hurchill said it, speaking of this country in a very different time and world, "The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative". Martin Wolf writing for the Financial Times believes that we have reached the stage where the alternatives are now exhausted and it is time for politicians to do the right thing. Are we, perhaps, witnessing the disintegration of the whole financial system? Possibly. To quote Wolf in today's FT under the headline, "Congress decides it is worth risking another depression" he says "It is just over three score years and ten since the Great Depression. Judged by its rejection of the plan put forward by Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary, Congress believes that it is time to risk another Great Depression, The slump was the catastrophe of the 20th Century. Another dire outcome is possible.
If a depression is upon us, I cannot imagine the consequences of such an event.
Churchill's words ring true, I hope, just as FDR's words were and are accurate to this moment, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself".
As much as I support the final passage of a bail out I feel a revulsion at helping the very people who have done so much harm to our economy.

m not the first to say it, but who can contest the opinion that Sarah Palin is completely ill-equipped to be vice president of the United States. I wonder if she has ever spent time thinking about, or even reading about, any important national or international issues. Some think it is sexism that has encouraged the McCain camp to keep her under wraps, but more and more are realizing, Democrat and Republican alike, she's not the person for the job. Sen.McCain you have frequently stated that you always put your country ahead of everything else. In this case, that is simply untrue.
We've seen how influential the Vice President can be; one has only to look to the past 8 years to know that.
Thursday evening in the nationally broadcast, prime-time debate, between the Vice Presidential choices, we'll meet a woman who has been schooled and prepped these past few days, at the McCain estate in Sedona, on how to answer any and every question thrown her way. I wish her well and only hope that they haven't over schooled her.
What if they question her about any of the many hugely complex issues facing this nation, which will likely be of prime concern for years?
Immigration, Social Security, Health-care costs and more. I agree with Newsweek's Fareed Zacaria when he wrote "...for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible".
Amen.

I've only once had the good fortune to interview Professor Joseph E.Stiglitz., the Columbia University economist. It was shortly after his being awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. He also served as Chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors. He was able to get complex ideas across clearly, coherently and well enough for a simple soul like myself to understand. He made sense then and is doing so in his comments about the rescue package, bail out of the failings on Wall Street and Main Street. He wrote this morning, "The bailout package the House defeated on Monday was far better than the one originally proposed by the Bush administration. In many respects the rescue plan was better than nothing, and perhaps with a little extra time, our leader can tailor a plan to focus more on our economy than on Wall Street". That's easy to agree with. Most economists believe that the 700 billion dollar bailout could be focused more effectively to benefit America's economy, America's taxpayers, America's workers and America's homeowners. Stiglitz goes on to say "How all this plays out will depend on how the bill will be implemented: The devil is in the details - assuming that most of these same elements will be included in the compromise are left to an administration whose policies lead to the crisis."