This is funny! It’s sort of Monopoly based, but it is an on-line game where you get to fix the bailout issue!
The game is well done, great animations and graphics and a whole lot of fun! 
Posts Tagged ‘bailout’
Do you have what it takes? Play the Bailout game!
March 18th, 2009
Thousands have decided not to participiate in the recession.
December 24th, 2008I heard a great quote the other day while I was on the way to the bank. It was actually on the local traffic report on 94.3 FM here in Knoxville and it said “We’ll if there’s a recession thousands of people have decided not to participate as every major roadway has significant delays!) Oh and it was true. The city of Knoxville was crawling with holiday vermin. Yes these are the people that are out this time of the year and are very “holiday spirited” and yet will cut you off, run you off the road and do other horrible things to you if you take a parking spot they were watching. Ahh yes, it is after all “the most wonderful time of the year.”
The one thing I did observe however was that there sure were a lot of cars out, in fact I would be willing to say more then last year, but there are a lot less shopping bags in the shoppers hands. For example, yesterday I drove through Turkey Creek and the place was packed. I mean people were fighting for spaces in front of the PETsMART packed. Well as I drove through watching the possible inception of crimes come to be as people planned possible killing sprees over that valuable parking spot I saw people walking everywhere. Now normally I see about 75% of the people with bags in their hands when I go through Turkey Creek, yesterday it was maybe in the 45% range. It was an obvious drop in actual purchases being made which really isn’t good for any retailer.
But I wonder why this is? Is it really because the economy is in the crapper or is it because the lack of quality products? With consumer demand being so low, and the fact everyone wants a bargain prices are being slashed like crazy and ultimatly retailers seem to be responding by offering lower quality goods. I dare say some of what I have seen could have come from a flea market. And essentially that is what stores are resorting to. They are turning into fancy flea markets with below retail prices causing major impact on the margin.
I will be very interested to see after this holiday season how many retailers are able to stay afloat. It definitely is tough right now, and with the drastic price reductions and promotions happening companies aren’t seeing the margins they rely on to survive the year. I think we will definitely be seeing more closings of retail locations by various retailers just to try to cut costs.
I do encourage everyone to get out there and by what you want. We seem to be stuck in a vicious cycle where companies are in limbo and no one wants to spend money because jobs aren’t secure. This makes the companies even weaker makes jobs even less secure. Every week it appears to be worse and worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if the National Retail Federation and it’s member base asked for a government bailout next. I mean come on, Wall Street was bailed out which did NOTHING for main street. The auto industry is being bailed out, once again NOTHING for main street. How about actually bailing out the businesses on main street?
“If there is a recession, thousands have chosen not to participate.”
Oh and one more thing. I wasn’t kidding when I talked about the attitudes and behaviors shoppers are bringing with them to the stores. It’s scary sometimes. So, everyone needs to just relax and be considerate. Remember, pedestrians have the right away, they aren’t targets and you don’t get any points for taking them out. And you aren’t playing bumper cars. Just relax, take your time, enjoy the experience. And if you can’t, do what I’m going to be doing and stay home. After all, the whole hussle and bustle thing is definitly not for me.
Nobody knows nothin'.
November 25th, 2008Can you believe that gas is under $2.00 a gallon on average around our country? I’m not sure about you but it was only a few months back that gas actually hit just over $5.00 a gallon during some panic here in Knoxville. The price of gas then rose around the southeast as shortages were rumored. Newscasters, speculators and others were predicting we would never see gas below $3.00 again at that point. In fact they were all saying it could get up to $9.00 a gallon. Meanwhile the government and everyone are trying to figure out what to do, but nothing was ever done. And now prices appear to be on a free fall. Heck OPEC even cut production rates a few weeks ago to try to cut off the price dropping more and it didn’t work. Gas has gone down another $25 a barrel since the OPEC cuts. And now here we are with gas in Knoxville at $1.67 a gallon. This to me shows me that nobody knows nothin’. I say that for the points I mentioned, mainly everyone was so sure gas would never drop, and it did.
So, with that in mind, look at the current economic situation. Yeah banks failing, companies are using tax payers money to go on retreats, people are flying in on corporate jets begging for money and to quote the band REM “it’s the end of the world and we know it!” But do they really? You see the governments answer to the probelms isn’t to let businesses fail and do that evolution type thing where businesses must adapt, change and grow or they die. Rather lets take billions and billions and billions of dollars which we don’t have and throw them at businesses with poor business models. The models weren’t always bad, but the fact they never update the model as the world happened and changed made them bad.
So I take the threats that the world is coming to an economic end, recessions world wide and major business collapses imminent with a grain of salt. Oh sure some of that might happen but it’s sort of the way the world is supposed to work.
What I find funny is the stock market had the biggest 2 day gains in the last 2 days then it had in many many years, and really the government hasn’t done much of anything except throw money at businesses, of course that was done a long time ago so you know they will take credit when everything starts turning around. “Oh we bailed them out and we saved the world!”
No you dunce, you got our country deeper in debt and the economy worked itself out. It’s like the common cold, yeah you can take a load of drugs including paxil, viagra, flinstone vitamins or other pills that have nothing to do with treating the common cold and within 10-14 business days you’ll be all better. Does that mean the drugs did it? Nope, it’s the body repairing itself, throwing extra crap in the mix really doesn’t help. But of course the person that gave you the medicine takes the credit.
Anyways, just remember that the people telling us all these bad stories about recession, failures and other chicken little sayings are the same that had no clue about the gas situation but were all 100% certain that prices would forever stay above $3 a gallon and could peak as high as $9…….
And now, a great video I found on youtube -- George Bush perfoms REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
AIG Executives Blow $440,000 After Getting Bailout
October 7th, 2008If this news story doesn’t make you mad then you have major issues. As a tax payer we all paid $700 billion for bailout packages for wall street which aren’t working. But now to see this news story on how money is being blown is just an insult. I fully expect these executives to have to sell their homes to repay the funds and face possible jail time. I can’t believe these people had the nerve to go on a half million dollar retreat after getting $85 billion from the government (from the tax payers).
AIG Executives Blow $440,000 After Getting Bailout
If you’d just gotten a government bailout, you might be tempted to hold a retreat at a nice California hotel — and that’s exactly what American International Group (AIG: 3.60, -0.27, -6.97%) executives did.
The committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. to address and examine downfall of AIG, the world’s largest insurance company. The committee planned to discuss the financial excesses and regulatory mistakes that led to AIG’s government bailout.
One of the items discussed was AIG’s expenditure of $440,000 for a corporate retreat at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Los Angeles, Calif. These funds were spent on Sept. 22, a week after the Federal Reserve extended an $85 billion emergency loan to AIG to keep it from going bankrupt due to insurance liabilities.
According to the receipt from the St. Regis, the eight-day company retreat was a lavish one – $139,000 was spent on hotel rooms, while even more money — $147,301 — was spent on banquets. Another $23,380 was spent on undisclosed spa treatments and another $6,939 was spent on golf. A full $9,980 was spent on room service and food and cocktails at the hotel lounge.
The St. Regis Monarch Beach resort is described on its Web site as “a landmark resort of legendary proportions.”
Legendary, indeed.
I told you so… Bailout / Barney Frank
October 6th, 2008I hate to say it but “I told you so…” I told everyone that the bailout wasn’t going to work but did the government listen to me or anyone else? Of course not. They were interested more in passing their bill for wooden arrows and tax breaks on rum importers then actually doing any good. Today the dow fell over 800 points, as I write this it’s down 647.34 points. I find it funny that an article on MSNBC says
Investors around the world have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration’s $700 billion rescue plan won’t work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets.
Who would have thought? Oh perhaps the citizens of the united states. The real tax payers and not these frauds that are in congress and the house. Dianne Feinstein, Senator of California had over 90,000 emails from angry tax payers saying they didn’t want the bailout to go through but rather then listen to them she said “they must not have understood the package” and she was going to vote against all those 90,000 people because “she knew better.” What a bunch of B.S.
After watching the stockmarket nose dive today I get the feeling we all knew what the package was about. So here we are now as a nation $700 billion more in debt and the stock market keeps falling. I say we get a refund on the $700 Billion. After all, you buy something from a store that doesn’t work you can always bring it back right? Well why can’t we do the same here? Stocks were fine until the bailout passed. Ever since then it’s been a financial nightmare. But will a “refund” ever happen? Nope. Why? Because in order for them to do that everyone who voted for the bailout would have to admit they made a mistake, and they had no realistic view of the economy. And of course that will NEVER happen.
I never really agree with Bill O’Reilly but I do agree with this nice little conversation he had with Barney Frank.
You know what. We need to do a major recall on our government. I love what we have I just hate who we have. We need to replace just about everyone in the house, senate and other political offices. Get these old timers out who are doing nothing but rubbing shoulders (and who knows what else ->see article) with their friends and lobbyist and anyone else who will pay them. It’s unbelievable how much corruption is in the government. If you don’t think it’s corruption then it’s ignorance, but I seriously doubt that. These are corrupt politicians with only one concern and that is themselves and their friends. They don’t appear to really care for the American public which really is a shame.
If Obama wins I sure hope he can implement the “change” wave he is riding and selling. If McCain wins I hope him and Palin can get some butt and get outrageous spending done away with. I believe this bill would have fit in the pork belly category they would go after. I really don’t care who wins at this point I don’t like either mainly because they are both playing the political game. Just once I want someone honest, a normal person to step up and be involved… But money seems to have the ability to change people’s opinions. I never knew how much it took to buy a politician, apparently $700 billion will get you almost all of them.
House passed bailout, everyone celebrate we are now $700 billion in debt!! Woohoo.
October 3rd, 2008So, today the bill for the bailout passed. But we aren’t supposed to call it a bailout, it’s actually “economic relief.” Isn’t that a fancy way of saying socialism?
What I find funny more then anything is just how biased the news can be. I’ve bee watching the stock market all day today. This afternoon around 1:00pm before the vote the stock market was up nearly 300 points. A great day! Well, around 1:30 when the bill was voted on and passed, the stock market tanked, yep, as of 2:05pm which is approx 40 minutes after the bill passed the DOW is up only 76.54 points, there for a while it was down to a 24 point gain. So, we were doing great, then the vote hit and the bill passed and then the stocks tanked… Ummm, I thought this was supposed to turn everything around. Or were we lied to?
Well let’s just see who is reporting what.
Fox News is saying: “Dow Jumps as House Cotes on Bailout Bill.” (See below)
While CNN is saying “stocks trim gains after House vote.” (see below)
So which one is it? Did it go up or did it go down? I guess it depends on which one you listen to. From where I sit, we are down over 200 points from the high which occurred before the house voted to pass the bill.
I supposed it really doesn’t matter. Now our nation is almost another trillion dollars in debt. I just picture that a guy was working at the Federal Reserve bank watching the news and as soon as the bill passed someone called him and said “Print the $100′s!”. I suppose that money has to come from somewhere, why not just print it?
Am I glad the bill passed? Nope, same ol’ crooks are still working in the senate and house that will be overseeing the massive plan. Why does NASCAR need $100 million dollars? Why do children’s wooden arrows need $2 million dollars? These are things in the bill that are nonsense. But hey, we needed it right? Meanwhile I keep paying money into social security and will never see a dime of it but hey, at least kids can have wooden arrows and NASCAR can buy some more fuel.
To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I really thought we had a government that was “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Instead it’s a good ol boy network full of people doing favors for each other and totally forgetting about us from main street.
You know what they kept saying “people can’t get loans to buy cars!” like that was an issue. What you mean if you go in with a good down payment you can’t get a loan? Yes you can. It’s the saps who go in who are upside down in their current loans, buy a new car and finance 130% of the value into a new car. Those are the people that can’t buy a new car. And they shouldn’t be allowed to anyways.
I think this bailout is only putting off the inevitable. Banks will get a huge relief as bad loans are sold to the government. Banks will then start to make the same bad debts perhaps at a slower pace this time and then here in a year or two we’ll see the same dilemma only we will have already spent our trillion dollars. Where is the lesson that these greedy wall street people are supposed to learn? Is the government going to step in and help me pay for my house? Nope, I was responsible so I’ll just get screwed all the way around. I’ll get the chance to pay for my mortgage, and my tax dollars will get to help my neighbor down the road pay for his cause he didn’t do his homework before buying a house.
That’s all I have to say. I could rant on and on, but I’d rather look into turning into a priest or something where I can start earning money and having it be tax free because I’m doing it as a church or member of clergy. I doubt I can figure it out but it’s a thought. I hate to pay taxes and see the money wasted.
California is broke… passing the bill = delaying the present
October 3rd, 2008I am watching the House debate over the new $860+ billion dollar bill. Yep, no longer $700 billion. Who didn’t see that coming? And now a representative from California got up and talked about how California is broke and by end of the month won’t have enough money to pay their own bills and payroll for the government and the bill MUST pass. This is crap. I sure hope they don’t pass the bill.
I am happy now a guy is talking about how we are a society of capitalism on the way up and we cannot be a society of socialism on the way down. If we loose the chance to fail, won’t we soon loose the chance to succeed?”
That is one heck of a quote.
I still say DO NOT PASS THE BILL. Let the bad banks and bad organizations fail. They need to fail. If the bill passes all it will do is fork money into the market, allow banks to continue making bad deals and then we will have this exact issue in another year or two. We have to fix the problem, and not flood it with money. Close the bad banks, put better management in place for oversight of the money and then pass the bill. But don’t pass it as is or else you won’t do anything but delay this situation and put America a trillion dollars in debt. The free market we have will correct this issue if we let it. But we must let it!
"One nation, under domestic financial terrorism…"
September 30th, 2008
I pledge allegiance to leaders,
of the United States of America.
And to the scare tactics for which they use
one nation, under domestic financial terrorism
with Fraud, Bail-outs and injustice to all…
as long as they are large greedy corporations.
So, the economy needs a bailout huh? We can’t survive and won’t get paid without it right? Businesses are closing, merging and struggling to survive. We must go into debt $700 billion to help those greedy companies who screwed the nation. This isn’t democrat versus republican. This is the entire government losing it’s ever loving mind.
I for one don’t believe in the bailout. I think that if the government wants to give some money away then the companies getting the money need to put up some collateral. For example, all the real estate owned by the companies needing financing should be put on the line.
I mean come on, could you go the bank and get a loan without anything down? Nope, so why should wall street? After all its going to work right? So if they are so confident let’s get at least 5% collateral put down, let’s just get something even if it’s just 0.5%. What you don’t think so? Why not? Isn’t this going to work? If so no risk to them. But if it doesn’t why should the tax payers foot the trillion dollar bill for some companies whose CEO’s are walking away with golden parachutes in the millions.
Did you know that in the 60′s and 70′s a CEO making $11 million was making approx 10-20 times the average pay of a worker? Back then companies made profits. Now during these corrupt times company CEO’s are making 350 times the average worker. Gee I wonder why comapnies are failing.
Did you know one of these companies (WaMu) put a interim CEO in place for 17 days and the dude walked away with over 15 million dollars in compensation because of his parachute? How about that deal.
See, I don’t feel sorry about the bail out failing. The president and others are feeding us a load of dung telling us the world will come to an end, no one can get mortgages, car loans, paychecks, etc. The stock market will plummet, etc. But today I see that as of the time I write this the stock market rebounded 392.26 points, at one point it topped 400. Sure it’s only half of what it lost yesterday when we were being fed these stories but isn’t it interesting to see how the world rebounds and corrects itself? Amazingly no bailout and things are turning around.
I sure hope that regardless of what congress and the government chooses to do they don’t screw the American people for the sake of bailing out their friends on wall street. One of the first thing people are told is that when you invest there are risks. So what your portfolio is down $3,000. Does that mean you lost that much? Nope, not unless you sell. In fact now is a great time to buy more since stocks are so low. Don’t panic.
Isn’t what the government doing a strong arm, mob mentality? Give us $700 billion OR ELSE suffer the wrath. You know what else I am sick of hearing? I am sick of them saying “our leaders this” and “our leaders that.” These people in office are NOT our leaders. They are our representatives, our employees and NOT our leaders. They are working for the people, not working above the people. I say it’s about time they start acting like it. I am thrilled that the bailout plan failed in the house. It gives me a bit of joy to see that these representatives are finally listening to the people that elected them. While they did vote the way the people wanted them to vote, it irritates me to think that many of them are up for re-election soon. Did they just vote “no” for self preservation to be re-elected? Or did they vote “no” because it was what the people they represent wanted?
Below is a screenshot showing just how well our economy is rebounding without government intervention. Isn’t it a beautiful thing?
Oh and John McCain. I liked you but I can’t vote for you. Obama is not much better on the bailout plan. In fact the following quote was retrieved from Capital Hill Blue
“This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with. The option of doing nothing is simply not an acceptable option,” McCain said. Obama said he was inclined to back it “because I think Main Street is now at stake.”
I don’t think that McCain should have agreed and suspended his campaign to work on a plan to put the nation $700 billion more in debt so quick without any research or investigation. Instead it was rush rush rush to get the bailout plan completed. Obama did take the more laid back approach and said on “Face the Nation” that “my inclination would be to vote for it, understanding I’m not happy about it.”
So I do appreciate what Obama said and not taking a sudden stop to spend that amount of money. McCain on the other hand really messed up. If he is willing to spend $700billion in a few days how much will he spend if he does become president? Let’s see, it took about one week to come up with the plan and try to pass it, so 52 weeks a year times 4 years in office = 208 chances to try to pass a $700 billion dollar plan. If it passed each time it would total $145,600,000,000,000. Aren’t we as a nation trying to get out of debt?
And you know what else ticks me off? Why do we suddenly have $700billion for wall street bailouts, and yet it’s a well known fact I’ll never see a dollar of my money I paid into social security? Yep, we’ll bail out some greedy companies using tax payer money while we all know that social security is going bankrupt. What’s wrong with this picture? Talk about crooked priorities, but then again they are crooked companies and crooked politicians.
Can you even get a grasp for how much $700 billion is in terms of dollars?
One blog tried to explain:
700 billion M&Ms (at 2 grams per chocolatey orb) would be enough to fill 10 one-pound bags for every one of the 300 million Americans. That would be a popular bailout!
700 billion dollars could buy 2009 Lincoln Town Cars for every person in Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, and Idaho.
The combined weight of every human male in the world is considerably less than 700 billion pounds, even including the players in the NFL.
700 billion dollars could buy 87 McDonald’s combo meals for every person on Earth, with change left over for antacids.
My heart has beaten approximately 2,196,917, 208 times since I was born 58 years ago. At this rate, I’d have to live to live to be 20,300 years of age to reach 700 billion heartbeats. I’m willing to go for it, for the sake of research.
Federal expenditures to fight the entire World War II and run the rest of the country, adjusted to the 2000 dollars, were only $1.2 trillion.
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