Because I work from home I can hear all the financial people on CNN, FOX, CNBC, and Bloomberg (in the morning) imploring Americans to believe this really does affect them.
I'm pretty sure its just about all of them now. There was a time I heard from some economists that we should do nothing.
They think maybe the record drop in the dow yesterday might scare Americans, even if its not the market that's really at stake.
Apparently, the LIBOR score or rate (tied to commercal paper) is the key to the credit market, and its pretty high right now. The fed rate is high as well. Although one guy on Bloomberg said its not that high when compared to inflation and what rates were like in the early 80's when credit rates were 11 and 12 percent. He also notes that
Mark to market reform and the uptick rule. What are they? Some are saying that's what will make the difference in whether the bailout package will work. I guess its called a rescue plan now.
Another option Obama added is that the amount of deposits insured by the FDIC be raised from 100,000 to 250,000.
So far, I haven't heard of any new banks going down today.
Maybe the Congress stalling means the market will have to right itself.
I saw a Republican congresswomen yesterday who voted against the plan say she wanted the legislation to include sweeping economic reform. I can't remember specifically what she wanted, but it was a lot of traditional Republican ideas. Which tells me, its not going to help make things better.
I think the Democrats didn't vote for it (including my representative) because it wasn't enough of a help to regular folks. ? Maybe. Or, because people wrote in to say they were against it.
I should have written in and amended my prior comment. I had an idea, but if they couldn't get it done, then they'd have to compromise and I accepted the idea of the bailout. Again, my concern is that my company will be forced to let people go. It wouldn't be for a few months because we can hold out for a while. But, if it gets to the point my company is letting people go, then it really is a problem 'cause we're pretty conservative with cash.
The stock market drop yesterday was big for me. I don't have very much invested in the stock market relative to others, but I have a lot for me - I'm a regular middle class person who only decided to start saving a couple years ago.
I couldn't decide if I should wipe out the rest of my savings to buy more because everything is so low and I believe everything will rebound eventually,
Or, if I should sell my stocks at a loss and just get out so I have some cash to ride out the crisis when I don't have a job and am living on my savings, meaning I don't believe the market can recover in its current state.
I don't know what the right answer is.
I did nothing.
As I'm listening to Bloomberg, some of these financial people are finding silver linings. They're seeing signs that the market is going to try and recover on its own. But, they're equity investment people. They're probably rich.
I switched to C-SPAN Washington Journal just in time to hear a caller say "we're finding out we're just a bunch of losers trying to live off our kid's financial future" HA!
Hmmm...some other sentiments on Washington Journal:
1. Wall Street/Banks should not be blaming Main Street for the problem because they're the ones who pushed people into ARM loans without explaining it to people. They wanted to make their money and didn't care what happened later.
2. Everything that happened in the house yesterday can be attributed to the representatives being up for election in a few weeks.
3. We should start investigating from the top down; from the executive suite on down.
4. Congress needs more people who can explain things better to the constituents.
5. This problem started back in the Carter days (or the Clinton days depending on who's talking) when it became a priority to give high risk people loans via The Fair Housing Act or the Community Redevelopment Act. As I understand it, those bills were about making sure minority families were not discriminated against in home loans.
Sounds like there really is THAT much anger at the Congress.
To me, it seems like voting against this is the same as cutting off your nose to spite your face.
As I've said before, I'm not willing to risk losing my job just to show some anger at Wall Street.
On the Today show this morning - the report indicated that Democrats voted against it because they don't want to bail out the fat cats, and Republicans voted against it because they think it amounted to Socialism and was a threat to the Free Market system.
But, one of the things the Republicans want (maybe, a floated idea anyway) is a corporate tax holiday. Huh? That makes no sense to me and would make me be completely against the plan I think.
Aye yi yi.
I haven't even talked about the political aspect of all this - partisanship and Presidential politics.
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