Explaining the latest measures to restore order

[chloe0724]

[chloe0724]

I hope that they truly do help the little people with this legislation too. It won't seem fair at all if they bail out the banks that gave the bad loans, but not the home owners that took them out as well. After all, even the people that are having problems paying their mortgages are paying taxes too. Their money to Uncle Sam should help out themselves, not just the big companies.

[DisneyGirl]

I remember the RTC very well. In the early 90's I worked for one of the largest S&L's in the country. One day the RTC came in and we had a big meeting. The next day only 1/2 of us were left! I guess I should be thankful I was one of the 1/2 that got to stay. It was pretty sad watching them dismantle that bank. I quit shortly after since the "end" was coming anyway. Sorry to see people will be going through that again.

[chloe0724]

Disney,

DO you think that they will lay people off with this as well? I thought part of the thinking of bailing out these companies was to aviod that because it would only serve to worsen the economy

[DisneyGirl]

Well what I saw happen was we had tons of temp employees. I think the bank knew it was going under but it hadn't been real "news" yet so people still wanted to work there. This was their corporate headquarters by the way. Anyway, first they laid off all the temp people. They were gone right away. I worked in Customer Service and we had 165 people in that department. Overnight it was down to about 75 people. Their branches all shut down so those people lost their jobs. Eventually the whole company was gone. Some people got jobs with the "new" bank that took over but a lot of us jumped ship before that even happened. It was a very depressing place to work.

Funny story though: The S&L had a very strict dress policy. Women could only wear dresses or skirts and must wear pantyhose. Well when the RTC came in we noticed right away that the women wore dress pants. So during the big meeting where they announced who they were and what was happening to the company, one of the bank employees asked, "Since you all can wear dress pants, can we?" The whole place erupted in laughter. They didn't think we were serious but once we told them the policy, they said of course we could.

Anyway, if it's anything like what happened in the late 80's - early 90's, yes people who work for these banks will lose jobs. Not all of them will be many will.

[chloe0724]

Wow. I hope that not too many do. I work for a bank, and I hope I don't have to deal with that...

[DisneyGirl]

Do you work at the corporate office or a branch? The corporate office lost the most. The branches just got bought out and I'd guess some of those employees just worked for the new bank. I don't know a whole lot of what happened to the bank branch side since I worked in the mortgage department. I know the branch in our building closed as did several of the branch offices in my city. But nationwide, I think they just changed names to whoever bought them out. Also I'll mention this bank was in HUGE trouble at the time. It was 1992 (I think) and hurricane Andrew had gone through Homested FL. A lot of their loans were in that area and that hurt them big time. So their situation is very different then what banks are facing today.

On the plus side, that is what happened THEN. That doesn't mean that is what will happen NOW.

[JRScott]

They should bail out no one else, they shouldn't have bailed out the ones they have.

We need to swallow the hard pill now. These bail outs are just rewarding people for bad behavior. Almost all of us have been forced into bankruptcy due to bad decisions on our part. These companies need to face the same penalty. Without facing that the necessary changes will not be made to prevent an even greater collapse in the future.

The government does not have the money to bail out these corporations. All the Federal Reserve is doing is printing more money. That makes your money worth less and thus food/energy prices to rise, while at the same time deflates the value of your home/vehicle/property. Your wages though will not increase to keep pace. I wish people understood that.

[imaloser]

jr - i understand and totally agree. i have always said - let the chips fall where they may. on the other hand, this action, in large part, was an act to stabilize the global fronts.

when i hear the figure 1.5 trillion ? i shrivel up inside.

wouldn't our government been better off sending every taxpayer a check for 2.5 g a month for five years ? do the math.

now that's a genuine bailout ! a bailout that reaches the middle class.

if what i'm hearing is true - that the housing sector is fueling this "crisis", then they need to address that issue to solve the problem. let housing costs fall back in line with wages. period.

[JRScott]

jr - i understand and totally agree. i have always said - let the chips fall where they may. on the other hand, this action, in large part, was an act to stabilize the global fronts.

when i hear the figure 1.5 trillion ? i shrivel up inside.

wouldn't our government been better off sending every taxpayer a check for 2.5 g a month for five years ? do the math.

now that's a genuine bailout ! a bailout that reaches the middle class.

if what i'm hearing is true - that the housing sector is fueling this "crisis", then they need to address that issue to solve the problem. let housing costs fall back in line with wages. period.

The Constitution does not make us caretakers of the world. Only of the United States. If the World has made unwise investments that is their problem, not ours.

We don't have the money. There is no emergency government fund. They've already raided the Social Security Funds. The only reason they are trying to bail it out is because our politicians are afraid they'll have to tell the American people the truth, that we are broke. They are afraid of how it will affect their pet projects and programs that they know they can't fund without borrowing money. That's why they are doing it, but it is just setting us up for a major economic collapse in 20 years. This isn't about the here and now, it is about our children's and grandchildren's time.

[banca rotta]

Since you mention the RTC the only bit of positive news with the almost trillion dollar bailout is the RTC actually made a small profit. I can't find the actual details of it but it was mentioned in Greenspan's book that we profited after auctioning off all the bad s&l assets.

I'm hoping it's the same with this much larger bailout.

I also feel that money market mutual funds should give slightly smaller returns and should be insured just like FDIC bank accounts. This is why we get lousy returns on them though but it's a good safe place to park some cash.

I am livid that there are multi million dollar CEO payouts from these failures. Hank Paulson was justifying the CEO'S mistakes by blaming the system and not them. BS!!!!!!! The buck should alway stop with them.

Something does need to be done though to end this crisis. I better, never, EVER hear another financial CEO lobby congress for things like bankruptcy reform or similar. They have done far worse in recent years then anyone that went bankrupt or applied for welfare can ever have hoped to accomplish.

[banca rotta]

The Constitution does not make us caretakers of the world. Only of the United States. If the World has made unwise investments that is their problem, not ours.

We don't have the money. There is no emergency government fund. They've already raided the Social Security Funds. The only reason they are trying to bail it out is because our politicians are afraid they'll have to tell the American people the truth, that we are broke. They are afraid of how it will affect their pet projects and programs that they know they can't fund without borrowing money. That's why they are doing it, but it is just setting us up for a major economic collapse in 20 years. This isn't about the here and now, it is about our children's and grandchildren's time.

Exactly! We will not feel too much of this except for a weaker dollar and an aging infrastructure, but future generations will suffer severly.

I always laugh(or cry) when both political partys campaign and "do things for the children". This bailout just hurt 50 million children with one stroke of the pen. Well done morons, well done!

[AngelinaCatHub]