So in a nut shell, the banks blame John Q. Public for the collapse...

[greblc]

so they feel justified asking the U.S. taxpayer for 700 Billion Dollars ? I work in an office complex full of investment bankers. There is a disconnect between them and us. They seem to have an air of entitlement. Does anyone else get the sense that we the middle & lower class taxpayer are being punished for the mortgage crisis ? Is this bail out a tax on the have nots?

[Swamp Rat]

1. Yes... now, 'assume the position'.

[Flying Dream Blues]

4. Welcome back, Swamp Rat...you've been missed! nt

[Subdivisions]

5. HOLY CRAP!!! Do you know how worried some of us were about you?

There musta been 20 threads from folks looking for you.

Glad you're back! Great pic!

[City Lights]

7. Welcome back, Swamp Rat!

:hi: You've been missed! Great to see you! :hug:

[DearAbby]

11. Welcome home sweetie

[JuniperLea]

2. Yes, we are bad people for taking out all those loans...

I guess we didn't just sign their documents, but held a gun to their heads for the money.

[avaistheone1]

3. This is more than the mortgage crisis. This about all kinds of betting and hedging these banks and

securities firms were making.

I say let them lie in their own graves. We may as well build a new system without these vipers.

[sandnsea]

9. We need a name for it

I'm sick of working people being blamed for this. They could easily reset all the mortgages to the teaser rate, if that's all the problem were. It's the mortgage bundling and reselling, trading and hedging and all that other stuff that caused the collapse.

[tama]

10. Consumers

US "economy" is all about consumption (with debt). When the dotcom bubble bursted and US economy was sliding into (relatively mild) depression, the current version of (pseudo)Keynesians bloated up the real estate bubble to keep up the consumption - of course making the payback even worse.

Yup, we could name this The Final Bursting of the Consumer Bubble...

[sandnsea]

13. It's the Shareholder Bubble

Consumers had absolutely nothing to do with this.

[tama]

14. Funny boy

"Consumers had absolutely nothing to do with this."

It's all about manufacturing the mass of homo consumericus raping mother Earth...

[Abugface]

6. Any interference with ...

the Corporate States of America and it's corporate welfare state is tantamount to treason.

[katty]

8. John Q Public pays 700bn and the Gov takes $ for privatization

-no $ left for SS, for Medicare, etal - so we have to privatize because John Q. Public is SO BROKE NOW AFTER BAILING THE CROOKS OUT.

[killbotfactory]

12. They are the ones who had the money to lend in the first place

It's not like they don't check people's financial situation and assess risks when they loan out money.