CAn anyone say.." The Peoples Republic of America"???

To me stocks seem to be government sanctioned gambling. You win big if what you invest in does well, and as in gambling you should lose if you lose. I just do not understand how if you lose a bet that you can call a mulligan and get your money back. What is really befudelling is how those that do not invest, live within their means (pay check to pay check) are going to have to pony up and cover that mulligan? What reason can someone give me that I who cant afford to even buy a house should give the federal government my tax dollars to help make sure some overpaid CEO can keep getting richer, while he keeps on screwing up?

I also like how the ones who were in favor of this tout this nonsense that "this is an investment". Well, if it's such a great investment then why did no private entity want ANY part of this? You did not see any big investors anywhere in the world jumping aboard this "great investment". Only the government was so foolish to take a gamble like this. If you really believe that this "investment" is going to increase in value, and you'll be getting dividends of it, you clearly have no idea how stocks work. All this capital infusion does is massively DILUTE the shares, so even if these banks have a huge turn around (which won't happen, but lets just say they do for the sake of argument) the stock will see very little growth; as the shares have been diluted so heavily.
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This whole thing is a pipe dream that was sold to you by the same people who got us into the credit mess, and the same ones who give millions to the politicians to buy their votes. Once this thing proves to be a miserable failure, I'll be sure to bring back up to all those supporters asking you "how is that great investment doing?"

Great...maybe M&I can go on a $400,000 vacay too! AND THEN get some more money from our government!

keep your money in a mattress.. AND don't Tell anyone.. with the interest rate the way they are, it is just about as safe in there as in a bank LOL

Just another good reason to do business with your local credit union.

Of course the securities are worthless now, but we have to pretend that they have value to convince the public that this is not a handout.

Those securities that the government are buying will end up being worthless after the banks get to work on congress for a few years. There may be a scandal and a few people may be prosecuted when the public realizes what has happened, but the money will be gone and there will be two or three more scams in the works by then.

The dirty little secret is that your largest banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, US Bankcorp, Citigroup) do NOT need this bailout. They are so largely capitalized that they could have absorbed all the losses of the sub prime and CDO's that they bought into because of PURE GREED. This was simply a ploy to to get rid of bad debt from their books, and the fools in congress bought right into the snake oil. NONE of these major banks were going to go under. Many of your smaller banks were, because they do not have the size (capitalization) to absorb the losses. The smaller banks would just be taken over by the bigger banks in a fire sale (much like WAMU, Indy Mac, ext were). Everyone who had a checking or savings account was perfectly safe with the FDIC that backs you. The whole thing was way over blown, and these banks CREATED the panic and non stop media coverage of the "crisis" to sucker idiots into giving them government welfare so they could go about business as usual.
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This whole bailout was just one big sell out. MASSIVE corporate welfare, and they sold it BEAUTIFULLY when after it failed in congress the 1st time. After that they came out and with the scare tactics saying "main street" citizens may not get their pay checks, would not be able to get car loans, ext. Of course that was all just a bluff to get their $$$$. As I kept telling everyone, this money is just going to be deposited by the banks.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...
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It won't do anything to ease credit, or lending. It was merely a ploy to correct their screw up's, and all the politicians who voted for it just showed they are sell outs to the massive corporate interests that infest both political parties.

"Well, whether you want to do business with them after they participate is your choice, but you will be an owner."
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Yah...that, and $2.75 will get you a beer.

Puffer, you are correct; the federal government will own preferred stock (with warrants to buy common stock) in exchange for the funding. Because bank stock prices have fallen so much, it is very likely that the government will make money from this program when they sell the stock. This is a method to provide liquidity so the banks will be able to lend again. This is NOT a handout, but an investment.

Well, whether you want to do business with them after they participate is your choice, but you will be an owner.

ihavealife, I watched that program too. It was the 7 LARGEST banks that were told to take the FED money and start lending. As explained in the show, if a few of those banks didn't take the money, then the banks that needed the money to make loans would be the scapegoats for the economy, and would probably see deposits drop off a cliff, which would hurt the economy even more.

All other banks will have to apply for bailout money. Actually, my attitude, of not doing business with local banks that take bailout money, is one of the reasons the seven largest banks were not allowed to opt-out of the program.

I meant BofA, not USB

ihavealife - not true that the only bank that doesn't need this is USB. Go check with your local community bank or credit union and see if they are seeing any of this bailout money.

What M&I is doing is selling shares of stock, not just taking a handout. The government will own shares of the company, which will have a value. This is done to increase the capital levels and allow the bank to lend out more money.

Banks that take the bail out should be required to suspend paying dividends to share holders and instead use those dividends to pay back the bail out money. Resume dividends to share holders after the American tax payer is “Paid in Full”

If I'm reading correctly, M&I wants bailout money not because it is losing money, but because it didn't make enough money for its investors. I know my investments have taken a hit. Who's going to bail me out? On the surface, this appears a little greedy to me.

Billy - FDIC insurance is not a bailout, it is INSURANCE. Do you consider your home or car insurance a bailout? Not likely . Banks pay premiums to have this coverage, just as you do for car insurance.

FDIC insurance and this "bailout" scam are two completely different things.

So does that mean that you will also not be putting money in any banks that offer FDIC insurance since that would also be considered a "bailout" from the government if the bank was unable to return deposits?

I agree Zoom.

I won't be doing business with any local bank that takes bailout money. I don't care if the problems were in Arizona. I hope the Gazette follows up after Nov. 14th to see what local banks applied for bailout money.