The Meltdown

The biggest news right now is not putting lipstick on a pig, but the meltdown on Wall Street. I don't really get economics, so I haven't been writing about it, but if you want some commentary that seems to know what's what, check out Paul Krugman's blog at NYT. He's got a background in economics and is one of the more rational people writing about it.

All I can say is that the Bush/Paulson plan stinks -- no regulation, no caps on the platinum parachutes for the people who created this mess, and no relief for the people who are really being screwed, the mortgage borrowers. Typical Bush, right?

Via Crooks and Liars, here are some of Paulson's comments on the proposed bailout:

But, remember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. And the American people don’t care who owns the financial institution. If a financial institution in this country has problems, it’ll have the same impact.

I can't believe he can say stuff like that with a straight face.

And here's a blistering commentary from Glenn Greenwald on the dimensions of the disaster:

Again, regardless of whether this nationalization/bailout scheme is "necessary" or makes utilitarian sense, it is a crime of the highest order -- not a "crime" in the legal sense but in a more meaningful sense.

What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism -- where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We've retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses. Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded.

Andrew Sullivan has summarized some of the reactions.