e've had a week to digest the results of the first presidential debate, but it is difficult to concentrate on the candidates when so much is happening, so rapidly, in the troubled worlds of banking, Wall Street and Congress. If there is good news it is that agreement has arrived on the outline of a bail-out plan for our troubled US financial system. The bad news has to be the continuing need for such a rescue. Of necessity an unpopular bill has been put together rapidly with bi-partisan support. It is an imperfect scheme. Will the panic of last week in the money markets be alleviated by the scheme? Nobody knows.
The Financial Times editorialized, "Make no mistake: the need for the scheme is a disaster. But failing to produce any rescue would risk an even bigger one" This is not the finest of schemes, but it happens to be the only one on offer. We have to try it and modify it where necessary. We must reform the banking industry from top to bottom and anything else would be an even more enormous scandal.
Maybe we are paying the price for the past years where we all wanted something for nothing, where risks were taken because we somehow believed we'd never have to pay. A word to Republicans, the party's reflexive habit of cutting taxes, raising spending and loosening regulation is very much at the heart of the problem.
The bank bailout is not simply a solution, it must be a warning.
The bailout should serve as a most significant wake-up call to the entire nation.
A war in Iraq, an unwillingness to face the growing health-care costs, the series of tax cuts without matching spending cuts have added almost $4 trillion to the national debt during the Bush administration alone.

Which brings me back to the debate. First I would opine that it was generally a relief from the nastiness of the campaign. Both John McCain and Barak Obama produced a civil tone. As we are focusing on the economy, I feel that Mr.Obama clearly dominated the economic portion of the debate, arguing that the Wall Street disaster was the fault of the Bush administration's anti-regulation pro-corporate culture... He stressed the need to help ordinary Americans as well as bankers.
Mr.McCain stuck to his talking points, railing against greed and corruption. But, he showed little sign that he understood the fundamental failure in government, illuminated by the market crisis.
Mr.McCain's pretending to "suspend" his campaign and threatening not to appear at Oxford, Mississippi, was a failed ruse. He did not "ride to the rescue" in Washington. I also felt that he failed to separate his thinking from that of President Bush's administration.
I would like to have heard Sen.Obama offering some details on how he plans to get us out of Iraq, so that we can win the war in Afghanistan, and Sen.McCain was still speaking about "Victory" in Iraq.
Maybe all our concerns will be assuaged, this Thursday when the Vice Presidential candidates get their turn at bat.