"We didn't start the fire"

Speaking with someone today who has a fair deal of credibility in the matter, he made two points of interest about the current economic crisis.

First, he claims that the $700 Billion is a low estimate, and a more accurate estimated cost is $5trillion!

Second, he predicted that unemployment in the US would hit 20% in the next two years.

Those are some crazy numbers, and I hope he is wrong, on both fronts.

I made the point that the rush to the $700B bailout is reminiscent of last month's RUSH to authorize ocean drilling. That is, the mentality seems to be that "we must, simply must, fulfill as much of our radical agenda as possible before the reigns slip from our grips."

Someone made the point that the NeoCons are just fulfilling their long stated mission of bankrupting the government to cyclically justify "smaller government." Honestly, I am continuously shocked, these days, as to where I hear such conjecture. It is not the punk rock ravings and ragings of myself and my peer group, as it has been at times over the past eight years. This stuff is consistently coming from late middle aged adults, business men and doctors. I am usually somewhat shocked into silence, both when I agree and disagree.

I know it must be bad, because one of the most staunch conservative gentlemen that I know, one of the "bitter enders," as it were, spoke deridingly about looking forward to hearing what Bush had to say this evening. I think he even used the words "clueless."

I mentioned how I had seen Bush on the Daily Show last night, and he seemed as confused and out of his element as I have ever seen him. I said "he looked like it was 1999."

And what is this act of John McCain's? No debate this week? Are you crazy! I hope this cynical bullshit backfires in his face, and I also hope that the country excercises restraint in tackling this issue in the short term. I find it hard to believe, having followed this issue for a while now, that we have less than two weeks to act, and we have to do so without any oversight or judicial rights, or financial armageddon will be upon us.

Bush, in his big speech, talked about how people have been worrrying about their financial outlook over the "past couple of weeks." This just highlights his ineffective ignorance. People have been facing these issues for months or more, and the warning signs were well imminent before that.


Finally read the infamous George Will article from a couple of days ago. Worth the read.