IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

It's obvious that our country's economy is falling apart. Citizens are losing their jobs, families are being stripped of their homes and belongings, food prices are skyrocketing, gas prices are absurdly high and even the search for gas has become incredibly challenging. We are living in a frightening economic situation that not even the wealthiest of Americans feel comfortable in. This past Monday, September 29, 2008, the stock market dropped 725 points which is a huge loss for our free market system as well as our economy as a whole. The Bailout plan was devised by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Bush administration; the plan encompassed "giving" $700 billion to the banks. The Bailout bill has outraged a lot of the American public because this $700 billion is being taken directly from each taxpayers' pocket and Americans don't understand why our government would ever even think about giving money back to the source of the problem of the economic crisis--the banks. There are many factors that have contributed to this economic crisis, but I think one main issue is the problem of people buying houses that they know they will ultimately foreclose, which forces theses houses to sit on the stagnant market and decrease in value. Thus, the banks held "assets", referring to these worthless houses, and while knowing this the banks continued to claim these as assets. Can we trust the banks enough to give them more money to circulate throughout our economy? Should Obama and McCain be focusing on the economic crisis or their political standings in the United States?