Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

*****http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/kentucky-guy.png******



Interesting analogy.

Sounds a bit harsh to me....

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

*****http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/kentucky-guy.png******

Covington, Kentucky city commissioner Steve Frank (R) recently took to Facebook to rail against the Wall Street protesters who are spreading across the country. In a post on Oct. 9, he wrote, “Turn out the lights on the Occupiers, I feel like going Taliban on them!!!”

Interesting analogy.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Think of all the firemen we could train.

How about amusement parks...Foreclosureland. "swimming pools, movie stars..."

Take upscale homes and make them government B&B's...at $29 a night.

Cruise missle practice for our Navy?

Military housing, what they live in now is terrible.

Hold giant garage sales and sell everything, including the garage. Let people buy doors, windows, cabinets, counters et.

Merge that 'hide the money' show with foreclosed houses...find the money, keep the house.

Instead of having that idiot build people houses behind a bus, put the people in the bus and move them to a house that is already built.

Make them mini-prison neighborhoods instead of building more prisons.

Combine three of these and let the navy shoot cruise missles at the prison neighborhoods and train firemen to put out the fires.

This is quite possibly the best thing I've read on this forum in quite a while.

[pirate]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Arson?

Think of all the firemen we could train.

How about amusement parks...Foreclosureland. "swimming pools, movie stars..."

Take upscale homes and make them government B&B's...at $29 a night.

Cruise missle practice for our Navy?

Military housing, what they live in now is terrible.

Hold giant garage sales and sell everything, including the garage. Let people buy doors, windows, cabinets, counters et.

Merge that 'hide the money' show with foreclosed houses...find the money, keep the house.

Instead of having that idiot build people houses behind a bus, put the people in the bus and move them to a house that is already built.

Make them mini-prison neighborhoods instead of building more prisons.

Combine three of these and let the navy shoot cruise missles at the prison neighborhoods and train firemen to put out the fires.

[Almington]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

How to we start the road to recovery by making even more houses vacant than there already are in a market in which most of them will not be filled any time soon?

Arson?

[Slap Shot]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

The fact is that we built too darn much housing in this country, and too much of it was in the high-priced "luxury" market. The price of those houses must come down - simple supply and demand. Propping up a bloated market only extends the time of misery. It's better to rip off that band aid and get started on the road to recovery now.

How to we start the road to recovery by making even more houses vacant than there already are in a market in which most of them will not be filled any time soon?

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

This seems rational.

*****http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4688/nathane.jpg******

Who is he?

Conservative fundraiser, consultant, and Principal at The Consultant Group

[Handyman]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

I was against the bailout as well, I just find it odd that the banks got their money but individuals are left out on the street (literally). The role of the federal government was not to back an 18-wheeler up to the US Treasury and move the contents to Wall Street either, but that's what happened. Any wonder that the people now ask, "What about me?"

As was I...basically the people who screwed up the World Economy got everything erased and everyone else got bent over. Why should the average person be personally responsible when entire companies were playing fast and loose with the rules and with money that wasn't theirs and they got a full reprieve? People lost their jobs and their homes (the latter often their own fault) but what did the real culprits lose? Maybe some paper wealth? (and that is up for argument as well) Did any of them get punished for what they did...nope. As with everything else the $h!t flows downward.

But hey, at least there wasnt a run on the banks because then they wouldnt have our money to screw up with they might have to play things on the up and up!

Remember banks are corporatoins and corporations are people...and since they are rich people they are better than you!

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Instead of giving the banks loads of dough, what if we bought the bad paper at 10 cents on the dollar? Of course, that would have made Uncle Sam the largest mortgage holder in the USA. I think it would have been less of a cash outlay and the net may have equaled out.

We already do that. It's called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[joecct]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Yep. And much of the bank 'bailout' was in the form of stocks...and yes, we taxpayers did just fine on our investment. GM did cost taxpayers...but even there, what would have been the cost of the employees of GM and its suppliers being out on the streets. Its not the way this country should ever conduct business...except for when the country is at severe risk of our economy crashing.

Instead of giving the banks loads of dough, what if we bought the bad paper at 10 cents on the dollar? Of course, that would have made Uncle Sam the largest mortgage holder in the USA. I think it would have been less of a cash outlay and the net may have equaled out.

[5mn_Major]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Too many posts to individually respond to them, but here's my basic thoughts.

The bank bailout was absolutely the correct move at the time. The credit market was not just frozen but in cryogenic stasis. The fear was that with banks unwilling to loan to anyone, that companies needing their revolving lines of credit and commercial paper to do things like make next week's payroll would get hurt hard, worsening any impact of bank failures well beyond the financial sector of the economy.

Where the government failed was in not taking measures to prevent history from repeating itself. If the banks were too big to fail, then the government should've made sure that, after saving them, they were either broken up ala Ma Bell/Standard Oil/etc. so that they were no longer too big to fail, or regulated the hell out of them so that they wouldn't need to be bailed out again. Instead, we got some token measures that did jack shiat, and we'll likely end up needing to bail them out again sometime in the not really distant future.

Essentially, I have no problems with the initial bailout. It's the follow-up, or lack thereof, where the rest of us got absolutely hosed. Socialize the losses, privatize the gains, indeed. But then, that's par for the course. I have no issues with Keynsian stimulii in times of economic malaise. The problems arise when the government forgets to pay that off (and/or save up for the next round) in the boom times.

Yep. And much of the bank 'bailout' was in the form of stocks...and yes, we taxpayers did just fine on our investment. GM did cost taxpayers...but even there, what would have been the cost of the employees of GM and its suppliers being out on the streets. Its not the way this country should ever conduct business...except for when the country is at severe risk of our economy crashing.

[goldy_331]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

By here do you mean Minnesota? Otherwise I dont follow you.

No, here on USCHO. It's the banks, they own everything!

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Clearly we disagree. I wouldn't have bailed out the banks and I wouldn't wish to pay off everyone's first mortgages using the Federal government's funds (and yes, I have a mortgage to pay myself). It's not the role of the Federal government.

I was against the bailout as well, I just find it odd that the banks got their money but individuals are left out on the street (literally). The role of the federal government was not to back an 18-wheeler up to the US Treasury and move the contents to Wall Street either, but that's what happened. Any wonder that the people now ask, "What about me?"

To quote the West Wing

Well, as long as there's a Congress, there are going to be multi-billion-dollar boondoggles. We'd just like to share in them a little bit, please.

It's funny you keep throwing out the "Socialism" tag, as though tossing it out there will disarm its meaning. What you're proposing is a degree of socialism, as what has already been done. Point of fact, I would say with the corporations out there it's more like Corporatism. Just have the companies do what the government wants, and the government will either ensure a profit or bail out those companies it leads down the road to ruins. That seems to be the deal over the last 3-4 years (or going back further than that when thinking about the airlines and Chrysler). I don't support such policy. It makes for a system rife with fraud and corruption.

The Socialism tag gets attached to anything the president proposes or any idea that might actually help the people instead of the top 1% or the corporations.

[unofan]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

Too many posts to individually respond to them, but here's my basic thoughts.

The bank bailout was absolutely the correct move at the time. The credit market was not just frozen but in cryogenic stasis. The fear was that with banks unwilling to loan to anyone, that companies needing their revolving lines of credit and commercial paper to do things like make next week's payroll would get hurt hard, worsening any impact of bank failures well beyond the financial sector of the economy.

Where the government failed was in not taking measures to prevent history from repeating itself. If the banks were too big to fail, then the government should've made sure that, after saving them, they were either broken up ala Ma Bell/Standard Oil/etc. so that they were no longer too big to fail, or regulated the hell out of them so that they wouldn't need to be bailed out again. Instead, we got some token measures that did jack shiat, and we'll likely end up needing to bail them out again sometime in the not really distant future.

Essentially, I have no problems with the initial bailout. It's the follow-up, or lack thereof, where the rest of us got absolutely hosed. Socialize the losses, privatize the gains, indeed. But then, that's par for the course. I have no issues with Keynsian stimulii in times of economic malaise. The problems arise when the government forgets to pay that off (and/or save up for the next round) in the boom times.

[St. Clown]

Re: Banks, Credit Unions, and Fees: Oh my!

By here do you mean Minnesota? Otherwise I dont follow you.

Yes, they are here in MN, specifically in the Twin Cities. We're the #14-15 market in the nation for overall size, these companies know that and want a slice of the pie, even if they're doing so in small ways at the moment.

Right. So we can bail out the banks but can't give any actual human beings money because that would be Socialism! Funny that people say it was wrong to bail the banks out and somehow use that as reasoning that we can't bail out people. I suppose an individual isn't "too big to fail" but the American people as whole...are they too big to fail?

And if banks are repaying the bailout money now that they're back on their feet, who is to say individuals won't once they're back on their feet?

Clearly we disagree. I wouldn't have bailed out the banks and I wouldn't wish to pay off everyone's first mortgages using the Federal government's funds (and yes, I have a mortgage to pay myself). It's not the role of the Federal government.

It's funny you keep throwing out the "Socialism" tag, as though tossing it out there will disarm its meaning. What you're proposing is a degree of socialism, as what has already been done. Point of fact, I would say with the corporations out there it's more like Corporatism. Just have the companies do what the government wants, and the government will either ensure a profit or bail out those companies it leads down the road to ruins. That seems to be the deal over the last 3-4 years (or going back further than that when thinking about the airlines and Chrysler). I don't support such policy. It makes for a system rife with fraud and corruption.