DON'T PANIC. PERIOD

I have been getting some emails from friends who are chewing nails and spitting them out.

There is no financial crisis the way they want you to understand it. Let me explain, yes, it all trickles down, but they don't want you to know who is responsible and what they will do with your money.

A bail out could be negotiated immediately but people who don't want regulations are going on holiday.

*edit* Someone did not understand this. Today is the eve of the Jewish New Year, Jewish members have gone home and others who are not Jewish have left .... "just because", I don't understand, unless they did not want to be there to sort this through...

It must be a huge crisis when those who are supposedly representing your best interest refuse to accept anything and go on holiday. *Sorry, about this, I got a moment of sarcasm*

I will be adding a ton of info to this post today. I'll give you links with reputable and logical information. You don't have to take my word for it. You can listen (or read) about all of this.

It will be done tonight, because my priority right now is to finish cooking and feed the family.

DON'T PANIC. When we do, we do stupid things, like invading a country because they had weapons of mass destruction, now we are being assaulted with instruments of financial destruction.

I'll be back.

PEACE

************************************

6:30 pm.

I have eaten. Kids homework is almost done and Heroes is on tonight. What could be better?. Well, sticking my head in the sand and pretending that nothing else is happening comes to mind.

We have economic woes... yes, we do. We have people in charge who just realized they were working for people who know how to use the phone and that their numbers are public knowledge.

If you think this week has been stressful for you on the financial aspect of life, you have not realized what a headache and shock to the system you have caused your representatives.

Again, Thank you for calling. Keep calling. Don't stop.

Why?

Because there will be a bill, it will rescue the financial institutions, Wall Street and people you have never heard of and are multi-billionaires.

What you want to make sure is that the bill has another name: YOURS. Yes, you. The middle class taxpayer.

Stop expecting them to keep YOU in mind because you elected them. WAKE UP! you have to be on their radar for that to happen and it has been happening via burning the phone lines.

Peter DeFazio Congressional Distric Number 4 of Oregon gave a short interview on the radio this morning and stated that the reason this plan went unsigned is because there were no provisions in this bill that would protect the tax payers, the people in charge of resolving this financial fiasco are the same people who created it and finally, the 700 billion is just the beginning with a provision to add another 1 billion dollar at the President's discretion.

He also stated that there were no independent assessments made of what exactly they would be purchasing with these funds and what the actual value is/was/could be.

When someone is asking for a potential 1.7 billion dollars, they should be able to come up with a piece of paper showing what we are buying.

Stating that Nancy polosi gave a speech they did not like and that is why they are picking up the ball and going home is utter nonsense.

The millions of phone calls recieved from constituents is what drove this to a screeching halt.... for now.

Congresswoman Linda Sanches from California found it to have "insufficient accountability and CEO compensation lacked teeth".

In response to unemployment and 401K's losses she responded: "Our market has not crashed and we still have the opportunity to pass a much better bill, one that takes accountability and oversight". " We had a big drop after 9/11 it has not caused a complete collapse of this market".

The biggest problem with this bail out is that people are balking at the insensitivity of those asking for the money and refusing to include anything in it for the homeowners. You can read about this in the L.A. Times http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-scrub29-2008sep29,0,1188714.story.

What other problems are there with this bill?

Avoiding the mistake of absolute power to one individual without oversight or having to explain anything on how the funds are used, who gets what or even having to report what he is doing with it.

I warned about this before, W. Bush assigned ONE guy to distribute millions upon millions to the family's of the victims of 9/11 without oversight or having to justify how he arrived to the magical numbers he assigned to each one. (another story for another day, but one to keep in mind)

You need to know who Paulson is. It is paramount that you understand his motivations, what he has done and, if we let him, what he will do.

Read more about it, right in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bill.html?_r=2&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The stock market is going to recover. Today's losses can be recovered in 2 days. The ones panicking are the ones who are psychologically damaged by the lack of faith in the economy and they are frustrated that the blame is being passed on to them because they have lived on credit.

Now, they are saying that they need to pay for Wall Street greed. Retirees are very concerned, they see their income levels dropping. Baby boomers are cringing, what if they can't retire for another 20 more years?

What if?

What if?

What if we insist on getting a complete financial breakdown of where the problems really lie?
What if we insist that the heads of the financial institutions and those below them who live large submit their personal financial records and REFUND their golden parachutes first?

What if we ask the financial isntutions to negotiate a flat 5% rate with homeowners in foreclosure. The homeowners get to stay home and pay their property taxes and the banks still make money (5%). (Not one of the people involved has fought for this).

What if we get the facts? Like Washington Mutual collapsed because customers pulled their money creating a run on the bank. It had nothing to do with Wall Street.

What if we got the whole picture before we committed ourselves to unspecified amounts that could keep growing for years on end?

What if we just took two steps back, took a deep breath and demanded a complete breakdown of the facts?

Lord! what if they got it right? instead of shooting first and asking questions later, they put together a better plan?

Even Paulson, the architect of these financial instruments balks at the idea of explaining the situation. He just wants the money and he will.... what? he won't tell you, the bill does not require him to tell you.

Here is the bill (all 110 pages of it). I can't comment on it fully because I have not read it in its entirety, but you are more than welcome to do so and we can discuss the merits or deficiencies.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/bailoutbill20080928.pdf

Are you outraged? You have every right to be because they don't have your best interest in mind, we are reacting and reacting in bulk.

Specially since the issues have trickled down to the rest of us. They have frozen lending. Credit lines. Layoffs are happening. People are scared.

It is going to backfire because fear has now turned to outrage and you, my neighbors, my friends are demaning JUSTICE, FAIRNESS & ACCOUNTABILITY.

The FBI is in full gear investigating fraud and Washington insiders are sweating bullets. By the way, remember what I said before about following the money and confiscating assets and offshore accounts? The IRS can't be far behind if fraud is involved.

I understand your fear. I also know that panicking is going to get us swindled even more.

Ben Stein ( a man I don't personally like) is on CNN making the following statements:

"What if we give the homeowners all this money and they pay off the mortgages
they owe, the banks would be just fine after that" "What if we try to revive the
economy from the ground up instead of top down?" and finally "Paulson should not
be elected Czar of the economy, we need something backed up by the Constitution
and not Paulson and George Bush".......

WOW! WoW! and wOw!.....

(for those of you who don't know who Ben Stein is he is the guy in the Visine commercials and radio voice. He is also an economist and you can go to his website if you wish to learn more about his views http://www.benstein.com/stein2.html on everything. )

He is a very smart man. He has lots of common sense and most of the time, I have never liked him in his political views. But today? today he got me to look at him in a different, more flattering way.

SHUT UP! I AM WORRIED ! ... WHAT ABOUT MY MONEY? WHAT CAN I DO NOW?

Is your money in insured accounts? are you aware of your limits per account? Can you move money to secured accounts if they are in unsecured ones? These are things that you can do on your own to secure the money you now have.

Stop charging every little thing. Make it a rule that if you don't have the cash to pay for it, you can and need to do without. Period.

Obviously, I am talking about luxuries. None of us are "entitled" to a brand new car, LCD T.V., or a vacation in Cancun (even though, we probably deserve and need the last one).

Sit down with your spouse and take a look at all your expenses, big and small and see where the money is going. (I know I am preaching to the choir if you are a spousal caregiver, but others reading this are not in that boat, so bear with me, please)

In other words, CONTROL what you can and regulate your spending habits, no one else can do that for any of us, or be as successful.

I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

Well, I don't have a crystal ball, but I do know that they did not get us into this mess in 72 hours and we won't be out of it in less than a day either.

Please bear in mind that Congress was hit with this out of the blue, thrown an astronomical number on their face and told "pay up now, it is urgent!". They have not had enough time to think things through in a way that will provide maximum security to the tax payers and this is what has created this flurry of demanding information and expecting "someone" to fix it.

We just have to be patient and keep calling them until they come up with a solution that will be equitable to all. Tell them what YOU want. Tell them HOW it would be acceptable to YOU.

Amazingly enough.... they are listening to YOU. (Wow!)

Democrat, Republican, Independent, Whatever... it does not matter does it? We are all in this pickle together.

Let's keep together and keep it together, seriously, together we can move mountains.

I respect and welcome your comments.

PEACE

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