"Economy"

Jed,

Why should anyone that irresponsibly used credit cards, ran up their debt under the promise of "use now, pay later", be allowed to legally steal all that stuff they bought with the bank's money?

I have never understood the ease of filing bankruptcy in this country.>>>

Google "The Senator from MBNA" and this is what you find.....

Obama's "new politics" are looking an awful lot like the old politics, and Rick Moran looks at Joe Biden to see how his record meshes with the Prophet Barack's (Hope! Change! Waffles!) soaring endorsement of him. As one example, how does the Harbinger of Hope's professed deep concern for the economic health of the average American square with his running-mate's screwing of those same Joe Six-Packs in the 2005 bankruptcy law?

It is unfortunate that if you were an underdog and looking for help from Senator Biden in getting out from under a load of debt by filing bankruptcy, you were given the back of his hand. It seems one of Senator Joe’s major contributors through the years was the bank holding company MBNA, the world’s largest issuer of credit cards who was pushing bankruptcy reform that would have been favorable to the credit card industry. Biden was one of the bill’s biggest proponents — and why not? MBNA executives contributed hundreds of thousands to his campaigns. And then there was the rather cozy personal relationship between Biden and MBNA executives:

"The relationship was also personal, with an MBNA executive’s buying Biden’s house at a favorable price, and one of his sons taking a job for a time as an MBNA management trainee, as the Wilmington News-Journal reported. Hey, it’s a small state.

"Biden returned MBNA’s favor by delivering key Democratic support for the company’s top legislative goal: the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, which made it tougher for broke people to escape their credit card debt. Biden’s staff says he forced lenders to add special protections for low-wage workers and single mothers before he would back the bill."

What was it that Biden wrought with his support for this bill?

"It makes it harder for average people to file for bankruptcy protection; it makes it easier for landlords to evict a bankrupt tenant; it endangers child-support payments by giving a wider array of creditors a shot at post-bankruptcy income; it allows millionaires to shield an unlimited amount of equity in homes and asset-protection trusts; it makes it more difficult for small businesses to reorganize while opening new loopholes for the Enrons of the world; it allows creditors to provide misleading information; and it does nothing to rein in lending abuses that frequently turn manageable debt into unmanageable crises. Even in failure, ordinary Americans do not get a level playing field."

George Babbitt couldn’t have imagined a better bill.

As far as I know, the bill may have been worthwhile overall, but please --please-- let's not portray Joe Biden as some sort of fighter for the little guy.

Your text here>>>

BOA bought Merriyl Lynch. Now they want another 10 BILLION dollars of TAXPAYERS money to make the purchase work for them. To make it profitable. Crooks, all of them. No different than INSURANCE companies, AIG for instance. What do we do about it? Not a damn thing. ooooops forgot, we vote in the chosen one and his VP the senator from MBNA.....to run the country. Anyone who thinks the banks will not get their way now that Biden is the second most powerful man in the "free world", is a fool.

.......sorry, I get red not blue when this topic comes up....chit just sends me over the edge.. :S>>>

I think things are bad. In the last few days I have learned of close friends who are losing homes. They dont live in big, fancy homes....or drive big cars. They are working people like school lunch lady and her husband a printing press operator....he lost his job(Downsizing at Duke Energy) and it has went downhill for them.

Another friend is a custom framer/carpenter, he hasnt worked in months and can't find a job. People are bidding framing here at $2.25 Sq Foot....he can't pay his help & insurance/taxes for 2.25 a foot!

We have had tens of thousands of jobs lost in this area. I am in Indiana and manufacturing means everything....and when them places close and send 10,000 to the unemployment office, you can guarantee 1/3 of them are gonna fall back on doing roofing, siding, framing...anything they can do to make an "under the table" dollar to "supplement" the unemployment.

I cant buy a job right now! We havnt been this slow in 4-5 years. I have 1 job signed and 1 ready to sign. I usually do interior work of a winter, but this year I havnt had much luck finding work.

Well enough ranting from me. Think the winter time blues is working on me....

Best to you all, Randy>>>