Paulson's Plan To Waste 700 Billlon
Posted 12:49 PM

Now that Citigroup is nearing bankruptcy, what does Paulson have to say? The Bush administration has done nothing but spend, spend, spend to the point where nearly all of America's large institutions are just going to disappear.

Paulson's plan clearly was bunk, it was just a way of shoving money into CEO's pockets. And now that we are nearly bankrupt, poor Obama's job is to "New Deal" our way out of the crisis. His plan to build up America's infrastructure with government jobs will work... but the problem is there's no money left to finance it. The 700 billion Bush wasted on failing to help our banking would have been perfectly spent on just the kind of infrastructure and long term investment in American jobs and eduction
that Obama is proposing today.

I'll lay 5 to 1 odds that Paulson blows the whole 700 billion by Jan 19th, just before Obama takes office.
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These Bailouts Make Me Sick
Posted 8:03 AM

The aren't helping at all, the market has tanked despite hundreds of billions spent, and, honestly, we need these companies to *go out of business* and new companies, that don't mismanage, to take their place.

If the government had *bought houses* from people with bad mortgages, and then *rented* them back to them at rates they could afford, we would see a) an immediate improvement in mortgage-backed securities markets and b) people getting to stay in their houses and c) the government would own real estate assets - which would appreciate eventually and could then be sold at break even say over the next 20 years.

Some quick math. Average home price of depreciated and foreclosed assets: $110000. TARP: 700 billion. Total number of homes that could be purchased: 6 million. Total number of bad-asset homes 4 million.

In other words, the government could buy *all* the mortgages ... for less than the TARP total, and still have money left over.

Instead, Paulson (who should be fired), bought *stock* in banks. Who used the money to pay for CEO's yachts (7.4 billion approx in additional distressed firm bonuses paid due to government intervention).

These are the *same* banks who couldn't be trusted.... and he trusted them. He's an idiot and should be sacked.
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RDU Ripped Off by GC
Posted 7:58 AM

When general contractors cut corners, it's sometimes seen as "business as usual". But when a GC that's built an airport terminal violated fire codes (foam filler in firewalls?), mislabeled circuits, and exhibited such poor workmanship it could actually jeopardize the safety of travelers, then it's not just a typical incident.

The Raleigh-Durham "Terminal 2" recently opened, and, according to an anonymous source, was initially unable to communicate with some small aircraft on the runway. This problem was quickly resolved by jury-rigging communications equipment. This was just one incident of many where "quick-fixes" have had to be used to get reliable power and communications running at the terminal.

It's expected that airport officials may be filing suit against the GC on workmanship concerns,but that by the time this suit is resolved, the terminal will have been in operation - running in sub-standard conditions and failing many fire and electrical codes - for years.
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