ow many times we've been told and lead to believe that we could trust the government. We were lead to believe, by its raging bulls and unfurled flags, that Wall Street was rock solid and reliable. What an unexpected and seemingly irreparable situation they have lead us into. Our financial mess was, to a great degree, caused by a culture of lax regulation, and hardly any oversight. Now we have the President proposing his solution, he wants to immediately authorize that we write a check for $700 billion and we should trust the government and Wall Street to do the right thing...again, with inadequate regulation and hardly any oversight.
Candidate John McCain put it succinctly and accurately when he said "when we are talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, 'trust me' just isn't good enough. He is absolutely right. Senator Obama has pointed out clearly that the administration's plan lacks regulatory muscle.
So what would they do with the $700 million or more? Buy up the bad assets that are presumably clogging the system.
It really is unique and scary. The proposal now being considered and negotiated with Congressional leaders, would give the Treasury secretary the authority to buy any assets from any financial institution at any price that he deemed appropriate to provide stability to the financial markets. As it stands now, neither the courts nor any administrative agency would be permitted to question or review these decisions.
This is a frightening situation and scenario, but some of the brightest brains in the land are at work with competing proposals and there is serious debate seeking the right outcome.
If it is, as it was, "the economy, stupid" (and it is), haven't the Republicans had a sufficient turn at bat.