Yes we can

Uh, Webgeek, the guy's not even in office yet and you're blaming "his administration" for stuff? W T F !

Bush was the one quick to want to push through the huge bailout. The dems were the ones pushing back, opting for more oversight and accountability in the bailout package.

Everything needs a degree of oversight. No regulation = opportunity for the greedy to act in corrupt self-interest. And the worst part of that is, when one corporation crosses the line, it forces other corporations to also do the same in order to compete. And to also complicate matters, the CEOs are being paid millions in salary and bonuses regardless of how well they do. Ever heard the term "Golden Parachute"? That's where the CEOs get millions of dollars in "goodbye" bonuses when they quit or get fired. Why should they care about doing a good job? Why on earth would we leave the system to run based on "trust" that they will act ethically when they win either way? The shareholders keep demanding profits so that's what they give them any way they can (ie: packaging up bad mortgages and selling them off to other banks with AAA ratings on them, etc).

Here's a little reading about how our (Canada's) banks are NOT in trouble, and will serve as a model for the global economy to fix itself:
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...855317,00.html

*Note. Canada's banking system is not only regulated, but still profitable.

Quote:

---

Uh, Webgeek, the guy's not even in office yet and you're blaming "his administration" for stuff? W T F !

---

I'm not blaming his administration, I'm blaming his party for setting up regulation that started the landslide. I'm also commenting on his public support of the Fannie/Freddie May executives that lied about the state of their company and let it get this far.

What makes me laugh, is that you talk about the CEOs with their golden parachutes and those are the same CEOs Obama is using as his advisors. That's exactly why I don't like him and his party. They don't see the forest for the trees.

You're blaming the CEOs/companies for the problem. I agree in part - their greed was way over the top and caused their companies to fail. I feel the root of the problem was regulation that guaranteed risky loans would still be protected. The companies took advantage of it for sure and they are failing because of it. But the government regulation and culture of "money for the people" created the situation in the first place. The YouTube video I linked explains all of this very clearly with a ton of footnotes you can look up if interested.

I'm not against regulation of business at all. I'm against the government stepping in to regulate things like quotas (loan quotas for instance). Those have rarely worked as hoped and generally just make a mess of things.

Here is a fascinating exploration of the economic crisis on this American life:
http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/365.mp3

This story does a great job of explaining what is going in a way that is easy to understand and interesting.

The creators of that story have continued with this podcast focused on watching the situation:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/planet_money_podcast/

here is their blog:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/

The sheep's still have no idea what means deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8kLaEuAoxg

The financial crisis in America goes way further back than Bush Jr, Clinton, or even Reagan or Carter. This has been coming for a LONG time. Since the Roosevelt's New Deal teachers in schools have been lying to American children telling them that they live in a capitalist society. The truth is the United States has been a socialist nation since before World War II. The problem is that we as a nation were raised thinking that we were capitalists. We were raised to believe that government intervention into our lives was a wretched thing.

So, many Americans don't like the stimulus packages because we feel that we are capitalists. In truth we are socialists, and we're just getting used to this idea of big government taking care of all of our problems.

Personally I think it's sick and I think that our economy will suffer for many years for these mistakes. We will hand off the "World Superpower" title to China, who will out-produce us in nearly every aspect.

I read that most European countries (even the wealthy ones) owe more than 90% of their Gross Domestic Product to other nations. Some nations owe more than 150%! As of right now the United States owes about 50%, and after these stimulus packages we will owe about 100%. Relatively speaking, we're on par with the rest of the world. Our "credit rating" is excellent. My problem with all of this is figuring out how we are going to make our money back on this investment.

Personally I would rather have seen our economy completely crash, everything come tumbling down, and rebuilt on a new, stable foundation of knowledge and experience.

As far as Republicans vs. Democrats, many Americans are disappointed in both parties, and the possibility of a third party gaining power in coming years is growing. I can't wait.