Bush Adviser Ponders: What Did I Do Wrong?

I would like 200k to help my sushi bar grow please give it to me now and don't tell me how to spen it I'll pay it back realy!!!

Sent by Thomas C Beaman | 6:54 PM | 9-23-2008

Limiting golden parachutes just doesn't work because it's already in the CEO's contract, which would then have to be renegotiated. What will work, and what Congress already has the power to do is to levy a tax against golden parachutes. Setting a blanket, punitive tax against all golden parachutes will take away the disincentive to using the bailout. It will also level the playing field across all corporations so that there will be no benefit in jumping to another industry.

Sent by KAR | 7:04 PM | 9-23-2008

Our question is where does an economy that is billions in debt get the money to bail out AIG, etc.?
is there some kind of emergency reserve fund or is it just a raise in the people's taxes?

Sent by Joel Davidson | 8:08 PM | 9-23-2008

The pharmaceutical companies are going to be much richer because of the millions of taxpayers that are absolutely having fits and are going to start taking or doubling up on their blood pressure meds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME "...executives won't want to lose their salaries...some might look the company itself...some might look at job offers..." ARE YOU KIDDING ME. What about they should look at the future of the USA, the future generations who are going to have to pay the price whether or not this plan goes through/works. Maybe they should look at the fact that
they might be TOXIC and other companies might not want to touch them.

Sent by peggy | 8:19 PM | 9-23-2008

Allen Greenspan created the ice dam by holding the fed rate low which caused a mass of debt behind a wall of insolvent intuitions. What is the risk analysis of our options?
I wrote the paragraph below as part of a letter to the editor of my state paper over the weekend.

John McCain was half right when he said "the fundamentals of our economy are still strong". The wild swings on Wall Street or the promise of a bailout don't change the economic structure fundamentally. Moving a credit card from your back pocket to your front doesn't change what you owe. The fundamentals of our economy remained unchanged. Can we keep the economic slaves building financial pyramids? If we preserve a system that feeds and houses them then the answer is most likely yes. If not, then we have much bigger problems. Balancing socialistic and capitalistic economic principles is up for debate; however it is not realistic to expect foreign economies to keep funding our consumption. Just as it is not realistic for them to expect the same hard earned sweat from us as they gave providing all the great things we bought with their loans to our treasury. Paying for our binge, our fundamental hangover is the true threat to current economic situation. Some like Senator Bunning would have us do nothing and let the markets work it all out. While nobody will say we should raise taxes; that is what we must do. Without adequate tax revenue to provide service and service debt we cause economic instability like we saw this week. Inflation instead of a stock plunges are its indicators. Once inflation gets momentum, it is very hard to contain.

An old quote about western Union telegram goes:
Dear dad no mon no fun your son.
Dear son so sad to bad your dad
That seems to be the message some on the Senate Banking committee wanted to give Wall Street. Paulson Bernanke team wanted uncle Sam's help. They got a Dutch Uncle reply.
Is the administration trying to save the economy or just keep the wolves at bay until after the election?

The Government is in the debt counselor's office, China and others are waiting to see our recovery plan. If we don't show some responsibility they will turn their back on us. They could easily pull out three dollars for every one we put in. Oil could get pegged to the Euro or yen and our currency could cause us isolation. A payment plan is an essential part of the solution. While executive pay may be a touchstone for voters, I think a tax plan is one for our creditors. I am surprised that China hasn't purchased some of our best industries. If I were them, I would take a good look at caterpillar. To me it looks a lot better bet than Treasury bills.

Sent by ray | 9:57 PM | 9-23-2008

No one seems to remember that the bankrupcy laws were changed. Cleary the golden parachute is only for fat cats. After the law changed, people should have seen this coming...it's not a conspiracy to me it is what actually happened. Make it a law to limit personal bailouts (take all they own), then bailout the bigwigs. We've been sold to the biggest bidder.

Sent by Alex Garcia | 12:28 AM | 9-24-2008