No. A rescue of the failed credit system - hell, yes. You can't fuck with confidence in money, savings, deposits. That was the classic economic liberalism argument in the 30s. Apart from the hyper rich and opportunistic Trotskyist, everyone loses if the whole system fails.

That war you spoke about had origins in a banking crisis. FDR and Truman set up the regulatory authorities that provided the stability for reconstruction. We need that kind of leadership again.  

but we've been agreeing completely on this.  So, no surprise!

Unfortunately, many people are STILL not seeing this as a problem.  The answer I get most often is "so people will have to live within their limits"  ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!  It's not just the people overstretched who will be affected!  Why can't people understand that??

..a solution that already worked for us in the past, and Wall Street pays for it without much pain.

It's so simple I'm banging my head against the wall that these Democratic dupes aren't considering it.

If applauding these guys causes them to dig in their heals, I'm for it. Our Democratic leadership is in a position of strength and should be using that to craft a progressive bill to address that, not to window-dress an executive powergrab.

Make no mistake, it is window dressing. The "oversight"? Paulson can request the money as quickly as he wants. As soon as he does, Congress has 15 days to vote against it. Bush can veto that vote at any point without resetting that countdown. If they don't over-rule him with a 2/3 majority (ha!) before the end of the fifteenth day, then the money goes out and that is that.

The limits on executive pay? A joke. They only limit severence and only on new contracts and only for two years. Pathetic. A cute gesture. Now I don't feel we need to be focused on being punitive, but let's get real if that is one of our stated goals: this is an attempt to distract the voter and nothing more. It'll make campaign ads a lot easier. "Pelosi voted for limits on CEO golden parachutes. I'm Nancy Pelosi and I approve this pander."

The Bill hasn't had time to be vetted by the press and the people. And why? Because of an artificial doomsday date. The amount of money and the do-or-die date were both pulled out of this administration's ass. Wanna know why the market tanked on Monday? It's not because there was no bill; it's because there was no bill and people were expecting one. Bush and McCain's theatrics and our complicity allowing them to claim that the world was ending without being critical of that claim created, not predicted, the Monday crisis.

Repeat after me:

This.
Bill.
Is.
A.
Joke.

It's a blatant power grab that still lacks any meaningful oversight or spending guidelines. The best any Democrat in the senate has been able to say is that it "Give Henry Paulson the freedom to pursue a better tactic than the proposed one." The freedom? Oh good, because I'm certain this unelected Goldman Sach's shareholding Bush appointee is sure to take a measured approach to this crisis that has our best interests at heart.

Pathetic.

I hope that the Republican's manage to put this on hold until an Obama administration. I hope that we as Democrats take ownership of this recovery the way the Republicans are having to take ownership of the crash. I'm not willing to ransom the progressive agenda to the tune of 700 billion dollars to the Bush administration, and I'm certainly not willing to take the fall for their bad bill.

Fuck that. Can I say that here? Fuck that. FDR was offered an acting Presidency by Hoover months early. He turned it down, and Hoover certainly did manage to cause a fair bit of suffering with his poor leadership in the interim. What he accomplished by this, though, was avoiding tying himself to the existing agenda. By forcing the opposition to own the massive failure they'd allowed, he received a powerful mandate and that is what made the New Deal possible.

Sweeping reform doesn't happen just because you have the Presidency (see Bill Clinton). It doesn't happen just because you control Congress (see now). True reform (banking oversight, insurance and healthcare reform, limits on spending, increases in FDIC coverage, mortgage security etc) can only happen if politics is not a concern, and that only occurs with a mandate from the people. FDR knew how you get that mandate. You don't tie your own hands to make a two month period slightly less painful and a bad administration look slightly less ugly.

So go House Republicans! Thank you for having such delicate sensibilities that you inadvertantly saved us from our own spinelessness! Thank you for being even dumber than we are! Rah rah rah, go GOP! Hooray Fiscal Conservatism, amirite?

Now lets all stop worrying about placating the right and lets all stop crying about praising the right. Let's get together a small Progressive bill that will hold us over for a few months. Not 700 Billion free; 100 Billion focused and directed, and maybe less. Let's ram a Bill we like down their throats with full Democratic support. Bush wouldn't dare veto in the environment he himself has created. Then let's ride the inevitable down turn that no bill will prevent until we get to an Obama Presidency and lets get that New New Deal we've been talking about.

They will just move it all off-shore, of course. The only things worth financing are infrastructure and productive enterprises. Bad business "deals" do not need to be bailed out. Why give away our money to irresponsible bankers?

We need to support industries and farmers. Certainly not bankers! We cannot begin to afford such insanity!

That the damage has already been done and we are in a "Weekend at Bernie's" Economy?

Or that Hank Paulson is like Wile E. Coyote, whose body has already began plunging to the canyon floor, while his head and arms hold up a "HELP" sign?

When the economy was based on debt and the creditors have come knocking, there is no solution that involves more debt.

Such "solutions" only dig a deeper whole and prolong the decline. Such "solutions" have been tried since Nixon and guess what...

THEY DON'T WORK! THEY ONLY MAKE THINGS WORSE! AND PROLONG THE DECLINE!

The Democrats need to be the party of the real economy, i.e. production in excess of consumption and the savings differential invested in technological progress.

THE ONLY PLAN THAT WORKS!

But lighten up on 'the sky is falling'. Most economists not trying to hype Paulson's deal don't believe we're entering Great Depression II.

The economy is entering a recession. Housing and the stock market are over-valued. How over-valued is where 'sky is falling' hype gets its energy. Over-valuation depends on fairly stable beliefs and on investors needing to keep their money in the system somewhere. I don't think we're psychologically entering a period of completely lost faith in the U.S. economy and its assets. That's hype and despair getting a little out of hand.