The Bailout

The Bush administration, as represented by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, are pushing for a 700 Billion dollar buyup of trash mortgages, hoping to get the bill through Congress by the end of the week. I have nowhere near the brain power to explain where the looming economic disaster came from or what to do about it. That's what makes it so fun! But I do know what I likes, and I don't likes this, from Section 8 of the bill we have to pass like right now guys:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Hello! King Hank Paulson will rule us benevolently for the next 4 months, then either Obama or McCain will be installed as a primarily ceremonial head-of-state, and his Treasury Sec. will take the throne from Paulson and shred what little monies we have left.

700 Billion dollars is a lot of money, and it belongs to us. You know, taxpayers. Guess who's getting it? People who are rich and educated enough to think they're better than everyone else and could gamble with vast, unthinkable amounts of money to reap huge rewards with no risk. And now we're giving it to some oligarch to pass around like a blunt. And no one can review his decisions. It's perfect.

I just started reading Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, and let me tell you, this is the perfect week to pick that book up. I'm only a little bit into it, but it's hard to mourn the "end of Wall Street" when you see Wolfe's brutal characterization of the self-identified Masters-of-the-Universe.

I think what makes me smile the most is thinking about all the Econ majors who wanted to make 6 figure bonuses 2 years out of college, because although they will still be filthy rich, they'll have to spend a lot of time hearing about how great it used to be. I think that will make them unhappy. So there is at least one silver-lining to the upcoming catastrophe.