Has the world gone insane? Ironically the protesters are the benefactors of those same tax policies. CNN interviewed a guy who called the president fascist, and I’m assuming he hasn’t got the slightest idea of what a fascist is. Too bad we live in a time period of sound bites and short attention span, where sentences like “Obama is a fascist.” Coming from a right wing puppet is sufficient proof that he is one. Where is the fairness in a world where the Republicans had free reign to drive the economy into a recession then condemn the other party’s administration for their lack of prudent judgment for the mess they created. Most disturbing is that there’s actually populations within the United States that still believes these right wing idiots and do their bidding.

Naming this movement a “Tea Party” juxtaposing it to the level of the “Boston Tea Party” is insulting to the movement started by America’s forefathers.

Two centuries later his words seems to echo into the hollow shell of our society ravaged by an economic crisis so massive as to rival the Great Depression. The quote above was said about the control of money in America but the main theme is still there- don’t trust banks.

How could the administration bail out the bankers while leaving the common citizens of this country to rot?

It was the banks who allowed these tragic circumstances to compound against us, luring people into thinking that their American dream is within their grasp only to be buried into debt. The unchecked predatory practices of the mortgage industry (thank Bush for this one; laissez-faire my ass) arranging for such a failure to happen.

Maybe we shouldn’t have bestowed trust in the mortgage industry that should have been reserved only for doctors who we all know took an oath to do no harm and when the only oath these scoundrels apparently took was to maximize their profits.

Then again why should we help people who bought houses they couldn’t afford?

But in their defense the reckless distribution of credit to people who may or may not have had the means to pay it back by brokers who could care less about that person’s financial stability just as long as they get their commission; deceiving their clients through sales pitch and smooth talk is a much higher sin. How many people did these brokers of debt talk into getting a sub-prime mortgage? How many people were told to wait until their credit improves to refinance their house when they’re already drowning in debt, which is of course a catch 22, because when your solvency is compromised your credit is ruined. Then follow the foreclosure of your home and the destruction of the American dream.

This brings us to the subject of toxic assets. The bank’s balance sheet is chock full of them. These are the result of the defaults and foreclosures on mortgages across the country. This apparently spread to other economies through bonds. Apparently, the banks repackage your mortgage into bond securities which were bought by countries like China and Russia but since people have foreclosed on those mortgages those bonds are now upheld by nothing.

It is true when a pundit in CNN compared toxic assets to blemished apples. They’re not completely worthless; you can make apple cider out of them. But the metaphor was probably lost to some people. This merely means that since the housing market collapse no one knows truly the price tags of these bank owned houses or the bonds that those house mortgages use to uphold since no one is buying. Houses and land are worth something no matter how you look at it.

The biggest issue in the news right now is the bail out of the banks or Wall St. To which I ask, why?

We have seen time and time again that the banks are only looking out for their bottom line. With the scandals surrounding them regarding their ill timed bonus payments and private jet purchases, I can’t believe we’re still cleaning up their mess.

My issue with the bailout is that it’s only going to help one side of the cash flow of the economy, which would be the financial market. Which they said is “too big” to fail. I understand, many people have a lot riding on the financial market. They’re retirement fund for example. But helping troubled homeowners can accomplish the same thing. If you bailout Main St. and get the crushing burden of the house payment off their backs it would stimulate the consumer economy while removing the toxic assets from the balance sheets of these banks. However, there’s a huge ideological wall we need to break through before we do this. Bailing out failure whether it’s the banks or just common people choosing the wrong decision is a practice a free market economy generally frowns on, by frown I mean does not allow at all. But since we’re already committing a trespass to the Capitalism god by even thinking about bailing out the banks I think excusing regular American citizens who merely made the wrong choice, it happens, okay, that’s life, shouldn’t be out of the question.