We need the Bailout. No matter how much it hurts. the outcome is worse.

Economic reports are staggering besides the weak housing report,

• new claims for unemployment benefits shot up last week to the highest level in seven years.
• Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by a much-bigger-amount than expected amount of 4.5 percent in August.

Both indicate the rising pressures facing the economy.

• The big drop in new home sales
• the steepest housing downturn in decades.

That housing slump has contributed to a record surge in mortgage defaults, 

• billions of dollars in losses by financial firms
• severe credit crisis that is threatening to send
• the country into a steep recession.