Why I do not support the US USD 700 billion bailout plan.

Why I do not support the US USD 700 billion bailout plan.
I support that the government rescues the ailing economy by injecting money into it.
I sympathize with the Americans that they are in risk of losing their jobs and need a jab in the economy.
I am fine with the amount being USD700 billion, the nation probably needs that.
Why I do not support is, where this USD 700 billion is being put into!
It is to buy toxic assets which are in the balance sheets of wall street companies. Basically transferring toxic assets from these companies to the US govt, which is in turn and we already know, funded by tax payers.
The greed that had caused these wall street companies to buy these assets have caused them to end up in this state. Many of the employees of these companies have for the past years benefitted from fat bonuses and salaries. Why as tax payers do they have to ensure that these people continue (albeit lower pay packages) at the expense of still ailing citizens still recovering from inflation, hurricanes and losing investments?

Yes the economy has to have a fiscal injection of money from the government. But not to buy toxic assets from these fallen-from-grace companies. These companies as severe to say, have to face a year of losses. But these 700b has to be spent properly, in education, in medical welfare, in ensuring the old’s retirement benefits, in the providence of the not so well to do, in recovery from people impacted by natural disasters, in the continuing fight against terrorism. Not in saving companies who have avert these losses on to themselves, leveraging to get better losses, basically greed when the upturn was on, borrowing to get more profits which resulted in the state they are in today when it turned out that money has to come from a solid root cause, not some nice sweet AAA wrapper around dung that people thought cost $$$.
These companies have to face the consequences of hindsight blinded by greed.

700b is a mighty lot of money. Dividing it to all Singaporeans assuming 4 million population, each one of us, baby, elderly, adult will get what? 180,000 sing dollars.
Ok, the above is just an illustration of how much 700b is. But the point is, the economy can still be saved by the govt’s injection of money as illustrated above, where more job opportunities will be created, and more importantly, tax payers, people, children getting assisted directly through this fiscal spending. And this will helping the ailing economy in the indirect, natural free market way albeit taking a longer time as compared to spending directly to in-the-red companies, tax payers not benefitted, top executives who made wrong decision to go scot-free without the punishment in economic sense, and the govt. left as a toxic dump. Not much better than a landfill waste.
US Fed Reserve Chairman Ben mentioned that as markets recover, tax payers might even benefit from profits in the toxic assets. Key word is might.
First Point. No guarantee that markets will recover
Second Point. No guarantee that toxic assets will profit. In fact, extremely low probability.
It is really bad to make such a probability based statement using words like ‘likely’,’might’ in front of congress, in front of the world and considering the seriousness of the issue. One has to at this point be extremely definite about it and certain.

Hence I disagree with this bailout plan on two fronts.
700 b not spent on the proper avenues, and the people who made the mistakes have to face the consequence. Well facing the consequence is not like being placed in jail or something, but you might be sacked, retrenched, yes, but it allows you the time to reflect on things. Reflect on what he/she have been doing for the past few years, betting on complicated derived hollow business models to make money. Money in the end state, has to come from a solid base. And upon reflection, stand up, understand something not based on fundamentals will one day come crashing down.

Now spend the 700b yes! But on more the people! For the people! Not for greedy companies!

Goodbye Investment Banks.

Goodbye Investment Banks.

You certainly made the world go round when you were around for these 20 odd years. Simple stocks were not enough. You had to wrap some weird filthy stuff up in nice little wrappers, stamp an AAA on them, give them complicated names, and shared them with the world.

Once upon a time when jobs from you were most coveted, people just couldn’t fathom the amount of money that you generated. It was incredibly crazy and unimagineable just how you earned at a rate more than the minting machine could make.

Now, back to the good old days of using deposited money instead of some weird source of borrowed money. Goodbye Investment Banks.

Ha ha..just a funny ‘poem’ about our dear wall street financial institutions and the dire state they are in now. Sometimes, we really have to get a real job instead of ‘deriving’ from real jobs. Punt intended.

Sorry if the above post may seem weird, its really suppose to, like the way these guys have functioned for the last few years. ;p

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Oh ya, recorded some sermon summaries from Rev Tong's gospel rally and prayer meeting sermons. Hopefully will persist in adding these precious, precious, precious messages as we go along.