My business is insurance and financial services. My customers need to feel that our company is strong and will be there when they need us. If I can't assure them of the strength of our investments and reserves, then I feel like they will not trust us or anyone in the industry. It will affect my sales of homeowners insurance and auto insurance if no one can get a good loan rate. My personal retirement has gone away. We need the bailout to be in place but NOT reward the source of the problem at the same time. That's the concern of me and a lot of other friends in small business.
I have mixed feeling about the bail out. Prior to two weeks ago I was completely against government involvement in business and felt it should be the survival of the fittest. Obviously the Federal Government does not bail out the thousands of small businesses that fail on a yearly basis. The only time they get concerned is when it affects their pocketbooks. I also think the American public is going to pay for this bail out one way or another through increased taxation, which is unfair. We should not pay for the mistakes of Wall Street.
It is a bad idea. It is rewarding companies that have made poor business decisions. I have taken action earlier this year by paying off business debt. I am certain the small business owner will be paying more in taxes.
Hopefully, the bailout will increase banks' willingness to ease up on the credit/loans for customers which we hope will stimulate business at the retail level.
I consider it something we have to do. If the banks are not able to lend money, then our entire country is affected.
We should not be bailing out, rewarding or encouraging bad judgment. There should be consequences to selling bad loans. Instead of giving Wall Street and Congress a blank check, they should be investigated and sent to prison.
Unfortunately the small business owner will suffer because lenders aren't readily extending credit and we are already hit hard on taxes. This is going to make our tax situation even bleaker.
I think the bailout is something we have to do. The risk of not doing it is probably higher than the risk of doing it. I do not think it will have any effect on small business as they have lacked access to credit anyway. I think the bailout will bring some stability to the market that is badly needed at this time. The reality is those who need credit at this time will probably not get it due to the current economic conditions. There is very little growth in small business at this time and thus people are looking for credit to get them through and I do not believe that credit will be extended based on this.
It affects my business because consumers are scared to death that they will lose everything. We handle financial services so it makes for an almost impossible to restore confidence. I think the overall economy will suffer because everyone is afraid to spend any money and if they don't we all lose. We should have had better protection from Congress. Now they act like they are doing us a favor to save our necks.
In the short term, there is no doubt this will help all businesses big and small alike. However, i think that all we are doing is delaying the pain. It seems as though our market needs to go through a correction and we are going to intervene and not let it correct itself.
Provides a stamp of approval for failure.
Business of any size should be allowed to fail. Small business is the backbone of business in America. Small businesses don't get bailed out and large businesses shouldn't either. The constitution is being violated by our President and Congress. They should all be fired. This is devastating to the overall economy. You can't lend money to yourself. A bailout is totally irresponsible. The politicians are not listening to the people they represent.
I don't think that it is a good idea. I feel that the free enterprise system will take care of itself. If a company does bad business, they should not be bailed out. It is survival of the fittest. I know that if my business does not do well, they would not run to bail me out.
I am sad that the American people must increase the debt to bail out a few companies that made poor financial decisions. I have made a few myself and have had to pay for them on my own. I would like to build a new dental building and I assume, based on what is being said, that if we did not bail out these companies it would be very difficult to obtain a loan for the building.
The sooner we get the bad Wall Street financial assets off the books, the sooner the overall economy will start to improve, which should help small business owners.
It sends the signal that the Government will bail out all others in the future.
It is only a band-aid. Companies that have bad procedures and take the large risks are rewarded for those large risks if they are good. They should also be allowed to fail if that large risk turns out to be a bad decision. I know that if I failed, there is no one to bail me out..
Good short term fix, bad in the long run.
I think it will be bad for small business because it will increase our tax burden to pay for the 700Billion, and secondly because these same companies will continue to charge higher and higher finance charges which increases the cost of funds needed to expand small business. The ripple effect will force the layoff of low income people who are now occupying low income housing which they can't afford some form of government intervention is necessary but is unfortunate. Our elected officials have let us down. Their attempts at social engineering have failed and will now cost us dearly.
A necessary evil.
If it can stabilize the financial markets it will be good for small business owners. I'm just not sure it can stabilize those markets.
I don't like the potential cost to the citizens of America. This should have been caught earlier and now we have to bail out to keep the financial industry from having an even worse effect on the economy.
It could free up revenue for loans which helps small business grow.
I hate that we have to do it, but the alternative would be devastating. My biggest non-negotiable dealbreaker is that these CEOs/CFOs etc., should get out with NOTHING. That's what happens when a small-business owner has to go bankrupt. I'm in favor of any deal with that caveat.
I am uncertain at this time. We need to start holding Executives accountable for their actions. They certainly do not deserve huge golden parachute plans when they have driven a company into financial ruin.
Its necessary to avoid a serious economic crisis.
It is unfortunate that we are in a position that the bail out is a necessity. President Clinton wanted to see everyone own a home. He lowered the standards that the lending establishment used to qualify people for homes. This lead to the problems we are seeing now. I know that we must do something now, however I do think that the CEO's of these corporations should in no way benefit from the bailout. If my small business failed due to some of my bad decisions, then I shouldn't be compensated w/ more money. I would lose everything.
I am a believer in laissez faire market economics. The more the government screws around the worse it gets.
Big mess but necessary.
Small businesses are given no reprieve when making unsound financial decisions. Why should large businesses get special compensation, at the hands of taxpayers and small businesses? Am I working my ass off to make my small outfit survive in these tough times, just to the witness the billionaire wall street gamblers and their enormous wallets escape judgment?
The overuse of credit (companies and individuals using to much leverage to live beyond their means) is what got us here. There is plenty of blame to go around. If borrowers had made cautious, responsible decisions we wouldn't be here. If lenders had made cautious, responsible decisions we wouldn't be here. If investors had been cautious in purchasing mortgage-backed securities we wouldn't be here. Perhaps the government could have regulated to prevent it, but that is not my preferred solution. The markets are now making it quite difficult to overuse (or perhaps even use) credit. The market can and will correct itself, (lenders and borrowers are already being forced to cut back on their risky practices), but the government is too scared to let that painful correction happen quickly.
I think we need to get credit flowing through the economy and if we don't we will have a serious recession or depression. I assume it is absolutely necessary. At the same time, the economy works best when those who take unwise risks pay for those risks and that's not happening. I am afraid that the bailout is setting a dangerous precedent.
It's a good idea overall because it protects us in the future and our ability to borrow for plans like college, business expansions, home equity lines of credit and such.
Hopefully the bailout will open up credit markets so that business once again will have access to capital on reasonable terms.
It is a terrible idea. It only postpones the inevitable and adds debt to my children. If we have the ability to aquire $700,000,000,000.00 for a privately owned company bailout, why can't we find the same money for social security?
If the bailout does not happen, the companies will be bought by other companies for a fair price.
THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN A REPUBLIC!!
I'm not absolutely sure it is the right thing to do, but people who know a lot more about the situation than I do, seem to think we should do it.
I think the bailout should be a loan with guaranteed interest, not a bailout in which the taxpayers may never see a penny of this money returned! I want less government controls and a free market enterprise to ensure the stability and future growth of the economy.
It will destroy capitalism. The normal process of business failure and bankruptcy should run it's course.
This is nothing more than privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. This Banana Republic mentality of socializing private industry is the Bush Administration's final devastating blow to the US economy.
I hope they figure out a way to lend the money vs. giving it away. Lending the money, at a fair interest rate, might ensure that the taxpayers and the economy can be made whole within a few years. I hope also the bailout will enable the homeowners who have been faithful in their mortgage payments over the years before this crisis to restructure their mortgages so they can keep their homes.
I think it is necessary with lots of strings attached. We need limitations as well as investors sharing in the losses.
The entire situation with the bailout is disheartening. It is hard to believe there was no oversight to ensure something like this didn't happen especially considering the size of these companies and the number of people these companies can affect. The bailout is necessary to protect the everyday people however, it is unfortunate that those that caused the problems will fall under that protection.
I am angry that hard earned tax dollars are being used. If they were small businesses, there wouldn't even be a consideration of assistance. Because of the size of the companies and the amount of the bailout, those small business owners are going to have a hard time getting credit to expand, upgrade or to assist them in times of need. When is this all going to stop!!!
I can understand why it's important to keep our economy stabilized but worried about setting a precedent of bailing out these corporations who through mis-management brought us to the situation.
We should have looked at and taken some lessons from Sweden who faced an eerily similar crisis over a decade ago.
We have to bail out the big players because of the negative impact it will have on the overall economy, but I think credit for small business owners will still be extremely tight and expensive.
The problems we face now were foreseen many months ago and our government did nothing. The folks who are hurting are those that received deceptive mortgages and are now losing their homes. This is the root cause and it's being treated as a side-issue. I'm not convinced that this "bailout" will help anyone but the top executives.
Our small business is in a pretty secure position, as we are stable and well capitalized.
It will keep credit open. But of course we never should have got in this mess to begin with.
It's bad because we will have to foot the bill for it. If my business was to fail would the federal government bail me out? NO WAY.
Free markets should determine winners and losers. With a bailout, stockholders in these firms will not hold executives accountable enough for greed and the risks they take. As a consequence, decisions will be made differently if a bailout is an option. This will only serve to increase speculation and greed in the future. This is bad for our entire economy. Survival of the fittest has worked in nature for millions of years--we need to apply it in our economy as well.
We need to keep the economy going and credit is part of what keeps it going. If we lose confidence, banking institutions will continue to tighten money and others will fail. Investors will lose confidence too and look elsewhere. I think ultimately, that this will turn out ok.
I cannot support the bailout because no one is defining or really spelling out to the public the basic causes of the supposed meltdown.
The bailout is an unfortunate necessity. I strongly believe the root of the problem is the housing crisis, caused by the Community Reinvestment Act, built to momentum by President Clinton in the late 1990's by pushing into the sub-prime money, and intensified by the 2007 Fannie Mae My Community Mortgage Loans in 2007 where the banks were more-or-less forced to process the bad loans ($2 billion)to people who could not afford the loans. It all finally caught up to us this year, and the domino effect took over.
The resulting financial crisis this past month is the culmination of this lousy system and the lack of oversight.
The bailout, while not a good thing, is the best hope for any financial future for small businesses and individuals as well. Only time will tell.
Approximately a quarter of the allotted $$ for the buyout and see if we are making progress in a month or two. If things are worse then abandon, if things are the same or better then go full steam ahead with the buyout plan.
There has not been enough information passed on to the public about this. I don't feel I know enough of what the ramifications would be without the bailout.
I want the bankruptcy law to change so the judges can readjust the homeowners' loans.
It's unfortunate that circumstances have come to this. But it's also exciting to see how the financial markets will be reinvented. This is a watershed moment, after which the markets will never be the same again.
What's the Federal Reserve? It is an unelected, government-licensed monopoly that inflates the supply of dollars in our economy.
The bailout was made necessary due to the mismanagement of deregulation by the Bush Administration. This makes me angry. However, we must have some sort of bailout because without it, we can't have liquid credit, and without liquid credit, we can't expand businesses or buy houses.
It is unfortunate that things were allowed to get to the point where this became necessary, but I think the people that are saying let the financial institutions fail are very naive in their understanding of how things work. I hope that in the future we will not be afraid to "keep our eyes open" when it comes to the tactics of a few greedy people. We obviously didn't learn much from the deregulation of the energy companies in California.
The bailout is not a good idea. Taxes on small businesses will likely go up which will cause layoffs.
bail out will help the economy and prevent more layoff.
It's not the governments' job to bail out business. If my business was failing they would not do anything about it. What we need is less government spending not more!
I hate it but I think it has to be done. The problem is that I am sure that although there are lessons to learn they won't be learned.
I believe our economy should recover on its own, from the bottom up not the top down. What if the $700 billion was spent in a different way to bolster the economy other than the bail out? The problem is that we are made to feel that there is no time to find another solution. Everything hasn't crashed yet, what if they waited another week? And another? No one knows. $700 billion is a large price tag when you don't even know what you're getting.
Unfortunately my opinion on this is largely based on information acquired from the media. The breadth of the situation is for more complicated for me to understand. However, I believe the lack of government oversight concerning predatory lenders and the free ride in Wall Street requires solutions within the industry and not public financing. I live in Chicago, a city that was rebuilt after the Chicago Fire and has achieved great success as a result. I feel the US economy/financial system needs a similar reboot, despite the initial negative consequences. If anything, it will root out the corrupt business mentality that led us down this road in the first place.
Econ 101 makes it clear. If you spend more than you take in, bad things happen. The corporations did that, and now we have to pay. I do not care if stocks go down or not. The amount of failing subprime does not add up to the amount going to Wall Street.
These companies knew exactly what they were doing. My Husband and I sold our house after I lost my job in 2003. We immediately put the house on the market and fortunately for us it sold quickly.
If we could see that happening, why couldn't everyone else unless they thought they could get away with it.
It is a necessary evil. The only good in it is that it will keep credit flowing.
At this point we just have to trust that the people in Washington have a better feel for what the economy needs. Am I happy about it NO. Is it a good idea...time will tell. We have to look at what happened with Chrysler when the govt. loaned them money and made a profit on it. I think it should be considered more a loan than a bailout, it just sounds better.
It will not affect my small business as I don't borrow to run the business at this time but if I need to I do need to know that there is a chance I can get credit if I need it to help me through a bad month. Small businesses sometimes need a little "float" money to cover expenses, payroll, etc. I'm hoping it will have a positive effect on the economy. We should all go back to saving for a rainy day, as I always say I have to balance my books at the end of the month what is everyone else doing?
Anytime the government sticks their nose into private business it wrecks it. It is because of government involvement that we are in this mess in the first place. Let the market balance itself out. It always does. This bailout translates into one thing: An already way too massive government getting even larger by taking over a pretty hefty slice of the private sector which only means one thing for us: higher taxes. It is a bad idea all around.
The only people that will benefit from this are the politicians that think the government should be and is the solution to all these problems when in fact it's the government that is the problem. The only thing we need from goverment is to get out of the way. Economic freedom always brings prosperity not just in the U.S. but around the world.
Short term will be good, Long term will prob. weigh down the economy & slowing it down.
Watching the hen house.
The Wall Street crowd and the Liar Loan participants (brokers, agents and borrowers) all had the party and now we are paying the price for it.
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