Morning Buzz: Rescue Plans and Politics
Penny Manis
AC360 Senior Producer
Good morning folks, what a mix of news this morning. Certainly the big headline continues to be the $700 billion dollar federal bailout that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will try to push through Congress this week. That sounds like a serious amount of money, doesn’t it? The fast moving events of the stock market, White House, and Congress dominate the media landscape this Monday morning, and we will be all over this coverage which seems to be ‘Bigger’ at this point than the election horserace we have been covering so closely for you. That said, we can certainly expect the candidates to jump into this fray today and offer their 2 cents.
John McCain is already expressing concern that this fed bailout gives too much power to Secretary Paulson and is calling for a bipartisan committee to oversee it. We should also hear today if Mccain will return to Washington to work on this proposal with Congress. Meanwhile Barack Obama called this $700 bn cost ‘sobering’ and called for a series of principles the deal must meet, including ‘no blank check’ and help for homeowners facing losing their homes. Both candidates called for no federal money to be used to help Wall Street execs. Candy Crowley and Dana Bash will follow the candidates today and bring us their latest news from the campaign trail.
And let’s not forget this week is the lead-up to Friday night’s first presidential debate. What would’ve been a debate focusing on foreign policy will now likely include many references to this financial crisis. Both candidates will be preparing for this big night. Conveniently, the United Nations General Assembly kicks off in NY today. This event will offer candidates the opportunity to underline their views on Iraq, Afghanistan and other big international issues as many world leaders descend upon New York City to take their turn at the podium. McCain has scheduled a series of meetings for Sarah Palin with foreign leaders as well, so we should see her shaking a few hands to try to bolster her foreign policy credentials. This is a photo opportunity the GOP will not miss.
Other stuff we have for you guys on the hopper tonight: John King is offering reporting on potential voting problems in Florida, and steps officials are taking to avoid a repeat of 2000. Dan Simon also has a piece on the Cult of Corruption that may have existed between Big Oil companies and the government committee assigned to oversee them. Dan has an exclusive interview with an auditor at this government agency who describes corruption that he witnessed during his 22 years on the job.
It’s going to be a great show, see you at 10pET.
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I'm confused. Is this $700 Billion Dollar Bailout the same $700 Billion Dollar transfer of wealth that T Bone Pickens advertised about this last month? Do we know if this is just another oil industry gimmick to fleece the American people wrapped up to look like the home mortgage crisis and it was all because people took out stupid and bad loans? Is the government trying to make it look like we little people are the cause of this whole mess? Then you have Secretary Paulsen wanting no disclosure and complete control of this money and protection against any law suits filed over the matter. Then they say the bailout may not work? Perhaps this is the beginning of many bailouts to come. Come on team, we need to dig deeper and get to the truth. This sounds like blackmail and If this is the case, why don't we just put up America for sale sign on the White House lawn.
With $700 billion we could cure cancer, diabetes, heart disease, significantly increase the average life span and eliminate poverty in this country. Not to mention permanently fixing social security and education. This amount of money is HUGE! It feels as though our future is being arranged in a back room – and neither candidate seems to be influencing the process. Talk about the need for "change"!
There is no way this bail out package should even be considered until this one sentence is deleted:
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Congressional and judicial oversight should not be taken away. If we look at the record of the current administration, oversight is truly a necessity
The same people in the Bush Administration that chose the heads of FEMA, FDA, FCC, etc. also chose the heads of the Federal Reserve and Treasury.
Why should we think that the people in the Fed and the Treasury, who are entrusted with these vital economic decisions, are any more compentent than the incompetent fools that have been chosen in the past?
We are rushing to give an incompetent President more uncontrolled power who is using the same "let's rush" technique that got us into Iraq because of an exaggerated claim of WMD.
This financial crisis is too complex for average people to comprehend.
Which is exactly why we shouldn't let the government try to fix it 🙂
What if we kept the brakes on the stock market (temporary ban on short-selling), upped the FDIC coverage maximum to $500,000 and subsidized a percentage point or two of interest to regular savings accounts (encouraging those with significant money to wait it out short term in safe banking investments), and just let natural selection take it's course?
Maybe the market/economy is unbalanced because of all this hyper-manipulation. Water finds it's own level, and if you read what the really big brains, like John Nash, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994, have to say (game theory); then equilibrium is the natural state of an unmanipulated market.
For all you movie buffs out there, John Nash is the man who is the subject of the move "A Beautiful Mind". He was able to overcome his illness of schizophrenia to make far-ranging contributions to modern economic theory.
Maybe we need to listen to a "crazy" guy. His theories seem to make the most "sense" right now.
I must comment that McCain has shown zero leadership over the last week since the newest economic crisis began last Monday. Yet he and his campaign continue to blast Obama for not coming up with a plan. Obama was speaking, surrounded by his advisers, about his views, while McCain was continuing to flip flop on the issue. He announced that the economy is fundamentally strong on the same day that one major institution filed for bankruptcy and another was bailed out. Then he said he was against the bailout, the next day he said it had to be done, and by Friday he was against it again. Meanwhile he called for the firing of the SEC commissioner, and now says that the economy is in dire trouble, a week after stating that the economy was fundamentally strong. That's not leadership we can believe in, that's a dog chasing its tail. When you are president, you don't get to vote six times on one issue in one week. I don't know about the rest of you but I get ill riding on a roller coaster.
I am a bit skeptical of Sect. Henry Paulson leading the charge on this enormous federal bailout. I am not questioning his qualifications and respect his expertise on economic matters.
Sect. Paulson was appointed Treasury Sect in 2006 by President Bush. Prior to that he serverd as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of Goldman Sachs and worked at that very prestigious Wall Street investment house since 1974, rising up through the ranks in numerous positions.
I am asking where his allegiances are ? Is this federal bailout really helping Wall Street and their major investors that are driving the agendas in the economy or is it also going to help Main St.
Are we throwing bad paper into the federal system? Is there also going to be some regulations placed on the banking industry and Wall Street, so that we can prevent this from happening again. Who is going to be guarding the " hen house "??????
Susan
Phoenixville, PA
P.S. Sect Paulson is not the only person to leave Wall Street and then go to work for the federal government, and that may be where one of the real problems lye.
I'm sure the candidates have their ideas to add to the bailout package but if Congress starts adding this and taking away that from whatever it was that was worked out it will probably cost more and not work to boot. This is one time that Congress might ought to take what the financial experts have worked out and leave it alone and just pass it. Adding things and debating what will be added and what will not will take too long and from the urgency Anderson reported on Friday we just don't have the time for that.
Annie Kate
Birmingham AL
So I have this theory:
When they were building the Pantheon and the final entryway fell, the architech did so because he wanted to continue building the structure.
Other than the fact that the building had no function, the idea the builders kept shrugging off was the opportunity to build for the people, with the people, and so employ the people in ever growing numbers.
The problem when work continues is feeding the work force...
Now the fabled city of the dead or the necropolios on the west bank of the nile was a first a city built for those departed but assumed not dead who had left when the second major civilized nile drought/great flood cycle occured; it built so as to house them and their kin when they came back.
Pointless statue works...vainty or just wasted labor?
In City limites: Gardens! Edible gardens and potted flowers, and lawns are just the many outskirting district fields for recreations or within the many city parks.
Most of us taxpayers are against this ballout but DC doesn't seem to be listening as usual. Also, why the urgency now- most of us in the real world have known for a while that there is much trouble yet somehow Paulson decides this week that he has to have 700 bilion AND FULL CONTROL over it this week? Something else must be going on and the govt needs to come clean. I am not for this bailout at all but at a minimum there should be a third party overseeeing this- firms that want the money- the execs must go and NO GOLDEN PARACHUTE! There should be limits and these should be not be foreign companies. I hope the Dems dont cave in like they usually do- this is a disaster- a trillion dollar disaster!!!
I believe our tax dollars should go to more deserving causes like bailing out the American people who have been laid off from greedy corporate institutions who have driven their companies to the ground for the sake of their stockholders and CEO's. If anyone needs to contribute to bailing out these companies it should come from their CEO's & senior management....I truly doubt they need their multi-million dollar severances to surive! Congress should be meeting to save their American people not corporate american GREED!
This "bailout" plan is reported to be only three pages long. Do we want to give the people who shot us more bullets?
A terrible economy is the best thing that can happen to the democrats.
Possibly. And 9/11 was the luckiest day of George Bush's life. You know it's true.
A terrible economy is the best thing that can happen to the democrats.
Hello, Has anyone focussed on the language of the proposed bailout that just continues the unacceptable and dangerous Administration policy of non-accountability for their actions?
"Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
This proposal's assertion that they don't have to be accountable to our laws and to the public is the very approach many see as one of the root causes of our financial meltdown. Sure it would be easier to "fix" things if you don't have to be responsible for how you do it, but we cannot allow this approach . Our Constitution set out a democratic form of government that should not ever allow such dictatorial Executive Branch authority. to escape oversight and review by Congess and the Courts.
Congress, the media, and the public must not allow the pressure of the need to quickly move to resolve this disaster to allow such a threat to democracy to become law.
Tom from Northern California
Barack is correct. He has said all along that the homeowners must be helped. Bailing out these clowns does not change the fact that millions are in jeopardy of foreclosure. If the cash isn't flowing consistently into these lending institutions, we will have a repeat meltdown. The Feds need to come up with a special way to rewrite these loans. Refi is not an option.
Do they think we're dumb?Trying to tell us our economy will collapse and we won't be able to pay for schools if we don't pay for this bail out?These companies are dead weight on the country.They gambled,they lost.Why do I have to pay for it?Let's spend that money directly on the public programs you're falsely reporting will see a dime from these companies and cut out the middle man.Help out the people in the homes instead of the pigs who fleeced them and now want even more money.We're in trouble and trickle down economics just won't cut it.Where is my bail out?Give me the money and let me..........oh wait..........IT IS MY MONEY!
"And today is the first day of early voting in Georgia. We are the first state to start voting today…or so the news here said. They are worried there will be an immense turn out in Nov so we are getting a jump on it. Guess where I’ll be today? LOL
Cindy…Ga."
Dear Lord, please let there be no computers, internet service of cell phone towers anywhere near there today.
This is all I'm asking. If you have any miracles left Lord, this would be a good one.
Thank you!
I LOVVE MCCAIN but picking PALIN was a bad idea. she is obviously clueless! Plus what kind of mom is she when her daughter is 17, married and pregnant?
I just gave $50 to Obama because I am sick of this economy. In November Obama gets my vote. I know John McCain has no idea what to do, because he said the economy was strong when it is not. Now we have to pay so much money to get the banks out of trouble. So, why are we still spending all this money in Iraq? If McCain wins this election, he will keep spending billions every month in Iraq? I don’t think McCain cares how much the war cost, because McCain and his rich friend will keep eating. They are getting their money now (today) in this bailout. While, the rest of us have to wait to see who gets elected. I have friends who say they can’t see themselves voting for Obama, even though they like him. They say they will vote for McCain even though they don’t like him or Palin. They are just Republicans voting the party line. Still, here we all seem to agree on one thing. If Obama don’t win, the rest of us will get nothing, but more taxes. Then, when we lose our jobs, and can’t pay for our homes. They will take them and sell them to someone else, for half the price. It is happing every day, right now, before the election.
Good Morning Anderson and staff
It certainly isn't fair that the poor tax paying poeple should have to pay for corperate greed..The treasurer Henry Paulson has too much power and is trying to cheat the tax payers at the expense of the exceutives on wall street it's an outrage.
Thanks for keeping them honest
see you at 10
michelle d.
John McCain most certainly has the most experience in dealing with a financial crisis of this magnitude. He was one of the Keating Five where he was admonished for his total lack of judgment, right? Why is that not a bigger topic considering banking deregulation is the real catalyst of this "crisis".
He used the same judgment, as did congress, to authorize the war we were lied about. Why should we trust this administration or John McCain when they continue to lie and keep secrets?
Maybe the tail IS wagging the dog.
Let's bailout big corporations who are some of the same greedy institutions who bank their business on our own American bankruptcies. Is their not some irony to this story? Has anyone addressed CEO pay in this corporate bailout? I think there are way too many questions in this so-called bailout plan to just accept it. Can't a portion of the 700 billion dollars be better spent on the folks in Texas who really need this money?
I can't wait for the the debate on Friday between Obama and McCain. Also, McCain is milking his POW story and he feels that because he was a POW in the Vietnam war, he will make a great president. POW means you were a Prisoner Of War! That means that you got caught by the enemy and you fail. We don't want a soldier who fail his mission for president.
OBAMA 2008
Rahni, Connecticut
The financial crisis is being played just like the run up to the Iraq invasion.
First create unmitigated fear, then plunder and pillage the village. The Bush administration has to burn the village or we might just find the bodies. By rushing to "save" the economy, the American congress and public are going to be suckers for the same game as when they authorized the war – again.
Next we will hear that we need to have a new currency and no borders.
Sept. 22, 2008
I heard many times the word “MAVERICK” but I was not too sure what it meant. So, I looked in the dictionary to find the definition:
There are 2 definitions:
“ An unbranded animal “
“ Person who takes a stand independent of others in a group “
Now I am nervous. It is time for a TEAM EFFORT not for an INDEPENDENT president that will carry the country on his shoulders the way he wants and decide.
We had 2 Mavericks (Bush, Cheney) for the past 8 years, they did their way and even convinced practically everybody to go to war. Look where we stand now. Same for the economy.
Since McCain is not using anymore the word Republican because he wants to distance himself and be identified as a Maverick. He should ask the GOP to change the name of the party. Instead of REPUBLICAN PARTY name it MAVERICK PARTY.
If you do not want to vote for the Democratic Party, you may as well consider between 2 independents: John McCain and Ron Paul
Peter
Henderson, NV
I am convinced there is a whole lot going on behind the scenes
that we are not being told about and that we will only now the true
facts years from now. From everything I have read Goldman Sachs
has the clean spreadsheet. The firm is now working for the Federal
Government. Goldman is global that means it has the 411 about how
complex this is and the firm somehow was not affected by the subprime
mess. If the financial crisis does not catch the attention of the American
public , I do not know what will.
In relation to the impending bail-out, something of that nature is obviously needed. What we fail to understand, however, is the 'hope' of our government that banks will begin lending again afterward.
We say that any financial institution receiving taxpayer money to save it from its own bad behavior should be REQUIRED to: (a) refinance all troubled mortgages on its books and (b) to make a certain number of small business, home equity and consumer loans to families whose credit ratings have recently plummeted due to the problem they helped to create.
There can be no long term recovery without a recovery of the American consumer. We desperately need something to prevent further foreclosures, bankruptcies and business closures. Simply handing over astronomical amounts of money to huge institutions will not keep us from facing this problem again in a few months' time.
The financial institutions should be required, if they are to be rescued, to help put our money back to work for us!
The American public demands that the US Treasury Dept should require the following from companies requesting to have their bad mortgage paper bought:
– full financial disclosure and investigation
– bad mortgage paper sold at super discount rate
– moratorium on executive bonsues
– writen plan and safegards to avoid making the same mistakes
– independent audit to detemine if companies are hiding other finacial deficencies under the umbrella of bad mortgages
– give clients holding mortages a 2 month moratorium .
This approach is fair to both sides and it provide transparency and oversight for the companies involved.
We have standards for our students. We have standards for all Americans. Congress as a whole seemingly have no set standards. Its like an uncontrolled playground. Is this truly the best our country has to offer?
Morning all! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
I hope that this bailout package makes it quickly through congress and that it's not held up by too many people wanting to add too much stuff to it. That is all we need is a bunch of bickering between the parties when our economy is failing.
I have to agree with John McCain, I think we do need a bipartisan committee to over see this bailout thing so that one person isn't in charge of it all. That way they aren't bending rules or whatnot to favor their party.
And today is the first day of early voting in Georgia. We are the first state to start voting today...or so the news here said. They are worried there will be an immense turn out in Nov so we are getting a jump on it. Guess where I'll be today? LOL
Cindy...Ga.
Good morning! It certainly isn't fair that reasonable, financially responsible people should have to pay for GREEDY corporations that go bust from their unethical "take the money and run" philosophy. That also includes irresponsible homeowners that bought much bigger houses than they could afford. Did they think they were getting free money? Did they not know what adjustable mortgages mean? Ask questions. Where is PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY in all of this? Certainly there is sympathy for people who have foreclosures due to job loss or deceptive contracts with brokers, but that is what reading the fine print means. If you aren't certain, have a lawyer review the contract.