I'm with most folks. I know that we probably need the Bailout - but I don't want it. The markets are going to be better today - because it's the end of the quarter and there are somethings that have to happen, and those events will cause a temporary improvement - but tomorrow it's going to be back downhill.
I was listening to various Congress "persons" and found myself nodding my head when several said, "Paulson had a YEAR to bring this information to us!" Yep... and then I read the following in Inman News and found myself nodding again. Sorry, Pres, but I don't think this is going to be a quick, down and dirty, vote.
"Most grown-ups know that it's a mistake to ask a group to vote on an important proposal without prior discussion. You wouldn't spring something big on your PTA, your HOA or your book club and demand an immediate approval. You wouldn't ask a Cub Scout troop to vote on a field trip without some testing of the water.
Hank Paulson would. Hank has had 13 months to prepare a contingency plan in case market solutions to this crisis failed, and quietly to explore alternatives with Congress. Instead, he dumped on Congress a three-page sketch of a highly technical and questionable proposal. Tuesday's hearings in the first minutes revealed bipartisan, confused, angry and incredulous Senators, and an ill-prepared Paulson.
This man, Paulson, has not only failed to advise us in the Senate, to develop his plans with us, to find out what we can sell to a wounded nation, he is not prepared to defend his idea! I watched part of the testimony beside an experienced trial lawyer, who after 15 minutes burst out laughing. I asked what was so "darned" funny; he said, "You can always tell when a witness has lost it -- they just babble." Reports today are unanimous that one of last night's negotiating sessions blew up when Paulson again bungled a description of his plan's benefits and execution.
Over last weekend another force erupted all over the country:native, grassroots rage over the bailout that would leave all the big institutions in place -- officers, directors, stockholders, all -- and offer to taxpayers the absurd promise of payback from hundreds of billions of trash that the institutions couldn't unload on anyone else.
You tell me your precious markets will melt down without this? Why do I care? Your stock market can go to "darn near" zero on Monday, and then you can come down here with me to find out how it feels not to be able pay the bills. More than half of Americans have no stake in these markets, no savings at all; and there is a political price to be paid for extreme inequality of income.
This bailout, incomprehensible to civilians and many experts and senators, should have taken ownership in the institutions involved. Proper vetting to Congress months ago would have gotten that done. Instead, the same ancient American forces that ignited the Palin phenomenon, Jefferson-Jackson-Bryan-LaFollette populism, have mobilized an anti-bank, anti-smarty-pants, street-level riot not seen in modern times." (rest of INMAN post here.)
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