It's a Good Thing

Despite all the doom and gloom, it's a good thing the "bail out" bill did not pass. Too much money to all the wrong people. Did they really think it would get banks to start lending money?

For one thing, banks have stopped lending to one another because they know what their own internal practices have been. They know what they've been doing with the money and how they keep score, so of course they don't trust one another. So why should the taxpayers trust them with $700B+?

And the Paulson pitch of "We've gotta get this thing done now!" reminds me of what I used to have to tell people on cold calls when I was a broker. You never wanted your victim ... er, prospect ... to have time to think things over.

For that matter, would giving more credit to overleveraged people and businesses who have been binging on easy money for several years be a good thing? Credit-worthy people and businesses are still getting money. Why are we rushing to throw good money after bad money?

Oh yeah, it's election time ... you don't buy votes, you merely rent them one election at a time.