Well, finance companies that were irresponsibly, even recklessly, managed get baled out. Their shareholders are relieved. The financial sector is relieved. The stock market rockets upwards. The overpaid CEOs retain their country mansions and yachts; as in the past they are not held accountable; their wives are amongst the few who can still afford to get their autumn outfits in Paris and Milan; the pain for both these executives AND the folk who borrowed knowing that they had no real long-term resources to cover that debt, is (at least partially) removed.

Everyone is happy!! But as Greenspan said, this is reckless financial behaviour. It is just delaying the chance for an economic recovery. The Fed has to print more fiat money. The dollar will go down and the real pain, taken away from those WHO SHOULD BE BEARING IT, will be covered by further loans by the Bush regime.

Which means that the problem doesn't disappear!! It just gets hidden where all the government foobars have been hidden for the past 25 years (except Clinton). BORROW BORROW. Americans seem to be too dumb to know it is just like the gambler covering his pain by borrowing. He still has the pain but now he also has the added pain of cumulative compound interest. It is exactly the same with our national finances. Exactly!!

Why does the gambler borrow? Because he hopes for a windfall to cover his debts. Will the GOP do the same? OF COURSE NOT, they have pledged to keep our massive war chest brimming, just like Dubya did. And that military war chest, which also serves to provide Halliburton with windfall profits, is TOTALLY funded by borrowing. The Republican regimes borrow, borrow again, and again, AND THEN THEY CONTINUE TO GAMBLE ON WAR!!!

So the pain will be transferred. We, yes, you and I, not those folk over there, are happy for this to happen – OK, maybe just slightly concerned, but that will soon disappear. This monster problem will be hidden from view. But all that has happened is that you and I have been spared the pain of our bad choice in governments, of supporting bad foreign policies (war) by voting for incompetents, of sitting by and watching the greatest cover up in national history. Because the problem HASN’T disappeared. It has just got worse. But that is no longer OUR problem. We got fat and someone else got the bill.

And that as why the US dream is receding so fast. That is why that magnificent US empire of the 50s, 60s and early 70s is crumbling so fast. We are fat. Not only that, we are wasteful. Not only that – but we think it is our God-given right to be, ours only; no other country is allowed those national traits without having to pay big-time.

BUT WORST OF ALL, we are over protected selfish whiners who expect someone else to cover for us. We do things on the international arena that we would NEVER permit any other country to do. Then we leave one day. We are spoiled whimps, fat selfish spoiled whimps. There!! I have finally had the cajones to say it out loud.

Don't believe me? Well, it is my RIGHT to drive 5 tonnes of gas-slurping steel to go to buy a six pack, while Europeans drive cramped compacts with small high-performance engines to save fuel. It is my RIGHT to create trash at more than twice the rate of a German. It is my RIGHT to heat my environment to summer temperatures in the heart of winter and to chill it to freezing in summer. Then when the power fails it is the Canadians´fault. It is my RIGHT to demand that the Mexicans provide me with water from their tributary of the Rio Grande so I can create more golf courses. It is my right to kill innocents in some far off country, "sh-t happens!!", but when it "happens" on my turf, it is a global tragedy and the entire planet should stop and reflect. Why? BECAUSE I'M SPECIAL. Yes, me. And I benefit just as you do from this national style and from this delay of the inevitable.

So we all are busy right now, passing the pain, the fruit of our greed and belief in our own invulnerability; we are passing our bill to someone else. And you can just here us say it, can't you - "Hell yeah, let some other sucker pick up the tab!!"

And that someone else was sitting on my knee five minutes ago when we read her her favorite bedtime story - my granddaughter. She is the one who will pay. And I feel quite ill at the thought.

Enough with the blame game. The catalyst for this economic collapse occured with the passing of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which rescinded portions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was signed off on by Bill Clinton so there is no sense in giving the man some sort of immunity from persecution.

Fact is, it was a joint failure on the part of both democrats and republicans and this bailout is indeed just a temporary solution. If it does not stimulate newfound confidence in the market then the US economy will be in trouble. I agree with klipkap, this is only a coverup, the banking institutions MUST be restructured to prevent another collapse.

Also, if I had any say in this, the corporate braintrust behind these major blunders would be publicly executed. Then again, thats just me.

__________________
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."
- Winston Churchill

Thanks for bringing up that point A11 1N. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 did indeed allow banks to expand their range of activities and enter into the fields of investment and insurance and to merge. It was supposed to improve competition in the thus-created Financial Services sector.

The Republican-introduced Bill was passed largely along party lines. The Democrats only supported it when additional controls were added. The Bill did not allow, as happens in Japan and Europe, for banks to own major financial institutions for fear of a conflict of interest. But there is a major difference, as we saw in the case of Enron. The Internal Controls are far more strictly watched in Europe than in the US - I know having worked on both sides of the pond.

We love "innovative" "value-adding" "outside-the-box thinking", and it led to the Dot Com bubble and to sub-prime lending, because our controls are cr-ap. We tend not to want to tell the boss news which we think he might not want to year. We LOVE the soft way out.

So we screw up the business, get baled out, and the cost gets hidden. We are SUCH a great country. We LOVE the SOFT way out. With all due respect A11 1N, I have to repeat - we are fat and selfish.

We are also fast becomming very fragile because outsiders hold most of this debt paper, and if times get really tense, that paper can sink us far more efficiently than missiles in Cuba .... trust me!! And now we are about to offer more of this dynamite paper. Watch Dubya go to Congress in a week or two to ask for authority to increase the debt level ----- yet again - *sigh*

For those who think I am exaggerating the runaway-train nature of the National Public debt, go to the Treasury's own site to see for yourself.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPD...application=np

From late June until Mid September 2008 (Friday), the public debt increased by $ 301 000 000 000. No, I did not make a mistake with the number of zeros. Get the magnitude of what happening to us now?

That's an increase of 3.21% - in not even 3 months, equivalent to an annualized increase of about 10%. Who on G-ods earth thinks we can afford to have debt increase at that rate. AND, over an amount that was already of nightmarish proportions?

And ..... wait for it .... given this multiple bale-out which has not yet been funded, as the venerable bard said .....

..... YOU AIN'T SEEN NUTTIN' YET!! .....

So now you know under which carpet Dubya has swept the excesses of his style. McCain? Why would he suddenly act different to George? The big black hole for costs - the Wars on foreign soil - will go on. Let's have a crack at Iran since we are already so deep in the debt doo-doo.