I sent a letter to my Representative, but I am inclined to believe he’ll vote for it anyway.
Since they’re voting on it tomorrow that gives time to write our reps again. I’m going to stress the real reason that credit is “frozen” and that the ban on short selling only adds to the market instability and should be lifted immediately. At least I will if this old codger’s web server can let up for a moment to allow me to get through.
Here are the few who voted no last night…
Allard ®
Barasso ®
Brownback ®
Bunning ®
Cantwell (D)
Cochran ®
Crapo ®
DeMint ®
Dole ®
Dorgan (D)
Enzi ®
Feingold (D)
Inhofe ®
Johnson (D)
Landrieu (D)
Nelson (FL) (D)
Roberts ®
Sanders (I)
Sessions ®
Shelby ®
Stabenow (D)
Tester (D)
Vitter ®
Wicker ®
Wyden (D)
We can still hope the House doesn’t pass it, but with all the pork they added to make both Dems and Reps happy, I’m not optimistic.
I apologize if it seems like I post way too much all at once, but for some reason this thread doesn’t allow me to edit old replies to add new content.
Anyways, I found an extremely helpful, easy to read article that helped explain some things to me. I was having a hard time understanding the Feds Discount Window and Term Auction Facility but reading this cleared it up.
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index.php?a=15185
The Discount window is really the Payday Loan shop for banks, although the lending terms are far more attractive than Payday Loan terms. The problem is, who wants their neighbors to see them standing in line at the Payday Loan shack?
So how does this relate to today’s Global Coordinated Liquidity Injection? Simple, the Fed has moved the Discount window terms behind a fire wall of sorts so that banks can obtain similar amounts of money, under similar Discount window terms, using identical Discount window collateral, but under conditions of anonymity.
In relation to my earlier post that points to more explanations why banks are hesitant to lend to each other. I’m by no means well read on the financial system so if anyone thinks otherwise please say so, but from the recent reading I’ve been doing this is one conclusion I’ve come to.
I don’t have a good feeling about all of this.
The only thing keeping this bill from easily being rammed through is a constant flow of dissent from constituents. With businesses starting to feel the pinch of tightening credit to customers and suppliers and the slew of lobbyist favors tacked on to the Senate version of the bill, the community of business lobbyists are making an extremely hard push before the House vote (most likely tomorrow), actually focusing their efforts on 80 representatives they believe could agree to change their votes.
See this Politico article for more details.
The pro-bailout faction is collectively marshalling their efforts to cram this thing through. If you don’t want to see the wholesale nationalization of the financial industry, then continue to contact your representatives and fight back.
Edit: Fixed a typo.
In Newspeak fashion, it is now being referred to as a “rescue.”
We’re screwed, unless the pressure is kept on the House members to keep them in fear for thier jobs. Maybe if we tarred and feathered a couple? 
I’ll bring the feathers!
Everyone call your Representative. Don’t bother with letters or emails. All they care about are phone calls. Enter your 9-digit ZIP code into http://votesmart.org to find your Representatives. You can lookup your 9-digit ZIP code here: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/
Robert Tracisnki has a good, layman-friendly piece on the bailout on Real Clear Politics. Link to:
Maybe the opposition to the bill will pay off. My representative posted on his site that he got calls all day today from people complaining about the the pork added to the bailout, and it sounds like he’s taking it very seriously. (He’s also up for reelection)
We’ll see…
Here is the message I sent to some of the reps in my state (the ones who’s site wasn’t frozen from overload).
Dear Representative X,
I’m thankful for your decision to vote against the initial Bailout bill. I am writing to express my continued opposition to ANY form of bailout bill, that will take money from those of us who made sound financial decisions to pay for those who didn’t, Wall Street or otherwise. The idea is so completely unjust, un-American, and illogical I can hardly comprehend how it has come so far.
It seems there is one issue that is disarming honest politicians and citizens alike who simply don’t know better. The idea that the situation is so urgent to get credit unfrozen something has to be done, even if it’s not fair to everyone. This idea Bush and Paulson are trying to cram down our throats is simply confused and wrong. There are two reasons credit and inter bank lending has slowed: The first is the mere possibility at all that the government may pay more for junk mortgages is making everyone hold out until the decision is made. The second is that recently the Fed made it so getting money from the Fed is anonymous. This removes valuable info from the market, now banks do not know who’s money has real capitol behind it and who is borrowing paper from the Fed.
A superior solution to all of these problems would be to simply remove the temptation of the bailout bill, and let the badly run banks go bankrupt. That way capitol will begin to reallocate to the well run companies, and justice is served because innocent taxpayers are not footing the bill. In addition the Fed should once again make it known who’s borrowing from the Discount Window, as well as lift the ban on short selling.
It’s probably much too long, but oh well. I think solid reasons are necessary. I’m having a really hard time with their contact forms and they mostly don’t even load. I’ll probably do as suggested and call some.
…or look your representative up in the phone book. (Lo-tech, I know). I called mine’s local office and found out he is still a NO vote.
I just wrote off a letter to my Representative, though it’s looking more and more as if the damned thing will pass in the House Thursday. Basically, there was enough special interest spending and tax cuts to sway a lot of Representatives who originally voted no for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. I can’t find any economists or professionals in that field who are for this thing, but all it takes is some pork to sway votes. Also, evidently a lot of small business owners are supposedly for it now that some tax breaks are included; which I think makes them very short sighted.
We will find out later today, Thursday, October 3, 2008 if the House will vote to enslave the credit markets.
Just putting it out that I’m on record w/ my rep’s office that I want him to vote no on ANY bailout.
He voted no last time (Representative John P. Sarbanes (MD)) so I’m hoping he’ll keep saying no.
But we shall see.
Decision is going to come within 2 minutes. I am wathcing the markets to see how they react.
Just passed in the House.
I feel so betrayed. Terrible.
Hah, passed. CNBC host from the floor: “The Traders down here are going crazy with glee”, then it cut to an image of the floor with a bunch of people standing around trading as usual. Then they cut to Rick Santelli (free-market, Ayn Rand fan) at the CME in Chicago and ask him what he’s seeing. He says: “Well, let me first say that nobody in Chicago is cheering for this decision.”
Why does the media have such an interest in portraying the government saving the day?
Incidentally, the DOW and S&P did NOTHING. They actually have dropped since the decision. I hope we end the day negative.
Dow dropped 200 as soon as it passed, but it’s still positive for the day.
One of my professors last night responded to a student asking, “what if we just give all this money to the taxpayers to help the economy?” and the professor responded that it would calculate to about $4,000 per household if divided equally “which isn’t that much money to really help anything.” At this point I interjected with “How about turning that statement around and realizing that this bailout will COST every household $4,000 to pay for?” at which point everyone kinda shut up. lol