How Do You Make a DC Intellectual Look Less Articulate Than Sarah Palin Being Interveiwed by Katie Couric? That's easy. You ask them how failure to pass the bailout will give us a Great Depression. The odds are that your favorite DC intellectual type has uttered some dire warning like that. After all, they all heard some authority like President Bush or a highly respected news reporter make such a claim. All right-thinking people know that we just have to give $700 billion to the Wall Street crew or the economy will collapse. While all right-thinking people might know we need the bailout, just about all right-thinking people don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. (...) It is remarkable how the contemptuous comments that the elites have directed at the masses for opposing the bailout can be so much more accurately directed back at themselves. In fear and anger they have embraced a bailout that makes little sense in the context of the economic crisis facing the country. Rather than listening people who actually understand the economy (I doubt a single economist in the country believes that the bailout is the best way to help the economy) they have shouted down and shut out critics of the bailout and have been willing to spread all manner of outlandish scare stories to advance their case. It was impressive to see the mass outrage over the bailout at least temporarily stop the bill. But, the full court press by Wall Street, the media and the entire political establishment is hard to counter. If the bill is not stopped, those who vote for it should at least be held accountable for the economic mess they create. Remember, these are the folks that couldn't see the housing bubble.
That's easy. You ask them how failure to pass the bailout will give us a Great Depression.
The odds are that your favorite DC intellectual type has uttered some dire warning like that. After all, they all heard some authority like President Bush or a highly respected news reporter make such a claim. All right-thinking people know that we just have to give $700 billion to the Wall Street crew or the economy will collapse.
While all right-thinking people might know we need the bailout, just about all right-thinking people don't have a clue as to what they are talking about.
(...)
It is remarkable how the contemptuous comments that the elites have directed at the masses for opposing the bailout can be so much more accurately directed back at themselves. In fear and anger they have embraced a bailout that makes little sense in the context of the economic crisis facing the country. Rather than listening people who actually understand the economy (I doubt a single economist in the country believes that the bailout is the best way to help the economy) they have shouted down and shut out critics of the bailout and have been willing to spread all manner of outlandish scare stories to advance their case.
It was impressive to see the mass outrage over the bailout at least temporarily stop the bill. But, the full court press by Wall Street, the media and the entire political establishment is hard to counter. If the bill is not stopped, those who vote for it should at least be held accountable for the economic mess they create. Remember, these are the folks that couldn't see the housing bubble.
Again, the same question: why are we even listening to the "experts" that put us in the mess in the first place? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Admittedly, they are also saying that it's not the right plan. But the right plan does not seem possible to pass, and Republicans seem quite ready to hold the Economy hostage.
Anyway, another person we are listening to and who didn't put us into this mess is you, and I'm pretty sure I can remember reading you saying (and I agree with that) that we must act to mitigate the fall of the financial system. I'm not going to say 'save' in case it's understood as keeping it as it was -it's in dire need of major reforms. But an uncontrolled collapse would be dire.
The bailout is not the best way to help the economy. It's possibly the best we can get to kick the can along the road to a point where there can be no Republican veto, and somewhat competent people in federal agencies. "It failed because Nacy Pelosi said some unkind things about George Bush in her speech"
