Does anyone believe our Economy is safe?

Also does anyone believe that our government has any clue about how we are going to pay for this financial mess that we are digging deeper into?

This is no longer a Democrat vs. Republican thing because both parties are very clueless as can be, and are at fault for the billions on billions of dollars that has been wasted in Iraq, and bailing out mortgage giants like Freddie Mac.

So how will we pay for this mess we are in, or will we pass the buck onto our next generation?

By DALE McFEATTERS

Do we never learn?

In the 1980s, Congress, for what seemed good reason at the time, deregulated the thrifts -- savings and loan institutions -- and what followed were several intense years of wildly risky speculation in real estate and development, fueled by the creation of new and at the time exotic financing like brokered deposits and the bundling of mortgages for sale to Wall Street.

The inevitable bust cost the taxpayers about $125 billion but they and their lawmakers could do little but sigh, write the checks and vow it would never happen again.

Once again, a real estate boom fueled by exotic and risky investments has gone bust and the taxpayers are again being asked to step in and pay for the mess. The head of the Congressional Budget Office has warned Congress that propping up the federally chartered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might cost $25 billion or, worst- case scenario, $100 billion. Remember, we're already on the hook for the $30 billion the Federal Reserve poured into the Bear Stearns bailout.

CBO director Peter Orzag told the lawmakers that there's better than an even chance that the taxpayers won't have to step in. Somehow, having one of the nation's top numbers crunchers quoting odds on the health of the nation's largest mortgage holders is not all that comforting.

Treasury secretary Henry Paulson is urging Congress to act quickly on a support package for the two secondary mortgage holders. Between them, they own or guarantee almost half the country's home mortgages, which they have resold in the form of $5 trillion in debt. Over half of that is held by U.S. financial institutions, the rest by foreign investors.

It's fair to ask how our lawmakers and regulators could let federally chartered institutions get caught up in a speculative boom, especially with such clear-cut precedents. For now, we can only sigh and write the checks.

Maybe next time we'll have learned.

the people of the Unites States needs to get ready for some really hard times 3 to 6 months from now....

I feel we are screwed.....The only people that will be able to help us it the people of this nation....and it will take a few years....

How so many people have ignored the fact that those rebate checks that many Americans are cashing is also fuel to the fire.

I mean between the rebate checks, the Iraq war, the Housing crash, the flooding in the mid-west that has ruined crops, and many other things does anyone see the road of disaster we are traveling down?

Even if oil and gold drops while the dollar grows stonger it does not mean we will be heading out of the dark times if no solution in how we are going to pay for this mess is found.

I guess passing the buck is the solution to many, but at least there are a few on here that understand the fact that what this government has done, is doing, and will do is not good for us now, or in the future....