" Yes,my money was in WaMu and,hopefully,still is. Personally,I'm preparing for the worse. I take the situation very serious. We've been 'hoodwinked' by this administration for the last time. We,as citizens,must come together and help those in need or we all will fall by the wayside. It wouldn't bother me to see the rats locked up for the rest of their lives for the damage they've done. "

" When I heard the news about this, my first thought was Weapons of Mass Destruction once again. I think any bailout should be done in stages with lots of oversight. And should be carefully considered. There need to be a series of steps taken, not just give them our money. The whole mortgage system needs a revamp. I would want to have mine with one company that I could trust rather than the trickle down effect that has been happening. "

" I have yet to be greatly affected by this crisis. I tend to be frugal anyway, If it ain't broke, I don't replace it until it is, (10yr old TV etc.) I am against rampant consumerism and don't rack up my credit cards on stuff I technically can't afford; but most of the folk I know have lost money in the financial markets. That's the game though isn't it? I also do not know much about how the financial industries operate, though I am paying a lot more attention now. I do know that expansion cannot and does not go on forever. What expands to its utmost, will then naturally contract. We have allowed corporations and financial industries to get so big they have now 'popped.' A contraction and change of course, in the way we do business is inevitable. I am among those who feel corporate welfare and socialism is unjust when it is denied to the neediest of Americans. The rest of us are expected to take our medicine if we fail, or make mistakes of some kind. Yes it will be tough before it gets better, but to prop up a failing system is just postponing further and probably deeper problems. "

" It sounds like a bunch of rich CEO's are trying to save their millions in personal assests instead of taking responsibility for their mistakes. With Bush on his way out, it's a shame that we cannot wait for the next President to come into office and sort this matter out. However, since Bush is partially to blame for this disaster, he should try to get people in their who can fix this problem for the American taxpayers...not the millionaire screw ups!
These CEO's created this mess and they should not be allowed to keep their money while others are going to be broke as a result of their poor judgement. "

" Agree with the above. Why should we bail out big companies that made poor judgement, cheated and lied to homebuyers and creating this mess ? I say "No to the bail out plan". Let them sit with there losses and cut the strings of golden parachutes. Hold them accountable for there actions. "

" Thank you,'unclestuy' ! I,totally,agree with ya ! I had a premonition of things to come when this pres. was put in there. His attack on Iraq sealed the deal, so I painted on both sides of my red '59 chevy pickup truck,"Morally Wrong --Impeach" ! It's still there after 7years of Republican criticism. Some people are really blind ! To me the whole thing was very obvious. I give credit to God as I understand Him. Another gift from Him.
I SEE !! "

" I agree with Unclestuy. That's why I took all my money out of WaMu. I heard they were going belly-up and got out of there ASAP.

Hopefully JPMorgan Chase will be able to figure out the mess that is WaMu. "

" WaMu is not part of JP Morgan Chase so it's still solvent and will operate as WaMu for the time being... I'm concerned about the tax implications that the bailout will cause but I won't be as concerned if I'm layed off and don't have an income.

Assuming I get layed off I'm even more concerned my 401(k), mutual funds, stocks, etc have lost so much value that I'll now have to rely on social security and possibly welfare to get buy. With the bailout I'm hoping that dependency doesn't become reality.

If all us 'boomers' suddenly lost all our jobs and our nest eggs, eggs we've worked hard for these past decades, the disaster in store for the US economy for generations to come can hardly be fathomed.

Bless all of you still employed and paying taxes who will have to support all of us about to be tossed out on "Main Street" by the Wall Street debacle. "

" Paddy, have you looked at WaMu's website lately?

"WaMu customers, Welcome to JPMorgan Chase!

We're proud to welcome you to one of the nation's largest banks; as of September 25, 2008, all WaMu customer deposits are now JPMorgan Chase, one of the strongest finacial institutions in the world."

To my understanding, WaMu is now part of JPMorgan Chase Bank. "

" Funny, I don't remember anyone who made big bucks in the stock market offering to share the bounty with me, but now I get to share the loss with them. "

" Sadly, it seems that the greedy and the CEO's will still get theirs (or should that be, they will still get ours?).

This bailout will still give the CEO's their severance packages yet, it will not give those going through foreclosure (either currently or over the past year), any reprieve.

Rather then helping those at the top of pyramid, perhaps just this one time, they (our representatives), could have started with the bottom of the pyramid.

A "grant" of some 100 thousands of dollars, for the sole purpose of paying off home loans (followed by home improvements, medical bills and college loans), say capped at $250,000, could have kept hundreds and thousands of people from becoming homeless.

This would be known as "the trickle-up" approach (banks would still get "theirs", just not first), and we could all live much happier, ever, after...

Instead we get to pay off the debt incurred by the "war" and the failed economy (that is those of us that are lucky enough to have a job, an income and perhaps even a home).

If it affects a brother, a sister, a family member, a friend or a neighbor, someone walking down the street... negatively, then it affects me. "

" Other than my home being 300k less than I paid for it my personal economy is great. My wife and I are making largest salaries of our careers, we have a large sum of money in the bank, and we are putting lots of money in savings towards a new home. We have no debt other than our home and 2 cars. The type of work we do has no threat of downsizing, in fact we are looking at raises. "

" Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently. "