Whether or not there's any truth to the notion that things will fall apart without a bailout, if they keep saying it, it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.  People will start to panic and will start to do crazy things to make the whole situation worse, like running to their banks and withdrawing all of their money.  Then things can get very ugly very soon. 

Certain banks are upside down, having gambled and lost in the sub-prime markets.  Others are sound and able to carry on business as usual.  A good, solid recession will weed out all non-hackers.  The Fed and the govt. have been doing everything imaginable to forestall a recession, but are fast running out of options.  So we'll go through it, and it will probably be bad for just about everyone, but at the other end, we'll emerge stronger and healthier on the whole.

It's kind of like being sick to your stomach.  I hate to throw up and will do everything I can to avoid it, but I have to admit that when I'm done, I always feel a lot better.  It's time for the country to bow to the porceline throne and clean out the system.

And without us picking up a $700B bar tab on behalf of the guys who got us all into this mess to begin with.

You may have a good point there.  It's just the unpredictability of it all that is going to make most people, including me, nervous.  We don't know just how bad it's going to get. 

JeffHarbin~ that makes sense! I think we all should stay calm,we are in for a bumpy ride but I have faith in America and in the people.

 $700B bar tab

The best description ever.

There is a scene in the movie, The Sum of All Fears, when Ben Affleck asks the Russian President to just stand down, instead of starting a nucelar war.  He suggests it is just a bunch of bad information that is causing both sides to make knee jerk decisions. 

I am wondering if we just "stood" down for a week.  Let the hype die a bit if things might not just become normal.  Of course, the media won't let us do that.  But just a thought. 

Right Btown.  Why does a decision have to be made right this moment.  Why not sit on ithe 7 billion bailout for a month and let the market try to correct itself. 

I think there are a lot smarter guys on Wall Street then in Congress.  But that is just my opnion. 

Even the "smart" guys on Wall Street don't know how to fix this mess. They can only surmise and hope for the best.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. 

Humpty should've had a golden parachute.

Yes, one lined with real gold.  Gold is the only thing that's worth anything right now. 

How's it taste without salt, BLT? 

Well needless to say that credit lines aren't frozen yet, but we are definitely in for a long cold winter.  For a student who depends of student loans to pay tuition, it makes me a little uneasy to know that my school days may be over if the banks close their doors to us little guys in the mix. 

Just a reminder. Once you hit bottom, there is nowhere to go except up.   The Russian Federation hit bottom in 1998. Since then, they have averaged 7% annual growth. Of course, they have a lot more natural resources left (the Commies were really crappy at developing oil reserves for some reason).   On the other hand, if it wasn't for us, there wouldn't be personal computers, the internet, or blogs. 

We haven't hit bottom. We aren't even close.  But we're tough. Tougher than we think.  In 30 years (I'll probably be dead by then) all this will be just another bad memory. Just remember, the future will not only be different from what we think it will be, it will be different from what we can possibly imagine it will be.

Enough philosophy. Time for some VSOP brandy.

Just a reminder. Once you hit bottom, there is nowhere to go except up. 

Not to worry.  Republican politicians have shovels.

To speak to Gretchen's question, I got a car loan yesterday through General Motor's financing arm. Signed the papers in the evening well after the "credit freeze" was rumored to have hit.

I don't think people are going to stop lending money to folks with good credit scores and a solid down payment.

Great example, jburger.

Congratulations on the new car.

— Christine Peterson

Nothing changes the the American mentality, buy on credit...credit...loan...credit.... I deal only in cash, I have no worries at all... oh my....

A lot of this so-called "crisis" is a lot of hype. The stock market is not the economy. Unfortunately, most journalists have little or no training in this area and so focus on only one facet of the economy. Much of this is the result of the housing bubble popping, which wiped about $5 trillion in "wealth" off the books. It never existed in the first place. The problem for lenders was that they loaned out $500,000 on a house that is now half that. Somebody has to take the loss. That's Econ 101. But this administration is well-versed in the "con" of economics...along with the "con" in conservative.

We can not survive without credit...oh my..if you can not afford it...do not buy it...simple economics....

They screwed up and already *GAVE* me credit.  Bwahahahaaaa!

I'm not looking at the moment for any more debt. But I am very curious that if this is the worst thing since the Great Depression. Why is our Congress taking time off for a Jewish Holiday? I thought this was AMERICA I don't seem to get that holiday off. And if we are going to throw blame at this administration we best look deeper into the Community Reinvestment Act. Lets look deeper into Congress and outfits like ACORN. This started with mortgages being offered without having to prove you even had income or being credit worthy. It started way lower then Wall Street. They just gobbled up these securities thinking of a quick profit and it backfired when peoples interest rate went up or they took huge loans out on houses that are not worth what they owe so they just dumped them.

Rwestfall.. You are on the right track but that is what you have been hearing in the media...you gotta dig deeper and do not believe anything the commercial media or a government official tells you... dig and investigate and think for yourself or you will become a USA Sheeple... your choice...

I've dug deeper and I've read the community reinvestment act and I've read about ACORN. I don't believe the media has talked much about the community reinvestment act or much about ACORN. I have my own views and they have nothing to do with the media. And for democrats to blame this all on the bush administration is crazy. This train wreck was headed for disaster before he took office.  

I believe that this credit crises could have been avoided by a simple change in our income tax laws. By enacting what I call "THE ZERO INFLATION TAXATION POLICY" our economy would become more efficient, create more real wealth, and strenghten the American dollar in the world markets.I wrote a book about this policy in the 1980s. I ran for public office in 1992. I perdicted the currant problems would occur then because nothing has changed in the last 25 years that would correct INFLATION PSYCHOLOGY. Just because the government has changed the way it figures  the comsumer price index, by taking out housing and energy cost, dose not mean that we havn't had high inflation in our economy.