The US House of Representatives passed the Wall Street Bailout Bill on Friday, two days after the US Senate did so and four days after the House initially rejected it. Why the change ? It was due to usual and regular practice of adding pork and earmarks to the legislation, or what really is extortion and bribery for the rest of us. Unfortunately this is only the first step in a probably long process of trying to right the American economy, particularly the credit markets. Some economists believe this legislation is doomed to fail, or simply will not be enough to reverse direction. One should expect the incoming President and Congress to revisit this issue rather quickly in 2009, and the bailout dollars total will probably exceed $2 trillion. Some of that money may be recouped from the sale of assets acquired by the government in the legislation, but it will be nowhere near what the initial and subsequent outlays have and will be. After all, the housing market is nowhere near bottom yet and most areas in the nation still have a ways to go before the declines in housing values reach bottom and become more historically related to prevailing wages and salaries. Housing values have dropped by anywhere from 5 % to one - third depending on the market, and it is likely these declining values will have to reach a basically final total decline of 15 % to 60 %. This likely future decline of housing values with its consequences of foreclosure and abandonment of real assets by owners will keep this initial bailout from accomplishing the desired full effects as has been promised by Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, and leaders and members of Congress. Stay tuned, as more bad news is destined to come in the months ahead, unfortunately.-
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bush-signs-historic-financial-bailout-package/story.aspx?guid=%7B303FAA6C%2D7E73%2D4223%2DADA9%2DFB465F185BE3%7D
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/10022008/news/nationalnews/piggy_pols_in_hog_heaven_with_pork_packe_131770.htm
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-whatnext4-2008oct04,0,3011204.story
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10057618-38.html?tag=nl.e433
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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7B6FCA5CAB%2DBFB5%2D41ED%2D8FBB%2DB4005F4169DA%7D&siteid=djm_HAMWRSSFirstH
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http://www.alternet.org/story/101523/the_bailout%3A_how_capitalism_killed_democracy/
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-stern/so-now-what_b_131660.html
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/has-the-bailout-already-failed/
http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/09/to-bail-or-not.html
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http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/10/bailout-redux-real-choice-ahead.html
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http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/john-cochrane-on-why-the-bailout-plan-would-be-a-disaster/
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