Jakubczyk on Common Sense

Applying faith and reason to ideas, issues and events in today's world

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The devil is in the details

The current discussions about the imperative need to "bail out the financial industry" lest things get worse has me concerned. Perhaps it is the natural skepticism that should rise to the surface anytime one wants to have you sign on to anything to quickly. Perhaps it is the concern that everyone is screaming that the sky is falling while the facts are still be determined. Perhaps it is learning that not only are we discussing bailing out Wall Street, but also the guys with credit card debt and car loans.

But I think what really concerned me was discovering who has been making a fortune at the expense of the average homeowner who has been suckered into buying properties when the honest hing would have been to say, "You can't afford it at that price."

And no offense to the McCain team but drop the idea of using a Cuomo for anything. I heard the Senator mention his name for SEC and that was not a good move. In fact if I could suggest some thoughts for the McCain team during this "crisis" as the media calls it, it would be to think first and respond later. Just because McCain has said that the economy is not his strongest suit does not mean he should react to the press or to events. Stay the course of the campaign and stick to the cause of lower taxes. Stan d up for the taxpayer. Tell Washington and The Bush Administration that saddling the taxpayer with more debt created by bad business and government decisions is not a good idea. Identify the source of the problem and isolate it. Giving Wall Street a pass from the risk factor is not smart market economics. After all this looks an awful like socialism. Now it is true that there will have to be some adjustments to oversight and review of the existing regulations. But a lot of these problems seem to have been a combination of government efforts to expand home ownership, certain companies' appetite for upfront fees and extremely high salaries, bonuses and benefits for former government officials now in the private and semi-private sector. When I read that Franklin Raines made over $50 million dollars and Jamie Gorelick over $26 million, I was in shock. something is very wrong.

And this morning when I heard that Paulson is suppose to have full and complete authority without any oversight, I thought to myself - the fix is in.

Strictly from a political posture, McCain can distance himself from Paulson and Bush by questioning the prudence and good judgment of this proposal. He can side with the people and the taxpayers by saying that the government cannot just assume all these bad loans willy-nilly. Perhaps on a case by case basis, there would be grounds to extend credit to help with the float, but until we know who is getting paid and who will be held responsible, I would be careful about signing on to something this obscure. And lets have some hearings. The democrats always want to have hearings. Lets have some congressional hearings and ask Paulson why no one saw this happening. Lets ask the FED what it was doing .Lets ask Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to explain the bonuses and salaries being paid while the Titanic was going down.

I do not pretend to have all the answers. But I do not like the ideas being bantered about.