So for those of you who are invested in the markets, today is not looking good for you. Then again, the past few days have not been so good for many people especially if you do your banking with any of the failing banks that seem to be popping up left and right.
This afternoon, the US House of Representatives failed to pass a $700 Billion bailout plan that was the result of a weekend of compromises with the White House. The measure failed with a vote of 228 to 205. By the closing bell the DOW was down 700 points in what is now being referred to as Black Monday.
Now, I’m no economic major, and I’m still trying to figure out how this affects me, the country as whole, one thing I do know is that this is probably not a good sign.
The House and Senate were scheduled to recess until November 4th to give members time to campaign at home, however, both houses were in session for much of the weekend. The measure, though it had the support of the administration, failed to garnish support from many House Republicans and Democrats alike. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) blamed the failure on Speaker Pelosi’s partisan floor speech minutes before the vote opened. The house is currently in recess until Thursday when they will reconvene in hopes of passing a similar measure.
While party politics are a given in Washington and hard to get past, both parties need to come together to pass a measure that not only helps the financial sector but doesn’t leave the American Public paying for it for years to come. Until Thursday, keep your assets frozen (perhaps literally?) and hope for the best?
Perfect nutshell.
Sometimes it gets very hard to translate this kind of important news to the layman. And I think you put it best with:
“Now, I’m no economic major, and I’m still trying to figure out how this affects me, the country as whole, one thing I do know is that this is probably not a good sign.”
It’s the kind of speech I tout when speaking to my friends about it at dinners and outings. They don’t seem to realize the impact this COULD of had on them, had the American taxpayers needed to pay for the bailout.
What surprised me the most, besides hearing about the vote from Japanese News Source, is that it was competely the exact opposite of what the president implored the nation to do just days before.
~the president wrong again?~
I’m just saddened that it takes every seats’ re-election coming up to stoke the fires of progress.
Maybe we should re-elect House and Senate seats every week to get stuff done?? 🙂