For once, the Senate and the House, Republicans and Democrats came together to do what no one wanted to have to do and hopefully take the first step to getting the economy back on track. Mind you, this is not a quick fix. We will have years of work to do. And when it is done, things cannot be the same.

No one wants the government to be so involved in private enterprise, but when the private enterprise affects the lives of not only every person in America, but throughout the free world as well, there is no choice. Either step in or watch as everyone’s 401K drops to nothing, unemployment world wide mounts to an unprecedented high and become known as the ones who stood by and let it happen.

In short, the by out turned out to be a real compromise. The House Republicans would not support the bill because they wanted the government to issue insurance instead to the companies . That has been incorporated into the bill. And if the government has not recouped all losses within 5 years, a plan must be submitted to Congress outlining how they plan to accomplish it. The bill also has a provision for the financial community to pick up the slack if the investment is not back in the five year period. The government will put in as much as $700 billion, but to start off with, it will be about $325 billion This is not a blank check. Executives of the companies involved will have their severance packages reduced to a lot less than they expect to get. The government will also be required to renegotiate the bad montages that it is picking up so the homeowners get a lower monthly payment and avoid foreclosure. The government would also get stock warrants which means the taxpayers would get a portion of any future profits.

This is not the first time this has been done, and it has been done by other countries, not only the United States. Back in 1989, we bailed out the savings and loans. But it took a long time for things to get stabilized again. It took Sweden two years to get back on track after they did the same thing, so this will not be a quick fix. The markets will go down and things will get worse before they get better. But, based on history, they will get better.

One thing for sure, and executive of any of the companies who is found to have done anything illegal- and this is not to say they have, but it needs to be looked into – had better be prepared to become very poor.

As for the countries who are saying that the United States is dead, that capitalism is dead and our Constitution is no good and we need a new one, just watch and see what we can do.