what do u want in the stimulus bill?

[Guest zachary]

besides subsidies for porn.

me, no requirements to buy usa, tariffs were devastating in 1931, and i think requirements to buy usa will start a trade war, and make the situation worse.

2, roll up the bad mortgages, offer to guarantee the payment for a year or 2 years, if cut principal to fmv; alternatively, have the gov buy the mortgages at reduced price, reduce principal to fmv, at low interest we have, and set for 20-30 years. it worked in the depression, and when they closed out the agency in 54 or 55, it had a small profit. but to me, u have to deal with the mortgages first, until u get a floor in real estate, it's not going to end.

3, u have to save the financial structure, they've sorta done this, but not yet. the whole thing almost came down in my opinion; deal with the toxic debt, however, makes the banks take write-downs, consolidate and go on. it's a house of cards, the banks are insolvent, and no one wants to capitalize anything until we know where and what the value is.

[BigK]

Aggressively handling the Mortgage problem would go a long way in stimulating the economy. The current discussion is the government offering 4 % mortgage refinancing. They say this would lower the average payment $4-500 per month. That would be ongoing stimulus month after month. I'm also in favor of reducing principal when fair market value has plunged.

The most recent example was the Resolution Trust Corporation Bush the First created to absorb the troubled assets of the Savings & Loans in the 1980's. I can't remember what the final report card said, but I'm pretty sure it was positive and not a huge failure. It cleaned up our related economic problems much faster then Japan where they did not take decisive action.

[BiBottomBoy]

Larry Flynt has said that the porn industry needs subsidies to compete against Japanese imports.

[TownsendPLocke]

What I am seeing proposed by many is simply extending the bad practices and policies that have landed us here in the first place.

Propping up bad/stupid/greedy banks will do nothing to help get the USA back to work.

Giving handouts to companies that will continue to outsource work to China/India will provide a few low paying service jobs in this country-while the bulk of the profits benefit the principles and the jobbers in other lands.

Helping folks out who made stupid financial decisions(pretty much of their own making)by asuming debt they really cannot afford will do nothing but extend this miserey.

Infrastructure,education and manufacturing jobs and job training are what have worked in the past.Holding banks accountable for their actions has worked in the past.Putting greed under a spotlight and calling it by its name has worked in the past.

Creating new false hope and bubbles will do nothing but drag us down further.

America needs to get back to work.America needs to get real.

[TownsendPLocke]

And buying Zachary a Cap's/ Shift key at a local b&m electronics store would help the economy also

[BiBottomBoy]

Capital letters are for the weak.

[caeron]

I tend to agree with you about the protectionism. We could do the global economy a lot of sustained damage by starting down that road.

I think cleaning up the bad debt is the key to this problem. I don't mind real infrastructure spending either, since I think we've neglected a lot over the years, but much of the rest just strikes me as pork which drives me nuts.

[BiBottomBoy]

Didn't Obama put something in the new package that would limit protectionism?

[caeron]

I don't think he wants any protectionism, but some congress critters are trying to stuff things in there that require "buy american". While there's a noble sentiment there, it's the first step down a extremely slippery slope.