It seems to me that the bailout, as now being contemplated, makes no distinction between those who have taken risks (shareholders, merchant bankers) and those who have tried to mitigate risk (insurance policy holders and savers). This failure to discriminate between reckless behavior and prudent behavior is at the heart of the flaw in this package.
Why are we rescuing those who lent money with no thought as to the merits of the loan? They were getting whopping fees just to create huge debt derivatives. How droll that these captains of the free market are now going hat in hand to the same public they have been ripping off for years.
Lets protect the policy holders, the retirees and the annuity holders. Let's
leave the idiots that played roulette with other peoples' money to their own devices. If the bailout doesn't discriminate between different classes of
stakeholders than there should be no bailout. The AIG bailout was a good case in point. No such discrimination was made and the good guys and bad guys got lumped together in the rescue.
There should be a six month moratorium on foreclosures while we let the dust settle. It seems to me that we should not be kicking people out of their houses when the guilty (such as Lehman Bros and their 1.5 billion bonus fund remains intact). The rescue should have as it's principle end trying to keep people in their houses not preserving Wall Street Institutions.
Senator Obama say no to the bailout unless homeowners get some immediate protection!