President Bush plans to address the nation at 9:01 p.m. EDT on the financial crisis (LIVE THREAD)

The Wall Street Journal (excerpt) (subscription required) | September 24, 2008

[HAL9000]

Breaking News - Republican officials say the Bush administration will accept executive-pay curbs as part of the bailout. President Bush plans to address the nation Wednesday at 9:01 p.m. EDT on the financial crisis.

[PhiKapMom]

I was sitting here listening when he had the oversight and went from there. Earlier today the WH press secretary wasn’t sure that Bush would call such a meeting requested by McCain but then he did.

The McCain plan was on here and will see if I can find it here or Lucianne as I read it in both places with five items.

[John W]

“I’m not watching it either. The last thing I want to hear is Bush telling me I’ve got to come up with even more money to pay for another government fiasco, without telling us EXACTLY who caused the problems.”

Wish I hadn’t. Now I realize why this live thread was so lonely at first.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

He looked exactly like a deer caught in the headlights....

[Shqipo]

When is someone going to go after Dodd, Frank and other minions that tossed out mortgage money for votes. I hope once a deal is reached, the Pubs grow some and start hammering on the Freddie and Fannie criminals..

[erk]

While your deposit number is correct, you fail to recognize they have over $300 billion of loans receivable. While their loan portfolio may not be worth 100% of face value, they are certainly worth more than 60% (180/300) as only 3.5% of the loans were non-performing as of the end of the 2nd quarter.

Are they in trouble? yes
Will they have to pay out $180 billion in cash in the short term? no
Will they be acquired? probably
Will someone make a lot of money off the deal? definitely
Do you wish it was you?

[newnhdad]

Three and 1/2 years ago, four foreign families purchased homes in our subdivision for zero down. All four were vacated when their balloon payment came due. Now all four are for sale for less than half the original price. basically they paid rent on brand new homes, trashed them and split.
We have a credit rating of 735 and Countrywide wouldn't give us a mortgage for a new place in May but the woman that bought our house (1st time buyer) used them for a 6.55% zero down, mortgage. We never missed a payment, we both work (considered rich by Obama) and have investments and savings. They turned us down.

These people brought all this on themselves and it's almost as if they want to lose money. Why my money should go to enabling this behavior is a mystery. This is not what the founding fathers envisioned.

[supercat]

If you want the credit markets to dry up, the DOW at 3000,your 401k down to a third, unemployment 10% then do nothing...

If we put up $700bn on this bail-out, even if Paulson and such are correct in their claim that it will cost less than $700bn, all that will do is guarantee that in a few years' time we'll either have to kick in a couple trillion or else have an even worse meltdown than what we face today.

As an inflated balloon starts to spring leaks, one may keep adding air to keep it inflated, but the amount of air required will continue to increase until at some point the balloon is guaranteed to fail. Bush wants to continue to inflate the economy. Maybe it will survive this time. I would much rather see the inevitable deflation occur in a controlled fashion than continue to inflate things until they burst.

[McGruff]

Here's my opinion. I trust President Bush is trying to do what's best for the country. I don't trust any democrats. I will support this bill IF no major changes or additions are made to it. I fear democrats will try to use it for a precedent for more bailouts. President Bush said he's a free market guy but this problem is so serious that we have to take action now. I'll take him at his word.

[Myynnxx]

Well said!! Exactly.

And “space aliens” just cracked me up. I needed to laugh, THANK YOU!!!

[MichiganConservative]

...the Pubs grow some ...

Yeah, right. That will happen.

Maybe it's time to replace every incumbent in Congress possible with someone who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

[meyer]

I want all parties - ALL PARTIES - responsible for this debacle doing the perp walk before I'll even consider bailing out the bankers or the deadbeat borrowers. I want to see 60+% of our elected officials drawn up on charges. I don't care what political party they are from - anybody that supported the lending practices that led to this need to be put in prison.

..This is the last straw, folks. Bush is covering for all the government idiots (probably including himself) that were instrumental in bringing about this situation.

[txhurl]

Can I ask - the money we have to fork over to buy bad investments until they ‘return to market value’ - why can’t the pricing be attractive enough to let the market invest in these?

Literally, W told us we taxpayers were going to buy, keep and hold these instruments until they grew back to health.

[Osage Orange]

Another scare tactic. Typical Bush.

Yeah..that's the ticket..!!

There were no WMD's...

And 9-11 was an "inside" job....

[fatima]

:)Well it was our 2nd home.I am pulling money out of the bank.Somebody is getting rich and we are going to lose money.I can smell it.

[Revel]

Notice the warning that all of the people who bought Freddie Debt recieved. Don't believe for an minute that they did not know.

[WesA]

I’m so sick of these scare tactics...I am a commercial lender at a big bank, and believe me, we are not going to stop lending money to creditworthy businesses. the only businesses who will not get loans now are one’s that should not.

[Revel]

Should have read “Freddie and Fannie”.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks! A lot of people on here don’t seem to have a clue about what is happening in the financial markets and what the consequences would be. I am not willing to take that risk — too many people are saying this is necessary as credit is already been cut off and some of them I totally respect.

Easy to come on a board and demand everything be black and white but that is not life and that definitely is not the financial markets. Time to do ‘what happened? and who is responsible’ after the bailout and the markets are back on an even keel. This isn’t just the US but markets around the world we are talking about. We cannot allow these large banks to fail. We do need to investigate who caused it and I got the feeling from the President’s speech that very thing will happen especially when he said this has been building for over ten years — hear that Dems?

[StolarStorm]

Exactly.

I hate bailouts.

However the situation is so bad that we can't stand on ideals. We have to get this package passed and THEN we start arresting CEOs, and start to fix the inherent problems that led to this.

Being ideological is grand if you are completely independent of the financial system of this country... AND ... you don't give a damn about anyone but yourself.

So for you naysayers, suck an egg. You obviously either don't realize the seriousness of the current crisis and/or you don't give a flip (SOCIOPATHS) about anyone that doesn't have a huge stash of cash available to survive the coming disaster.

[RKBA Democrat]

“That’s just pure hate. You offer nothing but hate speech. Stop hating the president. He is a god among men!”

Huh? Since when is levelling criticism at socialism considered hate speech? On a conservative website no less.