[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

NO BAILOUT! That is the Conservative cry! No discussion of whether or not it could work to stave off a depression. Just pitchforks, torches, flags flying and a rising choros of "NO BAILOUT!".

Well, folks... I can't say if $700 billion in taxpayer money will avert a depression or not, but no attempt is going to embrace a depression.

Food distribution is going to be very interesting. It will be interesting to see how fast shelves go bare in stores. I hope you don't expect your internet provider not to be impacted by a depression. Prepare for internet service to be a thing of the rich, not the common man. How will you connect to Free Republic?

The riots and violence in bigger cities are going to be very interesting to watch unfold. Just wait until things break down along racial lines and might makes right again as large contingencies vie for feudal control of portions of cities. Cops are going to be protecting the rich and influential. They aren't going to have any time for you.

So enjoy your malnutrition and disease. I'm sure the garbage of the rich will still be available. Maybe you can tear out your front yard and plant a garden. And maybe you'll even live to see some of plants start to bear fruit.

I posted this as a small reminder of how rapidly civilized society falls apart in a depression, when the normal lines of supply, communication, energy distribution and social structure break down.

Y'all think it can't happen again. "We're beyond that," you are thinking. Right. Just like NASDAQ was going straight to the moon, you thought. Just like house prices always go up, you thought. Just like the economy was peachy and it as just the evil MSM and doom and gloomers talking down the economy to get Hitlery elected you thought.

Stick around. Y'all will be shocked to see how fast the entire economy can grind to a screeching halt. Gas stations completely empty. Grocery stores completely empty. Hospitals rationing medicine. Watch and see.

But that's OK. You will have done your duty as a Conservative and screamed "NO BAILOUT, NO SOCIALISM" and you will have your pride as you look for another pair of shoes for dinner, but guess what, soles are plastic today so you can't even eat your shoes.

I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but the point remains. For those who lose their jobs -- and there will be NO finding work for years for these people -- it will be back to "Hey buddy, can you spare a $100 for a meal? I haven't eaten in a couple of days." Churches are dying. Families are scattered. Where is the support network going to come from in the next depression, from the cash strapped government running their printing presses? Not hardly.

So go ahead. Stick to your guns. Sink any chance we have, slim as it may be, to restore confidence to the market, avert depression now, and then we can shoot the bastards later. No, go ahead and embrace the new Depression. I'm sure your starving children living in the streets will thank you for it. "Mom, Dad, thank you so much for standing up for your principles. My pneumonia will kill me without medical help, but at least I'll die the child of a proud, conservative, unyielding Freeper."

Booyah! NO BAILOUT! Screw em! Bring on the Depression. Bring it all down, man! NO BAILOUT! No bailout for wall street pigs! No money for wall street! Hands off my taxes!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAILOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So long, and thanks for the Depression...

[DeuceTraveler]

Thank you for your permission. I will take my chances.

[tallyhoe]

Your right! It won’t be very pretty!

[exnavy]

Bailout or not, stockpile food and ammo.

[thecabal]

So you really think that the government is going to fix things and not make them worse?

[TheWasteLand]

I'm sure your starving children living in the streets will thank you for it. "Mom, Dad, thank you so much for standing up for your principles. My pneumonia will kill me without medical help, but at least I'll die the child of a proud, conservative, unyielding Freeper."

Wow. Just wow.

[Nervous Tick]

So long, and thanks for the Depression...

You're welcome. In turn, thanks for the hyperbole, Emo.

By the way, hyperbole cuts both ways.

Below is a heartbreaking picture of a poor woman in Weimar Germany burning hyperinflated banknotes, because their value as fuel is greater than their purchasing power.

We are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY going to have WORSE FREAKING INFLATION THAN THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN if we HAVE A BAILOUT!!!

What proof do I have? Just my say-so. As with you -- my shrieking hyperbole and my historical (hysterical?) reminders that it can happen, and it did happen, are all I need. :-)

[MarMema]

Don’t forget Seabiscuit.

[PressurePoint]

Y'all think it can't happen again. "We're beyond that," you are thinking. Right. Just like NASDAQ was going straight to the moon, you thought. Just like house prices always go up, you thought.

Just to be clear, I never thought that. And interestingly, none of my fellow dumb friends who also went to state universities thought that. Seems this concept of "what goes up will continue to go up" is something they only teach the Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street.

There will be suffering. You are correct.

[supercat]

Well, folks... I can't say if $700 billion in taxpayer money will avert a depression or not, but no attempt is going to embrace a depression.

The only solution to the liquidity crisis is a market devaluation, especially in the house of CarDS. The market is going to come down severely, certainly within the next thirty years, probably within the next ten, and likely within the next three. The question of whether it will cause a depression will be determined by (1) what efforts are made to prevent the market correction [more == bad], and (2) what sorts of tax-and-spend programs are put in place afterward [again, more == bad].

If the government would put failed entities into receiver ship, let the bad debts play through the tangled web of CDSs, using only such intervention as is necessary to prevent bank runs and equalize losses, and if the government dropped tax rates, the market would recover since the systemic problems that are dogging it would be solved. Unfortunately, I really doubt anyone will have the courage to adopt such a plan. Instead, they'll throw $700bn+ into the house of CarDS thus ensuring that we're in more trouble three years from now than we're in presently.

[Swiss]

I don’t think 700 billion right now is the right thing to do but something has to be done.

I was at an accounting association meeting last night. We had two speakers from a nearby fortune 500 corporation speaking about cash management. They was responsible for the daily cash transactions that allowed the company to function daily.

They said that the day or so that the crisis on Wall Street blew up was one of the most stressful in their careers. They had one hell of a time getting banks to lend those days.

Now this is trade debt, it would be pocket change when compared to the assets of this corporation but if they don’t have assess to borrow that money then they may have to delay contracts or payments to suppliers.

Now this is a very conservative manufacturing company, bonds are always rated the highest. They won’t go bankrupt because the money markets has gone to pot but when it and thousands of other major corporations in America find they have a hard time borrowing cash then that affects thousands of smaller suppliers more harshly as sales to those larger corporations are delayed or cut back. Soon you start a cascade effect that causes a recession.

[PressurePoint]

I'm betting this is going to really hurt the film release of Cormac McCarthy's The Road that's coming out in November. Might hit a little too close to home.

[Tempest]

Homeowners will still lose their homes with this bailout.

Inflation will be rampant.

And fuel prices will once again skyrocket.

Of course the derivatives and the credit default swaps are still to come.

But go ahead argue for the crooks and buy into the vague threats and the state of fear... And here I thought that it was the liberals that were a bunch of sheep.

[PureSolace]

NO BAIL OUT!

[Gator113]

I will survive theses troubled times regardless of the direction this mess may go.

However, I do fear for those that wont be as prepared.... they will be tested in ways they can’t even imagine.

It’s the long recovery, perhaps decades, that’s going to hurt the most...

Perhaps when the dust settles, we will be a better people.

God bless and good luck to all.

[kanawa]

Bailout Could Deepen Crisis, CBO Chief Says

[KosmicKitty]

The hardships endured during the great depression formed the greatest generation that won WWII

[SauronOfMordor]

Bailing these guys out will ENSURE a Depression.

Because if the Wall Street guys don't get seriously burned this time, to the point where they will STRING UP the next smart boy to come out with a cute financial scheme, it will happen again and again. Until finally we get something that is BEYOND THE ABILITY of the American tax base to deal with.

Endure the pain now, to avoid fatal consequences later.

[CodeToad]

Or we can do the bailout and let our children have the depression. Either way, someone has to pay the bills of all this spending and reduced wealth generation. /sarcasm

It is only $700 billion. Are you saying that our economy will fail if we don’t inject that credit? If we are already so weak then nothing can stop a collapse.

[mysterio]

Hypothetical here. If this crash happened under democrat watch, would you support the same bailout if proposed by Bill Clinton?

I think the answer is probably no.

[Centurion2000]

Well, folks... I can't say if $700 billion in taxpayer money will avert a depression or not

Enjoy hyperinflation after this passes.