A bailout in my opinion is short sighted.  If the problem is that people cannot pay their mortgages, what difference does it make who owns the note if you cannot pay it?  Job creation will get the economy moving again and will help the housing crisis short and long term and it will fix bridges, roads, schools etc.

We have had 8 straight months of job declines and spending is about to drop significantly which will throw retail under the bus, who is going to bail them out?  

They should renegotiate those loans in good faith and give people lower, locked rates so that they are affordable and take the hit in the margin.  The gov't should invest in infrastructure and do so in the same time frame Paulson is asking for in the bailout.

This move is pacification and prolonging the crisis.  ONce that 700 billion or Trillion is committed, where will any MONEY come from to address infrastructure and more importantly job creation?

Where are all the financial services folks going to work when the layoffs start next month?  More unemployment, dire outlook for at least a year and we are worried about the finance industry?

Every homeowner should be offered the option to immediately transfer any and all mortgages on owner occupied properties into government owned financing.  Interest rates should be fixed at 5%, which would be enough of an incentive for anyone with higher rates to switch.  Homeowners who are not in foreclosure would be offered the same deal.  The banks and mortgage companies would be paid a nominal fee to continue to process the loan payments for each loan they already own.  Management of foreclosed properties would be through HUD and/or VA, since both currently have infrastructure for housing and could increase capacity to manage the attorney contracts for foreclosure.  The transition would be seamless in the sense that homeowners would not have to qualify for the new loans with a refinance process.  The government would simply assume the loan, offer a new rate, and have banks continue to manage the payments.   The loans would be purchased with the same fake money that we'd be using to prop up the wealthy with the current plan, that is, borrowing and increasing the deficit.  Only in this case, the new owners of any foreclosed properties would be us, or rather, U.S.  A homeowner wouldn't have to do anything; their monthly payments continue unless they chose to make changes.  (Savvy homeowners can opt to continue to pay the same monthly amounts, or revise their payments to match the new interest rates.)  Homeowners with financing at less than 5% can choose to do nothing.  Banks would not have a choice in whether to participate on a loan per loan basis, but could opt out of the entire package, which would mean keeping their junk loans as well as the good loans.   Too bad they'd lose good loans, but they want a bailout, they got it.  The public needs some opportunity to recoup costs in the long term, and this way the multimillionaires won't suck up the proceeds over the next few years until the entire economy collapses.