

Once a bond matures though usually the Chinese re-purchase it, and our debt builds higher as more interest is applied. What happens when the Chinese come knocking for their money back?

The bailout would raise the national debt by roughly $2,000,000,000,000. People, government spending is off the charts. Anyone who thinks bigger government and more spending is the solution to this problem is off of their rocker. We need to take a hard look at our political system and solutions and vastly redesign they way things in Washington are run.

Some senators and representatives are taking a stand against the proposed bailout, on both sides of the party. Good. Great. If Congress really goes through and gives the Federal Reserve this much power, helping out Wall Street at the expense of the American people, it will go to show just how out of touch Washington D.C. is with the rest of America.

In today’s post I wanted to take it back to the old days. Pre-World War Two days. In that time of world turmoil U.S. citizens thanked god for the Atlantic ocean and thus the separation that we had with other countries. The word for this ideal was “Isolationism.”

Fast forward to today. Russia is essentially telling us to mind our own business and they’ll mind theirs. North Korea is backing down from their earlier agreement to disarm their nuclear capabilities. Iran is closing in on nuclear capabilities and has shown no signs of stopping. Pakistani soldiers, supposedly our allies, fired on a U.S. helicopter that crossed the Afghanistan border. On top of it the taxpayers are funding two wars on two fronts. These are just some of the problems going on outside of the states. Inside, things aren’t going all that great either. Indeed these are troubled times.

After World War Two the U.S. made a promise that genocide like the holocaust wouldn’t happen again. Since then we have been at war in some corner of the globe almost every century. Is it really our responsibility to monitor the entire world? How can we afford to keep doing this at the expense of our own citizens?

Selfish? Yes, incredibly. Good for the American people? Yes. Also incredibly. Think of it as “investing in America.” If we pooled all of our funding and resources into our own country, then think of all the great things we’d be able to accomplish.

Back in those days America was known as the land of opportunity. It was a beacon of hope, a symbol of freedom for all of the world. Other countries looked up to us. Do we still hold those same values now? No, eight years of Bush foreign policy has all but shredded any integrity we had with other countries. Instead of the land of opportunity we’ve become a nation of struggling workers. Many of us just struggling to find a job.

Today President George W. Bush requested to congress permission to buy over 700 billion dollars in assets that are clogging the U.S. economy. This bailout will be the largest by far since the great depression.

Let the negotiations begin…

The proposed bailout by the President would give the government the power to buy bad mortage-related assets for two years.

“We’re going to work with Congress to get a bill done quickly,” said President Bush, “This is a big package because it was a big problem.”

As usual with any Bush proposal, details of the plan were not available. What little we do know though, is kind of terrifying.

The bill is short and to the point, a mere three pages that would give the government unprecedented powers over taxpayer money and would also be sheltered from court review.

The proposal does not require that the government receive anything from banks in return for unloading their bad assets. The Treasury would be allowed to designate financial institutions as, “agents of the government.” These agents/agencies would perform any “reasonable duties” that might entail.

The proposal would also raise the statutory limit on the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion to make room for the massive rescue.

Neither candidate has made a comment on the proposal yet.

My take? What is going on with the banks and really the economy in general is genuinely very scary. How much power should the federal reserve really have? They already control how much money is in circulation, and consequently have created this system of debt. When you study it closely, the American economy is designed to make more debt on top of more debt. Giving this agency more power after what they’ve already done, is a thought that scares me.

I apologize for not being on here to comment/post as much lately, but my house still is without power, so the only time I can update is at work.

President George W. Bush announced that his administration is working feverishly to correct the sinking ship that is our economy. Does this make anyone else worried? Bush met for about 40 minutes today with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Details of the meeting, of course, were disclosed, although Bush did address the nation in a brief statement on the issue.

“The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy,” Bush said. “And I share their concerns.”

I’ll be honest, I’m concerned that Bush says he has a plan. Apparently, I’m not the only one though.

House minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) voiced his and other American’s concerns about Bush’s plan. According to Blunt, congressional Republicans “don’t feel like they understand the coherent strategy” of the Bush administration — “if there is one.”

White House administration officials declined to attend a closed-door meeting with House Republicans today.

To help fight the crisis, recession, depression, whatever you want to call it, the Federal Reserve activated $55 Billion in reserves to jump-start the market. The stock markets did get a little bit of a bounce today because of the rumor that help is on the way, but still for the second straight month the economy’s health has deteriorated. Just how bad is this going to be?

Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the country, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week. Merrill Lynch, another big player in the bank market, merged with Bank of America in an effort to avoid the same fate as the Lehman Brothers. AIG was bailed out with $86 billion in government money, leaving some to speculate why AIG was worth saving but Lehman Brothers was not. The crisis is on a global scale as well, as the Asian Stock Market crashed earlier this week.

“How do you decide that AIG is worthy of a bailout, but Lehman Brothers is not? There has to be some better understanding of that,” said House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.).

Kentucky Republican senator Jim Bunning had more than an earful to say about the administration’s actions.

“To say I am outraged by this would be an understatement,” Bunning said. “The greed on Wall Street is only exceeded by the stupidity of the Treasury secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve,” said Bunning.

Republicans aren’t the only ones up in arms with the Bush administration, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) complained because Paulsen postponed a meeting with senators but still found time to deliver a speech at a think-tank the same day.

John McCain voiced his displeasure with the current state of economic affairs by announcing that he would immediately fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission if elected president.

Barack Obama did his best to one-up McCain’s statement.

“In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path… Don’t just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration,” said Obama. “Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who’s going to fight for you.”

Five former Secretaries of State met in an effort to provide advice for the next President of the United States. The topic most discussed in the 90-minute session was Iran, and whether or not we should communicate with them or not. Surprisingly enough, all five agreed that communication with Iran was essential. The Bush administration has practically made it a point not to communicate with Iran, who is moving closer and closer to nuclear capabilities.

“You need to engage with countries you have problems with,” said Madeleine Albright, secretary of state under the Clinton administration from 1997-2001.

Other issues in the discussion included Russia and Israel. Colin Powell, secretary of state under the George W. Bush administration from 2001-2005, said that even though Russia acted “brutally” in the conflict with Georgia last month, that the act was not a second coming of the former Soviet Union.

James Baker, secretary of state under George H.W. Bush administration from 1989-1992 argued that there was no “deal to be struck” between Palestinians and Israel. He did comment though that the U.S. should be on better terms with Syria.

All in all the message reiterated by all five former secretary of states was that the U.S. needs to communicate with countries and work with them despite differences that they may have.

Barack Obama wants to open negotiations with Iran, leaving military force “on the table” as an option. John McCain would want to see major policy changes in Iran before he opened communications with the country.