Common sense

We are Quickly Running Out of Other Cheeks to Turn!

According to an AP article titled “Foreclosure rate steadies as banks hold back”, written by Alan Zibel, and published June 10, 2010, “323,000 households or nearly 1 in every 400 homes, received a foreclosure notice in May”. That same article states, “The number of homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure hit a record of nearly 94,000 in May”. As the title of the article implies, the banks are dragging their feet in assisting struggling homeowners[1].

While the initial estimate of how much the bank bailout would cost was approx. $700,000,000,000. There has been discussion within the government that the actual cost may be closer to $3,000,000,000,000 (that is Trillion with a capital T folks) before all is said and done. The details are as follows: $700 Billion for the initial shoring-up, another $300 Billion for additional shoring-up of late-coming bank-failures, $500 Billion to $1 Trillion for toxic loans, and $1 Trillion to kick-start the credit markets. There is no guarantee that all of this will have to be spent . . . there is also no guarantee that if spent, this is where it would stop!

Let me see if I understand this correctly: The banks foreclosed on 94,000 homes in May and sent notices to an additional 323,000 households that they intend to foreclose... but they expect these same families to contribute a percentage of their taxes, probably for the rest of their lives, to bail them out of bad investment decisions they made. Hm-m-m-m... am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?

As if that were not bad enough, these same banks that were failing because of bad investment decisions (that are now called toxic loans) turned around and gave the same executives who made those bad decisions tens of millions in bonuses! For what? For doing such a great job? So, the President and Congress decide to reward these banks and their executives and then pay for those clearly undeserved rewards via your tax dollar. Oh, and as you are completing your tax return, don’t let the fellow from the bank who is putting the foreclosure sign on your front lawn disturb you.

Link:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june132010/crazy-politics-bc.php