The companies that are getting the bail outs, were they privately owned or were they public?

Public, have not heard of a privately held company that is involved with the bail out so far (I could be missing one but I'm pretty sure there aren't any). This is why their demise could affect the entire US economy so drastically (lots of shareholders money at stake too, in other words if you are part of a Union or have a 401K or any type of retirement plan you could be one of these shareholders I speak of), these companies have investors from all over the world and this is why the world is interested in what we are going to do with these companies also.

The Largest Public companies: The Global 2000 - Forbes.com

The Largest Private companies: America's Largest Private Companies - Forbes.com



Seems that you are unaware of a few basics on this subject, I'm not trying to be condescending or anything like that and I hope this will educate you a little better, it is not the whole story and some could be off a bit but it should give you enough to understand this a little more:

Privately held companies are can be formed in a number of different ways but most are responsible to it's owner and the owner of the company can dictate the direction of the company and can distribute profits how they see fit for the most part. A privately held corporation COULD have one person that is the president, VP, Sec, shareholder and board of directors and as such could be control the company very similarly to how a sole proprietorship could, as long as it is done abiding within corp laws.

Publicly held companies are companies that are typically corporations and will have different people in executive positions and offer it's stock (ownership share) for sale to the public and in doing so takes on a Fiduciary responsibility to those that purchase this stock. The President is responsible to the board of directors and the shareholders and decisions made are supposed to be made in their best interest. Both the board of directors and shareholders hold meetings (some public some private) and this is where both parties are to be informed of the dealing and decisions made by the company as well as the profits earned that will be distributed to these parties and employees.

Companies typically 'go public' in order to raise additional capital without having to borrow in a typical manner and rather than borrowing from the banks they borrow from the public by letting them risk a $ investment for a portion of ownership and when the company earns money the shareholders make a % of that profit based on the #of shares owned and/or the value of the stock goes up earning the shareholder money on their investment in the company. If the company looses money then no profits are available to distribute to shareholder and so they don't get money this way and the stock price goes down and they loose on the initial investment looses value.


Tie this all together and the public is VERY intamately involved in this crisis no matter how you look at it. If the bail out survives and passes the tax payer has the potential to looses out because of the need for higher taxes and inflation starts to happen while the value of the $ goes down and they need more $'s to purchase the same goods they are used to purchasing (food, gas, health ins, ect).

If nothing happens and they let these institutions fail from natural market forces, people and institutions that have invested in these companies loose because the stock price bottoms out and there is no longer any funds available to repay even the initial investment of these share holders, the company closes and everyone is SOL. This seems like the best course typically, everyone learns a hopeful lesson and moves on, BUT when you consider who these shareholders are you might not think they should have to suffer this negative consequence. These are individuals, money markets that hold individual persons 401K's, pensions, retirement accounts, ect. In addition these same type of money managers have investments from ALL OVER the world.

Very catch 22ish, now during the tough economic times everyone tightens up and hordes liquid cash to get through the tough times, larger taxes become more of a burden further tightening the views of people needing these reserves to survive since money is not easy to borrow or the rates of interest are too high to borrow vs the income this borrowing would provide. So IMO any tax increase is a poor decision, we should be looking at some of the wasteful spending and stop it.

OH yeah one more thing to take into consideration is that with so many foreign investors that own these MBS think about the transfer of our sovereignty as these 'investors' start to foreclose on these loans and start to own these homes and the land they are on?

Also, think about what these countries will do to PROTECT their citizens investments or what could happen if a country like China, that is in a growth mode and could afford it, offers to purchase these from those investors and once they own a large portion of these what could happen? Will they purchase these MBS from their citizens and once they foreclose and own this land, will/can/should they try to claim it as a territory and sell give it to their citizens? Talk about a REAL take over plan.... think about it.

Speaking of China, Cadbury candies are being recalled. I'm becoming afraid to buy stuff made in China. I'm going to start checking my labels. I don't want to end up poisoning my family with tainted goods.

Word on the street is the tainted Cadbury Eggs have been proven 100% effective as a morning after vaginal suppository......

No they're good for birth control, they kill you and then you don't have to worry about pregnancy.

Effective population control! China does have some very progressive policies in eugenics maybe this is one of those!

Or maybe they figured that their countrymen have been effective at this and now it is time for other countries to do their parts... GOT MILK?

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Warning, this substance contains Melanine, and has a rather sever side effect of death. Using this substance is not recommended for any one that wishes to continue to live.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis