A: One of the arguments being made for the bailout is that by moving these bad loans off of banks' balance sheets, they'll feel better about making new loans and the credit crunch will ease. Whether or not it will actually work remains to be seen. Either way, lending standards have been tightened for sure. The "no doc" loan is a thing of the past, and it will still be harder for people without good credit to get loans. We've even seen stories about retailers struggling to get the loans they need to stock up for the holidays, which could mean trouble for a holiday shopping season that many people already expect to be grim. In short, if you have good credit, you should still be able to find a good mortgage. If not, you need to get to work repairing your credit.

Q: Is there anything positive about this bill?

A: Actually, yes, there are a few bright spots. After plenty of public outcry, the politicians saw which side of their bread had butter on it and voted to place curbs on executive pay for companies selling assets or buying insurance from the government.

The bill also sets up two oversight committees—a Financial Stability Board consisting of the Federal Reserve chairman, the SEC chairman and various Cabinet members and a congressional oversight panel. Will that be enough to prevent future shenanigans on Wall Street?  Probably not. In the Congressional area, some of the same people who were there years ago fighting oversight are heading committees!

Q: Was the bailout really necessary?

A: We're gonna give it to you straight: YES…but we don't think that it is the responsibility of the taxpayers to pay for the bad business decisions made by a bunch of financial companies and fat-cat CEOs, but that's what we're all going to be stuck doing.

Aren't we basically giving billions to the knuckleheads who put us in this mess in the first place, or, at the least, should have seen this mess coming? This is the same bunch that bought the toilet seats at $1000 a pop…and here we are giving them a blank check to buy mortgage paper that even the so-called "pros" are having trouble valuing? (Be sure to check out: "5 Secret Ways Banks Take Your Money.")

Frankly, we were glad to see Congress pushing back at the White House and the Treasury Department on this one. Where are the provisions to help regular people hold on to their houses through this crisis? Why aren't they letting poorly run banks that should fail go ahead and fail, while protecting us by protecting our deposits? That's how a free market economy is supposed to work. Panicked legislation is not going to solve this problem.

Q: Where should I put my money?

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