If Shakespeare were alive and had recently met Henry Paulson, the question he might have asked would have been: Do we reach $700 billion or not? On September 26, 166 American economists including 3 Nobel Prize winners asked Bush not to pursue the brilliant $700 billion package of his “Golden Men” team, calling his plan a “subsidy” for businesses. Robert Lucas, a 1995 Nobel Prize winner and economist at the University of Chicago, says: "It doesn't seem to me that many decisions that we will have to live with for a long time need to be made by Friday." So is this $700 billion any good? Before you ponder this, you must remember that not just the 300 million US citizens will be affected, but rather the ripples will be felt by 6 billion people around the world, not this one. The United States gave nearly $150 billion in taxpayer refunds in February this year hoping to revive the economy and yet all Bush Jr. achieved was a couple of months where Wal-Mart's sales were increase. After what? You guessed it right! More freebies! The $200 billion guarantees from Fannie and Freddie Mac, the $75 billion AIG loan and still no change! The recent $280 billion that was donated just a few weeks ago, where did it go? Big banks have swallowed everything in their coffers to prop up balance sheets, but this has not reached the real economy, so why should $700 billion, which is just the total of all the above figures, be any different? You don't give checks to those who will use this money to stock up in their lockers to feel good about themselves and above all not to those who have articulated so far the entire epic that is being filmed...... paper medium.... ... what Marc Faber said in June 2008 and is now a big hit in the shipping community ''The federal government sends each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China. If we spend it on petrol it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we buy fruit and vegetables we will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we buy a good car it will go to Germany. If we buy useless crap, it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on *********** and beer, as those are the only products still produced in the USA. I've done my part." If you haven't found out what asterisks are yet, Google it! ;-) Sushil Thaker - Working with a Big 4 Accounting and Consulting Firm Also at http://trashcanresearch.blogspot.com