If Wall Street (the infrastructure for providing working capital) is not functioning, the worry is that our country will free fall into a pretty hefty recession (if not worse) since businesses will have very limited access to capital. And when it comes to the free market, “worrying” spreads like the plague and often becomes a self-fulfilling process of even worse-than-reality market failure. That is, unless someone is there to help you through the hard times (again, what the government often tries to do).

Fundamentally (this will be over-simplified), if a free market is left alone (i.e., no government involvement), the bad times can sway down almost as much as the good times sway up (this is called volatility) even if the trend it generally upward over time. But our government takes it upon itself to minimize the downside via intervention / regulation / monetary policy. And it has done a remarkable job since the Great Depression.

This bill may be a bad idea, but I’m of the belief that it is one step above doing nothing at all. There may very well be better solutions, but I haven’t heard much about them (here or elsewhere).

On a superficial level, remember that more than half of U.S. citizens have an equity stake in big business (i.e., own stock). The first time the bail out was proposed, angry citizens contacted their representatives demanding opposition. They got what they wanted; it didn’t pass that first time. And how did the market react? It had its single biggest point drop in its history. The second time around, there were less complaints… Now imagine the market reaction if the government told Wall Street to shove it (rather than just announcing a delay of sorts).

Ok, this is probably way too long for a comment. But I felt like the other side of this story needed to be shared. This bill has lots of flaws, to be sure, but no bill has plenty too.

I don’t care who wins the presidential election anymore. We’ve got to get our elected representatives in congress out of there.

I was questioning your use of the word “fascist” until I read the definition. Maybe you’re right?

Nate: 99%?

Why can’t we let bad businesses fail? Doesn’t that happen all the time with small businesses? Why aren’t big ones held to the same standards?

Why do we have to bail out people who took out loans they cannot afford? What happened to living with the consequences of the decisions you make?

What happens if we let them all fail?

Any answers for me?