Money Beat
From Your Wallet to Wall Street: The Money News That Matters to You From the ABC News Business Team
RECENT POSTS
- The Year in Business: 2008
- Median Home Price Drops to $181,300
- Michigan Tops Unemployment Rolls
- Chrysler to Temporarily Shut Down Plants
- Did the SEC Miss the Obvious When It Came to Madoff?
- Madoff's $50 Billion Swindle Yields Victims Around the World
- Bankruptcy Options for General Motors and Chrysler
- Automakers: All for One and One for Parts?
- Uncle Sam's Credit Card Rate? Zero Percent
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
« Previous | Main | Next »
Bush Tries to Sell $700 Billion Bailout
September 24, 2008 6:16 PM
ABC News' Charles Herman brings you this pop quiz: Who’s the most powerful man according to Wall Street?
President Bush? He will address the nation directly this evening to try to convince Main Street that his $700 billion bailout plan is not just for Wall Street. In his 32nd prime-time address, he will, according to aides, make clear to the American people that the cost of not acting is greater than acting. Will his speech get taxpayers to support the plan?
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson? After conducting shuttle diplomacy between the House and Senate, Paulson took time to answer questions from the House Financial Committee. Skeptical lawmakers still have questions about excessive pay, homeowners facing foreclosure, oversight and what exactly taxpayers will get from the bailout. Can Paulson make the case and save Wall Street before Wall Street sends another company into the abyss (Hello Washington Mutual!).
Congress? A lot of angry, doubful, and frustrated members of Congress aren’t sure they like being rushed into approving a $700 billion bailout plan when so many of their constituents are saying, Just Vote No. Can Congress agree to bailout plan and get it to the president’s desk before Wall Street can’t wait any longer?
The presidential candidates? McCain wants to postpone Friday’s debate and go to Washington to help resolve the vote on the bailout. Obama thinks the debate should go on saying it's important “now more than ever.” How will their votes impact whether or not the bailout plan is approved?
Warren Buffett? With a $5 billion investment in commercial bank Goldman Sachs, billionaire Buffett’s big cash infusion was a just the reassuring sign the nervous market needed. If the Oracle of Omaha, a world class investor, thinks its time to get into financial stocks, maybe everyone else should too?
So while investors tried to figure out who has the answers and wondered if and when Congress will approve a bailout plan, the Dow closed down just slightly on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones closed down 29 points to close at 10,825.17 (down 0.27%). The Nasdaq ended the day up 2.35 points to close at 2,155.68 (up 0.11%). And the S&P closed down 2.35 (0.20%)
September 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/433071/33810082
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Bush Tries to Sell $700 Billion Bailout:
The last time Bush got up and stated there was a crisis we went to war and took over a country that had nothing to do with attacking us. Now that Bush, Paulsen, and Bernanke have driven us into this crisis, here we go again. This bailout is going to send us into a depression-- not a recession. If you ask anyone who knows me they will tell you I predicted this in 2000. And now I can tell you this bailout is the wrong thing to do. We can't take another four years of stupidity. I hope Congress puts a stop to this bailout. BTW, just heard Ben Stein say the same thing.
Posted by: John | Sep 24, 2008 10:32:31 PM
These people are using fear to get free money for their cronies. Fact is we need a serious recession after decades of inflationary monetary policy. Just make Ron Paul president so we won't have any more stupid wars and financial stupidity.
Posted by: Ben Straub | Sep 25, 2008 12:47:33 AM
It would be absolutely insane to put Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke in charge of the $700 billion bailout money. Talk about putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. That would be throwing away the $700 billion of our tax money to a group of incompetents and crooks.
Posted by: US Citizen | Sep 25, 2008 4:13:03 PM
According to the Tax Foundation, 135,660,228 tax returns were filed in 2006. So, if we pay $1 million to each person who filed a return, that's just under $136 million total…. a mere fraction of $700 billion. Make the payments by electronic transfer, which saves trees and helps banks. Taxpayers could then use their $1 million to pay off their mortgages, buy health insurance, send their kids to college without loans, and still have money to go shopping. Some might even add to their 401Ks or make even riskier investments on Wall Street. How's that for a plan that helps American citizens while greasing the wheels of our economy?
Crazy? Maybe. But not nearly as crazy as the "plan" to bail out Wall Street being debated on Capitol Hill.
Posted by: ordinary taxpayer | Sep 26, 2008 11:49:09 AM
Shoot, make it $2 million and we can start up some new small businesses, travel abroad and help other economies with our tourist dollars, AND we can donate to charities! $2 million X 136 million is still only a mere fraction of $700 billion!
Posted by: ordinary taxpayer | Sep 26, 2008 11:59:31 AM
I hope you didn't do your own taxes with those math skills.
Posted by: Gary Fitzsimmons | Sep 27, 2008 11:11:03 PM
Post a comment
