I had a great idea while watching CNN. 700 billion equals 2.333.33 per man women and child.
so instead of giving it to the banks, who put themselves in this position by doing shady practices and the government sitting idle. send checks of 2.333.33 to the American people.

What a great way to stimulate the economy. Family of 4 will get 9333.32 and 1 in 20 have credit card debit of 8,000 or more. People can start 401ks, save it get some health insurance or just spend it. either way the American people and economy will be boosted, especially if the checks come before Christmas or in the new year.

When things are going well the cigar smoking (White) guys on Wall Street and Republicans go on and on about letting the market correct itself without government intervention (regulations). Then when they go belly-up because they are a bunch of incompetent greedy numbskulls all of a sudden they want the government (American people) to step in.

I say let the market correct itself.

Heck no we shouldn't bail out the financial industry. It's a mess they created on their own and as such should be left to clean it up themselves.

There are so many other issues that warrant a bail out from the government. For 700 billion they could revamp the social security deficit, provide health insurance for ALL americans, improve the public school systems, provide homes for those that are homeless….I can go on and on, but I'll leave it at that.

i have no fucking idea because i dont understand economics. If anybody can break down the basic economics of the financial crisis we're in, that'd be great.

DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!!!,

I'm no expert but from what I understand a bunch of big Wall Street companies are unable to get any credit (because they ruined their credibility with their former creditors).

Without credit they apparently can't do business. So the money that Congress is trying to give them will be operating capitol in lieu of credit.

If I'm wrong someone please correct me.

Well,as far as I know…banks pushed subprime loans onto consumers that wanted to buy homes, some of the loan terms got outrageous, like no money down for a house that the buyer clearly could not afford, and mortgage payments that would suddenly balloon out of reach for the buyer. The whole idea was that the loans wouldn't be a problem because the real estate market would continue going up. This and home speculation created a bubble. The loans were then bundled and sold to large financial institutions like Lehman and WaMu and they bought them up also believing that they would make money off of them as the real estate market was continuing to go up. Well, the RE market is crashing in a lot of places, people are unable to meet the terms of their subprime loans and in some cases are abandoning their homes and the loans and the big banks are left with worthless bundles and have no money, which is not good because if they have no money, then they can't give out credit to keep the economy afloat and keep businesses going and people consuming. Hence we have to give them $700 Billion.

I think that's what's going on, but to my genuine regret I never took an econ class in college.

I will say their needs to be *way* more regulation of banks and hedge funds that just move money around, less emphasis on homeownership as the end all be all of existence, more regulations on home speculation, and I think anyone that took out something like a no down payment loan on a $500K house with a $50K salary doesn't deserve that much sympathy-I am horrible with money and even I know that you shouldn't do that with a mortgage. Just because you want a house doesn't mean you should have one-if you can't afford it, tough.

I think Jay Smooth described it best (plus, he's just as confused as I am)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojpW-lTn728

What was Bush talking about earlier? Taking the debt or basically buying it from these companies and holding it until things inprove?

I don't like the idea that the government should bail out Wall Street one bit. Its money that the U.S. government just doesn't have to give & will have to BORROW, in turn making our already weak dollar even weaker. I say, let those fat cats on Wall Street suffer. Nobody told them to deal business that way, their employees are getting paid to foresee these things and make sure their company stays afloat & don't go bankrupt. Its the laws of business, now when you can't handle that then you get out of business. The American people & taypayers are already burdened with their own personal financial issues, we don't need to think about this. If the government has all that money to throw around just give it to our tax paying citizens.

In addition to all the good points that have already been made here, I think the whole situation is especially f-ed up when you consider how little our government has done to "bail out" ordinary citizens in need of health care.

Hell no! Those businesses should suffer the consequences of doing bad business. And to make matters worse,the government is buying them out at full value (they should be underpaying instead). This just goes to show u who's interests the government has in mind (our government is run by corporations).

*M*,

Great idea!

@ Jason - - exACTly!