Surprised no one has posted this yet. It seems congress is now talking about expediting a further $800 billion in bailout funds to help ease the credit crunch. They say $600 billion of this is earmarked for the banks, and a further $200 billion is targetted towards banks to ease lending restrictions and make it easier for individuals to get loans. I am the only one who finds this last bit absolutely insane? Wasn't it originally lending money to people that shouldn't have been receiving funds that got us in this predicament in the first place? Why in gods earth would the government think that easing restrictions once again would be a good idea?

This whole bailout plan since day 1 has struck me as almost surreal. You have companies foolishly lending money to people who can't pay it back, people taking out outrageous loans to try and buy a lifestyle they can't afford, and companies that are so mismanaged it is a wonder they have stuck around as long as they have, and now because of all these groups failure of judgement we are in the current situation we. Why not let them all fall? Let the idiots who bought their overpriced homes with plans to "get rich quick" on the equity be booted to the streets. Let the auto manufacturers and the banks who seem incapable of making sound decisions collapse. Why should the tax payer have to subsidize their errant decisions? It is like someone taking their paycheck and throwing it all on the gambling tables expecting a big payoff. Only difference is, it would seem that now if you lose your wager, you can now take comfort in the government stepping in and giving you back your money and saving you from what would have been an expensive mistake. I just have to wonder, where will this end? How will we be able to continue to spending hundreds of billions after another to keep these institutions collective asses out of the fire? Are we just going to borrow indefinitely from China, or maybe we just plan on fire up the money printing machines until a Zimbabwe dollar is worth more than US currency?

quote a further $200 billion is targetted towards banks to ease lending restrictions and make it easier for individuals to get loans

Isn't this what started the mess in the first place??

No more please, we are still barfing over the first one.

Lending didn't cause it--the borrowing did.

I'm sure glad the rich are going to pay for this...whew, dodged a bullet there.