The chorus of calls for help could pressure the Bush administration to widen the scope of its $700 billion bailout plan, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was authorized in October.Treasury officials have refused so far to open TARP to U.S. car makers, despite lobbying from Congress to do so.
The Treasury has committed all but $60 billion of the first $350 billion in funds granted by Congress under the TARP plan. That sum remains after accounting for Treasury’s planned investments in the banking sector and Monday’s additional $40 billion investment in troubled insurer American International Group Inc. AIG was originally bailed out by the Federal Reserve in September, and Fannie Mae, along with its sister company Freddie Mac, was seized by the government the same month.
The rescue efforts are “evolving in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated,” said Camden Fine, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group. “Things are just hitting them from every single direction, every day, and I don’t think they know whether to spit or go blind.”
Read it all from the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal.
The bailout proposed for Chrysler will benefit the fat-cats at Cerebrus (sp.?), not the employees. This gorup owns a very large stake in Chrysler, and includes folks with Capitol Hill connections, e.g., Dan Quayle.
The employees, alas, are being used as fronts. When these investors decide the bottom line calls for ‘mergers’ and ‘consolidations’, they will keep the cash supplied by our taxes, and the employees will lose their jobs.
STOP THE BAIL-OUTS NOW!!!
This whole bailout plan was a fraud from the get-go. A free market, is just that. People rise and fall based on their products, their marketing and initiative.
The government has stepped in to make sure big losers don’t lose. What they’ve accomplished will make us all losers in the end.
McCain would have won the election if he had returned to Washington and said “Heck no, I won’t vote for any stinkin’ bailouts.”
The public was hungry for someone to stand up to Wall Street and big business and they only one who did was Ralph Nader. Ralph who?
Thank the media for that.
If that was the case, LC, Pelosi and Reid wouldn’t be thumping the tub so loudly for them. No, this is an indirect subsidy to the UAW.
Regardless of the beneficiary, the bailout should be resisted unless we, as a nation, consider it a net positive to society to reward foolishness.
[blockquote]The rescue efforts are “evolving in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated[/blockquote]A truly naive statement. Critics of the bailout thought it would evolve as it has. Any time government money is made available people come running to snap it up.
I am writing today to my Senators and Representative to oppose expanding the terms of the bailout. Congress will respond to massive public outcry. It’s our only defense at the moment.