Bailout Fails to Pass House, Dow Tumbles

It's on to Washington, troops!

 

Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for.

Now . . . off to blister my representative.

 

If you want to blame Pelosi for not whipping more Democrats into line, fine. That's a fair criticism.

The speech argument is just stupid. It's a talking point meant to cover Republican ass. They weren't voting for the bill regardless. If Pelosi had stood up there and said "I'd like to thank the courageous Republicans who broke with party ranks and saved this bill" it still likely would have failed. Don't get sucked into cable news spin cycle bullshit.

 

That red X will help in the fight, no doubt.

 

I don't think Americans necessarily want a bailout. I sense many people are prepared to deal with the harsh reality that much of what they thought they had was never really there. I sense a lot of people are willing to take the hit on their 401-Ks and retirements even though a lot of people, especially those close to retirement age, are going to suffer. But they definitely don't want to go forward without fixing the problem.

I think what people really want is a bill that contains rigorous and effective regulation and oversight to fix the corrupt political and business practices that have made the credit market a worldwide joke. They're calling Wall St.'s bluff and saying screw the bailout part of the bill.

Confidence and credibility in the markets, including the knowledge that we aren't looking at artificially inflated stock prices, will determine how quickly the US can grow itself out of this mess.

As a side note, I'm just amazed, though, at all of the free market proponents -- the very captains of industry and capitalism -- calling for government intervention. Just amazed. Capitalism doesn't need a bailout, it just needs to be better fettered.

 

Well, this would be my hard-to-follow logic: Most of the Democrats voted FOR the Bush bailout, despite the Republican presidential candidate's grandstanding attempt to take credit for it by suspending his campaign to "show leadership," etc.
Most of the Republicans voted AGAINST it.

Here is an instructive link on what happened:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/report-gingrich-stabbed-b_n_130487.html

 

Actually I think it was a combination of the people who were paying attention not wanting a bailout and the people who weren't paying attention (a much larger group) not wanting to "give money to a bunch of rich guys."