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From confusion to anger, Central Illinois sounds off on bailout
Mammoth financial aid package is the talk of town
By Michelle Koetters
mkoetters@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- These days, it seems everybody on Wall Street and Main Street is worried about the economy. As the federal government announced its proposed $700 billion bailout plan for the nation’s financial industry, Americans are struggling to figure out what it means for them and their country. | Senate leader: Significant progress on deal | No bailout: Got a better idea? | VIDEO: Local reaction to bailout

In Central Illinois, the mammoth financial aid package is the talk of students, professionals and retirees. Some are befuddled, while others are simply angry.

The bailout debate comes in the midst of another roller-coaster week on Wall Street as stock markets seesawed on news the government wants to buy bad mortgages and other slumping assets, most held by giant financial companies. Lawmakers, though, have spent the past few days bickering over terms.

The scenario has created scary superlatives. Not long ago, the market nosedived more than 500 points in a single day. President Bush addressed the nation Wednesday and warned the country is in the midst of a “serious financial crisis.” The following day, the largest bank collapse in U.S. history occurred when Washington Mutual failed.

“There’s a lot to it. … We’ll hope for the best,” said Mike Wieting of Bloomington.

The massive scope of the problem leaves Central Illinoisans in a quandary. They are concerned about the increased government debt and the unfairness of fixing a problem many say is caused by corporate greed with tax dollars. But they also worry about what might happen if nothing is done.

Footing the bill

Wall Street, not taxpayers, needs to take the brunt of the responsibility to pay for the predicament that stems from how corporations marketed certain mortgages, including adjustable rate loans that were offered as a way to own a home with low rates and payments, Wieting said.

Wall Street professionals made those loans and they should pay, agreed his wife, Molly Wieting.

Other Twin Citians share their views.

Graduate student Brian Grebliunas of Bloomington compared the bailout to a test a student failed. The student can’t expect the teacher to add 50 percentage points to a 40 percent score, said Grebliunas, who attends Illinois State University.

“It’s up to the person that messed up to fix the problem,” he said.

Kate Weiskopf, a senior at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, doesn’t place any weight on the argument that individual borrowers are at fault because they should have known better than to get involved in such loans. Those loans shouldn’t have been offered in the first place — and only were allowed so businesses could turn a quick profit, she said.

“They shouldn’t expect us to bail them out for their wrongdoings,” Weiskopf said. “These companies knew these people wouldn’t be able to afford these mortgages.”

While he’s opposed to the bailout because it involves taxpayer dollars, octogenarian Joe Russell of Normal sees it a bit differently.

Russell, who lived through the Great Depression, had to wait to buy things he wanted until he could afford them. Credit woes today are partly because individuals in younger generations want too much, he said. On the other hand, people running companies also convinced families to live above their means, he said.

A bailout will not fix the economy because it will send a message that corporations can continue to allow those loans, and eventually history will repeat itself, said Mitch Lovgren of Normal, another ISU graduate student.

Plus, if a mom and pop store makes a poor investment, no one bails out that business, he said.

“It’s playing favoritism on Wall Street,” Lovgren said.

But what if?

But some Central Illinoisans are conflicted.

Duncan Lawson, a sophomore at IWU, is a believer in capitalism and survival of the fittest, but the bailout could be a good move if it helps the economy flourish again.

Andy Mardis of Bloomington is primarily against the plan, but he’s open to the idea if it helps the stock market and people close to retirement who need money they’ve invested.

“I’m more of a fair market guy,” Mardis said. “You have to balance that with you don’t want the market to collapse.”

Mardis and his wife, Lucy Mardis, have concerns about the stock market and their 401(k) accounts and mutual funds. But they’re more concerned about people closer to retirement, since their money has time to rebound and grow.

“It’s a little bump in the road, but it can actually be to my advantage,” he said. “Stocks are on sale right now.”

Kay Wilson of Normal is also torn. She doesn’t like the $700 billion price tag, but she also worries her investments could lose value.

She supports parts of the bailout that would cap the salaries of company CEOs and add restrictions on mortgages. Corporate greed and carelessness — decisions that went beyond reasonable risk — led to this problem, she said.

“They were making lots of money for a while, but then things started to fall apart,” Wilson said.

With that fallout, she and others like Joanne McNeely of Lexington know something has to be done.

But McNeely isn’t sure what the answer is either.

Government needs to put money into education and health care but claims it can’t afford to, so it shouldn’t spend money for a bailout either, McNeely said.

“That’s a huge amount of money they’re looking at,” she said. “Where’s that coming from?”

As lawmakers hammer out issues this weekend, with the hope of resolving their differences later today, Grebliunas and Weiskopf also worry about the national debt and the possibility of inflation.

“You can’t just print money to do stuff like that,” Grebliunas said.



That’s a lot of zeros



We all know the government wants to spend $700 billion to bailout the country’s sagging financial industry. But what else could you do with that money? What if it stayed on Main Street, rather than Wall Street?

Here are some suggestions:

• Pay State Farm Insurance Cos. CEO Ed Rust’s 2007 salary of $11.71 million for 59,777 years.

• Buy every McLean County resident 1,161,542 gallons of gas.

• Pay the $250 million in annual payroll, taxes and benefits at Mitsubishi Motors North America for 2,800 years.

• Build 19,553 U.S. Cellular Coliseums at a cost of $35.8 million each.

• Buy 3,713,291 average-priced homes in Bloomington-Normal.

• Buy every man, woman and child in America 121 large A La Baldini pizzas from the Lucca Grill in Bloomington.

• Make every resident of McLean County an instant millionaire by writing them each a check for $4,263,041.
Take a look
Brian Grebliunas, left, and Mitch Lovgren, both Illinois State University graduate students, wait for their breakfast Friday at the Filling Station restaurant in Lexington. (The Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)
Duncan Lawson, an Illinois Wesleyan University student, said Friday he's not sure how he feels about the proposed $700 billion bailout package. (The Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)
Joe Russell of Normal talks Friday about the proposed bailout package during a quarterly birthday celebration at the Community Activity Center in Normal. (The Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)
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Reader comments on this story - 34 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

KRAMER wrote on Sep 28, 2008 7:20 PM:

" THATS JUST WHAT WE NEED 19,553 U.S. Cellular Coliseums.. The one we have has lost over $250,000.00 this year already.. "

wkndwrrior79 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:19 PM:

" One more point, greed is what has killed soo many civilizations. We're on the same path. Who really needs to make multimillions of dollars a year. Who really needs that much money "

wkndwrrior79 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:13 PM:

" Here's an idea, take all of the CEO's and others who made the multimillion dollar profits and make them pay for it. They are the reason we are in this mess. All the bail out plans does is prove that the rich can do whatever they went with your hard earned money and they'll get away with it (including several politicians). By passing this, congress is just going to once again help themselves, and their buddies so that they get away with it. Besides maing the people pay for their mistakes, all involved parties should have EVERYTHING repo'd. I mean after all, this is what's happenening to the middle class people because they are too far in debt, or many number of reasons. "

Not so Political wrote on Sep 28, 2008 2:22 PM:

" if a bank or anyother business can not make it, we should not have to provide them with support. let them crash they would not have help us small people out if we were in need. "

420 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 2:21 PM:

" lol, if this does not send alarm bells off I don't know what else will.
The government needs a complete overhaul. The government is our worst enemy as terrorism comes in many forms of which our government has displayed for long enough..
Revault rebel this is a call for all freedom loving people to stand and take our nation back while we can. Oust every governmental figure in office and hire a pre-schooler to do the job right...
Sick of it... "

Cthulhu wrote on Sep 28, 2008 1:55 PM:

" This is a big power- and money-grab by the Democat congress. We should not be bailing out millionaires with their golden parachutes. We will never see that tax money again. "

OGS wrote on Sep 28, 2008 1:10 PM:

" The insanity by Congress to spend, spend, spend on war and bank bailouts benefits only the rich and shafts the little guy. "

pseudo-intellectual wrote on Sep 28, 2008 12:31 PM:

" I'm curious... most of the readers/commenters here are probably contributing to a 401-K plan. How do you feel about continuing to do that? How much have you lost on paper the last year and a half? There will probably be new rules on Wall Street that will attempt to rein in speculation, which could reduce the gains that in times past drove the markets sky high (irrationally so, according to Alan Greenspan). Right now stocks, especially mutuals, have lost their appeal to me. "

beowulf wrote on Sep 28, 2008 12:00 PM:

" To gwife2 - Let's say we give 1000000 (1 million) dollars to 100000000 (100 million) people. Do you know how much that would be? 100000000000000 (100 TRILLION) DOLLARS. The national debt is, at this moment, 9.7 trillion dollars. Please people - you are obviously sitting at a computer to post these comments. Please use the calculator before you start posting these ridiculous numbers. "

beowulf wrote on Sep 28, 2008 11:45 AM:

" To "In The Know" - Please do your own math. 700 billion divided by 100 million comes to 7 thousand. I don't know about you, but 7 grand isn't enough to pay off my car much less my house. What radio station did you hear this on? "

beowulf wrote on Sep 28, 2008 11:40 AM:

" Support for this "bailout" is down to about 24 percent, but yet they keep pushing forward. Who's in charge and when will "We The People" say "ENOUGH!!!"? You thought you were smart enough to not get involved in these "investments"? Too bad, you're buying them anyway - whether you like it or not. You say you didn't screw up average american? Too bad, you're gonna pay for it anyway. Don't like it? Too bad. You people aren't going to do a thing about it, except complain on a message board, and they know it. There is no better slave than one who believes they are free. "

2tired wrote on Sep 28, 2008 10:34 AM:

" Giving wall st 700 billion doesn't stop the issue. The issue is people have loans they can't pay either someone sold them a bill of goods and lied on their applications for the loan or they have an interest rate that is out of control. Giving Wall st 700 Billion isn't going to stop these two thing. Why not sit down go over the loans give people fixed interest rates they can afford then the banks will get their money. Pushing bad debit from one person to another still isn't going to get the person who has the loan to pay when they can't afford it. Fix the problem where it's at not at the rich person level "

candi wrote on Sep 28, 2008 10:23 AM:

" Hey, Blackneto...
Take the $4 mill. check..then you can buy yourself a whole lot more than 121 pizzas, and have lots of cash left over.....! "

Bluedog wrote on Sep 28, 2008 9:34 AM:

" The doctors ( Bush, Paulson Bernacke, etc. ) are saying that we are going to contract a very serious or even terminal disease ( recession or depression ) in the future. The cure ( bailout ) is going to be a very nasty treatment to endure. Due to past performances by the " doctors" the patients ( taxpayers ) are very skeptical of the prognosis yet fear the outcome if for once they are correct ! "

Jarhead71 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 9:29 AM:

" They vote bailout, we vote them out! It is as simple as that. Keep track of how they vote. Then you vote accordingly. "

bankpanic wrote on Sep 28, 2008 8:25 AM:

" Business Week listed Bloomington, IL as the #2 city in the US to be hit the hardest by the Meltdown. Russian and Venezuela have teamed up for Arms and a Gas Cartel . Go to the source of the securties trading and find out what country or HEDGE fund managers created this mess. SHOW US THE MONEY TRAIL. "

who cares wrote on Sep 28, 2008 7:59 AM:

" they say our economy has recovered from 9/11/01.that is a shinny bright lie.i can look at numbers from my 401k and mutual funds and see that is not true.they also say mutual funds should double ever 7or8 years.they may have in the past but they're not doing it now.i dare anyone that disputes that to look at there funds before 9/11 and now.you tell me what numbers higher.look around people it's all one big lie,the government,the market.to prove that look at joe kennedy.then they put the fox in charge of security on the hen house.that's ok it's a round world all the ceos and big wheels that are going to benefit from this will have something come back and bite them on the ass. "

anon66 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 7:44 AM:

" I want to know when the "bailout" is going to happen for the small businesses who are going down because of the people who don't make good on the commitments they made to them. We have taken out loans and made our payments on time to meet payroll and pay for insurance, etc., just because our clients don't pay us and/or file bky on our bills (with signed contracts). We are just as vital to the economy as the banks who made these bogus mortgages and the people who live in these ridiculous McMansions with 3-4 car garages and maids. "

ktlin wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:28 AM:

" Is the problem because houses are increasing in price too much or the number of houses are increasing. If so a bailout will not stop that. Is it because the interest rates are too low. It sounds to me like a bailout will just delay fixing the problem and they may not know what the problem is. I have noticed long ago the desparity between the rate of interest on money loaned and the rate on savings. That is really out of whack. Is that partly behind this mess? If not what is the problem (not who made the problem)? "

ktlin wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:27 AM:

" I am trying to figure this out. People had loans either low interest or no principal only interest at variable rates. I wonder if some just didn't pay period. So like in everything you lose your house and go on. The bank repossesses and resells the house. The others couldn't pay because the interest rates and housing values went up and they now couldn't afford them. On these if the banks worked with the individuals and didn't raise the rates or figured a fixed loan even if it were for 60 years or retroactive even (in calculations) so that the individual could make the payments and the loans would still be good I would think the owner could still keep the house and the bank would still get the same money. Instead the owner is losing the home and the bank is losing its business unless they are given money. What about the loans that are fixed and people are paying the same thing they always have and always will? What is missing here? Apparently it is in the amount of money they have available to loan and invest. "

LifeisLife wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:16 AM:

" What makes me so upset about this bailout is that the right will be the first to talk about how stretched the economy is from welfare, and that people of welfare got into this mess. Why should my tax dollars pay for your mess? It boggles my mind how people can say they are true christians one second (Bush) and think that its ok to find money to bail out the rich with 700 billion dollars and fund wars, but swear with the same "christian tongue" thats its not okay to feed hungry families for $300 a month or use tax payers dollars to fund community programs for the less fortunate. I don't know what Bible you people are reading because the God I know and love would never condone these actions! "

ktlin wrote on Sep 28, 2008 6:06 AM:

" As somone said, why are these all failing now? I want to know what happens to the houses when they are repossessed. Who ends up with them and the money after they are sold again? A lot of people are blaming those who bought houses they couldn't afford. And that part is true. However if you give money to someone you know won't pay it back whose fault is it? I think these banks overextended on people they knew most likely would not pay it back. And apparently they now have houses instead of cash. So the government is buying the houses? Or are we giving these businesses money and the houses. "

candy wrote on Sep 27, 2008 9:51 PM:

" The taxpayer (who is already struggling) now has to bail out the CEO's that failed in running their company so they can keep their 10,000,000 a year salaries and outrageous bonuses? Seems like a ripoff to me. So then what happens when the next huge company fails? We have to do this again? I say divide up that money and give it to the taxpayers. The mortgages that are failing can be paid if everyone had that kind of money. No more crisis. Problem solved. "

buckeye wrote on Sep 27, 2008 8:49 PM:

" For decades we have seen steelworkers, autoworkers , coal miners , construction workers , laid off , and not one attempt to bail them out . let these bankers and insurance folks see what its like to be unemployed , wall street never cared about mainstreet why should we help them.? As for thoes in forclosure dont borrow more than you can pay back , life lessons are sometimes expensive , learn from your mistakes. NO TAXPAYER BAILOUT FOR ANYONE> "

Greed wrote on Sep 27, 2008 7:52 PM:

" European countries are getting in line to be part of the bailout, demanding payments to their banks from Uncle Sam for the bad paper they purchased from the now defunct U.S. investment banks. BTW, those of you that think you will have to pony up cash to pay for the bailout can relax. The FED isn't borrowing the money, they are printing it. Repayment will be in the form of inflation, hopefully enough to drive up the prices of foreclosed real estate. There is no guarantee this will work. It has never been done before on this scale. We may get to see if it would have worked in 1929, as many in the Milton Friedman (He invented supply side trickle down economics) school of Economics have contended. If it doesn't work, Friedman was wrong all along. I am more inclined to favor the teachings of
John K. Galbraith. "

tatbtime wrote on Sep 27, 2008 7:13 PM:

" The way I see it as a simple minded, fair person is: We are screwed either way! "

The Original JD wrote on Sep 27, 2008 6:50 PM:

" The reason the government has to bail them out is simple. The government created regulations to open loans up to people who were not previously qualified for them. The reason they were not qualified? Because they did not have the income to pay back the loans. Result, they did not pay back the loans the government regulated they be qualified for...surprise surprise. So now in order for the government to hide their screw up with regulations, they are going to bail them out and regulate them again, creating the illusion of stability until the next snafu which will be worse. "

In the Know wrote on Sep 27, 2008 6:48 PM:

" why not give the 100 million people who file tax returns an equal cut of that 700 billion, as stated on a radio show the other day....and let us spend it to pay off our homes, college, new cars, etc. "

gwife2 wrote on Sep 27, 2008 6:25 PM:

" I say give every American who does not have total asset of one million dollars, 1 million dollars. That way people can pay off thier debts, spend, invest, put money in banks and give back to the economy. Isn't this how some banks are run? People put money in...lets people take money out. Same as the economy. It doesn't have to be exactly 1 million dollars. It could be half that or a little less. They could cap it like if you are married you get one lump sump amount, if you are single you get this lump sum amount. etc. We would have to pay taxes on this money too and that could be taken off of the checks before we even get them. Puts more money back into the system as well. "

Zeva wrote on Sep 27, 2008 6:10 PM:

" From what I heard, 3 out of 4 did not want this bailout, will they get it??? I called Washington and told them NO BAILOUT. In Illinois the number to call your congressman is 1-202-224-2152 to voice your opinion. You actually get a human being and not a recording. This number I took from the net web site. They are interested in your opinion and hopefully they will listen to us. "

JMK wrote on Sep 27, 2008 4:49 PM:

" If you read up on the bailout, it's actually very likely that taxpayers could end up making money on the bailout if it is done correctly (and it's close in its current form). All of these bundled loans are currently being sold for $0.10 to $0.20 on the dollar - in all likelihood, they are worth well more than that and once we get past this panic, could be sold in the open market for 40 to 50 cents on the dollar. After all, it's not like EVERYONE who bought a house is being foreclosed on... higher than normal, yes, but certainly not everyone. My source is relatively strong understanding of the debt market and an article on nationalreview.com. Check it out. "

Brenstalka wrote on Sep 27, 2008 4:10 PM:

" Nice product placement for Lucca Grill. Also, nice attempt at making the Coliseum sound like it didn't screw Bloomington out of a lot of money.

"Centraol Illinois sounds off..." Based on the layman's knowledge of the subject matter, you could have just as easily interviewed some first graders to see what they thought. "

average american wrote on Sep 27, 2008 4:07 PM:

" I took a responsable loan even after a divorce and I make my payments on time. Why should I have to pay for bad lending? What are they going to do for me? You made your bed now sleep in it. "

Blackneto wrote on Sep 27, 2008 3:14 PM:

" of all the choices i'll take 121 large A La Baldini pizzas. enough of those spread around will cure many ill's "
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