I do not pretend to grasp the full complexity of the bailout plan that the President is putting before Congress this week, but when Paul Krugman and Newt Gingrich both agreed it is a bad idea (one guess as to which one calls this corporate welfare), I started doing some digging. JM recommended--and now I do too--reading the plan proposed by Vermont senator and electric car enthusiast Bernie Sanders so that we can imagine other options besides just handing over at least SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION dollars so that these megacompanies can keep making money and perhaps keep the economy from crashing even worse than it already has. Now, don't get me wrong, I think something probably does need to be done. How's about attaching some strings? Even little old student loans have to be paid back with a bit of interest.
Neither of the presidential candidates thinks this package as it stands is a good idea, though both say something has to be done (NYT covers both of their perspectives here). Secretary Paulson may well be just another in a long line of questionable appointments made by Bush, or maybe the problem is that there's no clear direction to point our trembly fingers. Markets can be seen as agentless that way, and it's a little too convenient.
For now, I have vowed not to even open the next few quarters' worth of TIAA-CREF statments, and I've promised at least one senior colleague that I'll push his wheelchair into his classroom for him in 25 years, since he won't be able to retire, like, ever. It's all quite stressful to even fathom. One wonders how many wall street execs have bought stock in GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Tums.
