I understand Mr. Duncans position but i believe in a Free Capital Market and markets are in the obvious process of self-correcting. Over regulation is never the answer. Look at the result of that with Reg NMS, short banning, etc. We have to work off the huge over leverage that took place last few years. Not every bank deserves to survive unfortunataly. Who bails out mom & pop when they go under? I also truely believe that the lack of liquidity from restricting the specialists involvement and stocks trading in pennies have added to the lack of depth in the markets. Thanks

by tony dey on September 29, 2008 5:55 PM

Credit is a privilage. You don't have to have credit cards, or new cars if you can't afford to buy it and pay for your purchases. What ever happened to saving some money, cutting up credit cards, buying a house you can afford with a downpayment that you have saved up? It's a give me generation that doesn't have the patience to wait until they don't have to put everything on a credit card and have bank loans. Get smart, save, avoid credit and pay the old way pay cash.

by T Frohman on September 29, 2008 10:14 PM

The market has his own rooling principle and it can not be averted by whatever the government has done. it has been proved widely, across the world. what we can do is to modify the mistake we'd ever made in the past, to minimize the destroy of the tourmoil of the economy. economy will get the wound fixed by itself.

by Martin zhang on September 30, 2008 2:09 AM

The capitalist model is a relatively simple one. Let us say you wish to manufacture widgets. You borrow 80% of the capital you need to create the factory, and plan to pay it back over 20 years. You pay interest at - say - 5%. You use the money wisely. The business grows at 20% per year. As it grows the gap between what you owe and what you own gets smaller. Eventually you own the business, and your 20% stake has grown maybe 10 fold.
What are the keys? First you need the bank to help you set up the business. However by having a large personal stake, the business is YOURS: you put yur heart and soul into it. You care for your employees, but make sure you hire only the best. You have little time for slackers, dreamers and those who regard employment as a means of collecting sick pay, or claiming harassment after some trivial incident, and taking the boss to the cleaners. It is not some other person's business that you have bought up, but your own.
What goes wrong? You take your eye off the ball, you borrow more than you need, you run uplarge expense accounts, you think your customers will last forever. Result - a downward spiral.

This present crisis will only end when people realise that life is nor a free ride, that business expenses are not an excuse to pay vast amounts of money for dubious entertainment in sport and night life, that no pair of shoes could possibly be woorth $1000, that no sportsman could possibly be worth $1000000 per year, and so on. Shopping is not "retail therapy": it is there to put good nutritious food on the family table - and not to waste the leftovers. Coats need to be used and patched if necessary, not discarded. Last year's car is great if it works.

We need a society that appreciates the people who make things, who can take a piece of metal and turn it into something useful, who can fix a washing machine or a car, who can harvest crops and so on. No more psychobabble about how we all need to be in touch with our inner selves, and all that pseudo-intellectual polytwaddle. You go to work to WORK, not indulge in conversations about the meaning of life. We need an end to "Celebrity culture" and similar nonsense.
This crisis will leave many victims in its wake. Mostly they will be the "go-betweens": get a real job, create things that are useful to society, and you will go far. The universities need to be flooded with people wanting to study physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and not the bogus oxymoronic "social sciences", or "media studies".

It is time that the western World woke up - or face the consequences of the eastern hordes.

by Munchi Choksey on September 30, 2008 4:08 AM

Are we just witnessing a change in the market, a move from a money based system to a non-monetary based system. As Engels said, "Capitalism will eat itself." why are we so surprised at events?

by David Bargh on September 30, 2008 8:29 AM

Most of the media seem to be calling this package a "rescue" package instead of a "bailout." I probably should have said "rescue" in the headline.

by Ray Pellecchia on September 30, 2008 8:54 AM

We're all screwed. Take the money and run for your lives.

by Kyle Carrier on September 30, 2008 9:16 AM

The people that signed for loans they could not afford should move out.
The banks that made the bad loans should go under.
The properties should be sold short, correcting the overpricing that is one of the root causes.
Want a house? Be able to pay for it, save 20% and get a conforming loan.
Want to float bad paper? Be ready to accept the risk (go under) when the payments stop.
Want to build houses that no one can afford to buy, let alone heat and cool? Then this destructive cycle will not come to an end.

by J Caffrey on September 30, 2008 11:08 AM