Where is Robin Hood?

Good Morning!

This was my thought this morning as I watched Paulson speak about his new Treasury plan. What we are witnessing if this bailout passes is taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.

Where is Robin Hood? We need him now more than ever. It's obvious no one else in DC or on Wall St. is here to look out for our interests. Paulson says that this plan will bring confidence back to Wall St. and allow the banks to start lending again.

HA! Yeah Right. Who is ever going to trust Wall St. again after this mess? I have lost all confidence in the banking system. Why would I sit down and try to do business with banks that know they can commit fraud and then have the taxpayer pay for it? What incentive do they have to be ethical and conduct good business when they hold a "get out of jail free" card at my expense?

What's ironic is I think the banks will end up losing confidence in the financial system as well. What if the Treasury decides that the trust will pay no more than .30 on the dollar and forces the banks to sell the securities at a 70% loss? How are they going to feel after getting shafted like this?

Do you think they will be ready to run out and start throwing money out of helicopter's again and create another housing bubble after taking such huge losses?

The government plan is a short term fix and does nothing to resolve the long term problems of the economy. This is simply another delaying of the pain. Housing is still be at a level where no one can afford them, and the government seems hell bent at preventing housing from dropping to affordable levels.

Mr. Paulson needs to recognize that freeing up the banks books by buying their garbage will not guarantee that the banks will start lending agin at healthy levels. Hank cannot FORCE people to buy and he also can't FORCE banks to lend. In my eyes, banks and consumers will have very little desire to do business with each other.

The banks will be hesitant to lend if this legislation passes because their balance sheets will be a mess. Anyone buying a home will be hesitant to pull the trigger because their confidence and trust in the banking system will have been destroyed. The consumer will also be furious as their taxes go through the roof to pay for this whole mess. This trust could creat chaos instead of confidence.

My last point here is also what about all of the millions that bought houses at inflated levels? How are they not completely screwed by this bailout? What is going to prevent them from sending their keys back to the bank and saying the hell with this? If I was one of these buyers I would walk. Why pay double what you need to on a huge asset like a house?

Bottom Line:

I see this as nothing more than a big bailout of Wall St. This plan is very short sighted, and the government seems to be ignoring all of the blatant negative ramifications from pulling this trigger.

The economic ramifications here are also huge. The dollar will get killed on a trillion plus dollar bailout. This will lead to spikes in inflation, and our swelling balance sheet puts the credit rating of the United States of America in jeopardy.

Without a stellar balance sheet, our treasuries will be much less appealing foreign countries. Keep in mind, if this bailout goes through, we will have added close to $7 trillion dollars to our balance sheet. This is more than double what it was only a few weeks ago!

The series of events that have taken place in the last few weeks are unprecedented. Something has to be done to stem the tide of this, but I believe it should be at the expense of Wall St. instead of the taxpayer. We both will take losses here, but we all know who got the better end of this deal.

Wall St. has found their own sick version Robin Hood who steals from the poor and gives to the rich. His nickname should be Rob.

What I want to know is where is the real Robin Hood?