Maybe you don't know this but Obama said Paulson would be "involved" in the new administration's transition. Here's the link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13708.html

Gary, I have decided to say goodbye to your blog. When you get back to posting great things about photography, then I will come back. I guess your Anti-Christian posters will have to debate with themselves:) Anyway thank you for the great products and photography information that you use to post that has been of great help to many of us.

So Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank are rich friends of George Bush?  Wow...I learn something new everyday on garyfong.com. 

I love how Barack Obama, when asked why he didn't do a better job convincing members of his own party (the Democrats, by-the-way) to approve the bill in the House...Obama said that Pelosi only promised 120 votes and that the Republicans were supposed to deliver the majority of the votes to get the bill passed in the house...he said he doesn't carry that much influence with the Republicans.  What?  Was he listening to the question or was he listening to himself?  If the Democrats (lead by Pelosi...in the majority) would have voted along party lines with their candidate...they would have approved it before it even got to the senate. 

We can only hope that the Republican members of the house continue to vote AGAINST big government intervention (and Gary, you gotta stop saying this is a money grab for rich people...you sound disingenuous and that's not helping). 

Sadly...too many Congressional members of both parties are up for re-election in close races...so we need to keep the pressure on or they are going to cave and try to side with their presidential nominee. 

BTW -- wasn't Paulson a Democrat before he became Treasury Secretary?

2 parties one cup

Gary, what are your thoughts now on Gold?

umm yeah, they need this so the credit market will start lending again, do you watch libor rates, or just falling gold?
?

@zoonenschein - 

he is "super long term" at some point, maybe 45-90 years from now gold will be above $1000/ounce (when it was "cheap") It won't matter that adjusted for inflation which it can't keep pace with it will just be up, but then again we will be a third world country, or the world will have simply ended or melted away.

It amazes me how many of you think that the alternative - doing nothing - is acceptable here. Do you not realize that we are in deep shit, and something has to be done? Go take a peek at bloomberg.com to see what I mean. Photographers, if nothing is done, who do you think will continue to pay for your services and keep you in business? The fees you are used to charging for shooting a wedding will disappear. So please, continue to oppose taking action and see how far that gets you. We have no choice but to do something as much as the thought of bailing out Wall Street makes me sick.  

The bailout is not the answer. Just because it is the only proposed solution does not mean its the only solution. Vote no on this money and powergrab and encourage our elected leaders to come up with a REAL solution and not by using more debt to pay off debt. If you borrow money to pay off your credit card, maybe you can charge on it and live it up a little longer. But then what happens when you max out? Borrow more. We need to cut big government spending and and pay down the debt. The bigger the debt gets, the harder the economy will crash. Think of government as if it is a family with a budget. You pay for what you can afford and live within your means. This recession will happen with or without the bailout. The bailout is just using debt to pay off more debt. Like getting a home equity loan to pay off your credit card. Now you are in debt deeper with more to lose if you can't pay.

@jacksonwholephoto - 

Perhaps you misread my post. This bailout isn't a good solution. Something needs to be done but not this. And by the way, those who have soup don't need to go to the soup line. Glad I have lots of soup.

"Anyone who thinks this bill is a panacea is [making] a mistake," he said. "Without it, it's a disaster." - Warren Buffett


hmmm, I know who I would put my money on

We're being told by government officials and much of the media that Congress must decide between:
-Voting NO and allowing the destruction of the global financial system; or
-Voting YES and saving the global financial system by empowering the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to bailout troubled financial institutions up to a cost of $700 billion (more likely trillions of dollars ultimately).

However, the reality is that Congress must decide between:
-Voting NO and allowing the free market to liquidate bad debts and unviable companies through allowing market prices to prevail; and
-Voting YES and empowering the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to bailout troubled financial institutions with $700 billion (more likely trillions of dollars) of additional debt, leading to more inflation of the dollar at best and the destruction of the dollar at worst.

This is no time for "tough love," by the way.

OOH NO!
WHAT WILL FRANK DO NOW WITHOUT "TimRayPhoto"

MUST BE TIME OF THE MONTH FOR YOU AGAIN...
THIS IS LIKE THE 8TH TIME YOU THROW ONE OF YOUR LIL FITS...

"I'M LEAVING!"

WE'LL MISS YOU BUT NO ONE IS GOING TO STOP YOU.

Ten Reasons Not To Bail Out Wall Street
Catherine, Geopolitical, Life and News & Commentary, October 1, 2008 at 6:10 pm
by Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq.
www.solari.com

(1) Crime that pays is crime that stays.

There is reason to believe that Wall Street and those they represent are holding loans without collateral, multiple loans secured by the same properties, and other fraudulent instruments among the “troubled assets.” Based on the secret “Treasury Conference Call” with 800 Wall Street insiders, we know the deal proposed to be passed by Congress isn’t the real deal promised to Wall Street.

(2) This smells like obstruction of justice.

Bail-out without due diligence of so called “troubled assets” is a perfect way to hide documentation of financial crimes. It is also a perfect means to launder both the past ill-gotten gains and new federal money spent recklessly and without necessary safeguards and oversight mechanisms. Be very suspicious when they tell you “we just can’t tell what’s in these troubled assets.” We can assure you that the federal government has field offices all across the country that deal with significant amounts of real estate and mortgage assets on a dailyl basis. If Treasury refuses for more than a decade to comply with the laws, with approximately $4 trillion missing (and counting), it is not competent to manage $700 billion of taxpayer money while its arm is twisted by Wall Street.

(3) Wall Street owes the federal government money.

We need to get stolen money back from the banks that served as depositories for the US government (including trillions for which the Pentagon and HUD could not account) and punish them, not create another opportunity for them to game the system and engage in criminal enterprises to rob consumers. To the extent there has been regulatory wrong-doing, let’s not let the miscreants leave town with the evidence.


(4) Good guys are shut out.

A bail-out provides no way for honest leaders to come to the fore and use their creativity and expertise to restore balance and integrity to the system or for unproductive and poorly-managed banks that contribute to current over-capacity in the banking system to die a dignified death.

(5) This results in more investment in the “bubble economy.”

Spending massive amounts on non-productive uses (“buying” worthless credit default swaps, mortgages with no collateral and derivatives, which could even include the derivatives used to manipulate the precious metals markets) as opposed to productive uses (repairing infrastructure, creating alternative energy systems, supporting inventing and production of “green” products) is inflationary.

This bail-out will drive prices of food, water and energy up for the people who can least afford it.

(6) Bail-out does not result in capital circulating in healthy ways.

The bail-out of Wall Street and too-big-to-fail banks and insurance companies that are getting bigger by the minute by swallowing up other failing financial institutions (and creating more institutions that are “too big to fail”) does not result in trickle-down to those whose money was stolen in recent swindles (S&L, dot.com, current housing crisis), i.e., the taxpayers/middle class and working poor.

(7) These arrangements will result in more corruption.

Centralized “fixes” are sure to result in black holes, no-bid contracts and other scandals.

(8) The bail-out drains the real economy, rather than invests in the real economy.

The US economy can’t be productive or grow if consumers don’t have jobs and can’t afford to purchase goods and services. Real stimulation of Main Street is accomplished through productive investment, not bail-outs that shift money to unproductive sectors. We should use all of our precious resources to reinvest in our people in the real economy.

(9) It props up sectors that need to downsize and consolidate.

There is significant overcapacity in the financial and banking sectors. Brainpower and talent needs to stop blowing financial bubbles and shift to economic activities that create real value.

(10) It is a temporary “fix” to keep Wall Street afloat until after the election.

Our resources are better invested in permanent, long-term solutions. This bail-out will not fix anything. Rather, it will help the perpetrators get away and ensure that the ultimate day of reckoning is worse.

The Administration wants to drain the real economy to bail out Wall Street. It seems to us that the more appropriate plan would be to require Wall Street to return the $4 trillion plus that is missing and use that to rebuild the real economy.

We think the time has come to reverse the flow. Go to any business school in the country. That is what they teach. Money should move out of unproductive sectors into productive sectors. The bail-out does just the opposite.

“Just say NO!”

Legendary investor Catherine Austin Fitts, wait nope never heard that before.

I like how she gives 10 reasons to just say no, yet doesn't give one possible solution.

I am very hesitant about this bailout.  I think something should be done, but not the way they are doing it.  Here's an interesting link though.  I just about fell over laughing at this great rant by O'reilly. Good Stuff....   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDou01X5d28

@Cinematographer - 

decisions...i'm at a lost of words when it comes to this bailout.

It has gotten worse, I really understood bad things would happen and we needed it but now after the senate has taken it it is just unreal. Puerto Rican rum Co. Toy Company, Race track. tax breaks. The basically went to every politician and said What do you want in there for your vote?. Most of congress and the Senate is prostituting themselves for votes and paybacks. There is no more trust. What is the salary of a Politician? Barney Frank took thousands from Co. who benefited from the reason we are in this mess. Obama sued a bank when he was a lawyer for not giving low income people risky loans. Have you seen the Acorn stuff??  Then you have McCain vote yes without looking through this. Palin is a lamb being brought to slaughter with Obama's book writer asking questions tonight. This country is great, our reps are changing that. Did Bush really have to do this without other alternatives. WHERE is ROSS PEROT?? I am disgusted.

You got that right - "her brain is just not really ready."

jacksonwhole - I really like the Wesley icon. Makes you lovable.