House of Representatives rejects $700B bailout

If you haven't heard already, the House of Representatives rejected the $700B bailout plan that was tentatively hashed out over the weekend. So hang on hard for this economic crisis to drag on a bit. Most the representatives voted against the plan (228 - 205) due to lack of confidence in it and that the presidential election is so close. Neither party wants to be faulted if the bailout fails (For the record, the majority of Democrats wanted the bailout while the majority of Republicans didn't).

What does this all mean for us? Well, for the taxpayers out there who were worried they'd have to shoulder the $700B bailout, they don't have to worry about that anymore. But with Washington Mutual failing last week and Wachovia pretty much pimping themselves to Citi, I'm gonna take a guess and say that a couple more banks will fail. The frozen credit market will get more frozen. People will find it harder and harder to get funding for houses, cars, etc. Companies will have a hard time getting funding to do business (including paying employees). Sure this is all a wild guess. But at the moment, anything is a wild guess.

Critics of the bailout plan stated the plan did not address job losses and other stuff. And I know the plan does not touch previous contracts that grant "golden parachutes" to executives of companies that seek bailout. But I still feel we should do something instead of waiting for things to turn around. I agree that the billionaire executives have to be held accountable for the companies that they drove to the ground, but to say no to a bailout plan because we don't want to be the ones to fix it is pretty silly. It's almost NIMBY-like, if you ask me.

Oh by they way, stocks plunged when it appeared the bailout would be rejected. The House held the vote open for an additional 40 minutes, even pointing out markets were going down to convince the nay-sayers to switch votes. But of course that didn't happen. Anyhoot. At the current moment, no bailout plan = shrinking 401ks, IRA's, investment portfolios, etc. If I were you, I wouldn't look at your retirement plan. Let's see what happens when the House votes again.