A Bailout? Perhaps. Just not this Bailout.

A few random thoughts on this bailout business

- We continue to have a very hard time putting all that power in the hands of one virtually unaccountable person. Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, may be a very capable man but how is he as the single-point-of-contact for the entire financial sector of this nation’s economy a good thing?

- We were talking with B-Daddy on the phone and were commenting on how the latest polling shows the American public trusting Suit to better handle the economy but also not in favor of government intervention into the free market. We remarked this as being demonstrable of the George Will quote, “Americans talk like Jefferson but govern like…” and before we could get “Hamilton” out of our mouth, B-Daddy yelled, “Mussolini…! I wish ‘we’ governed like ‘Hamilton’”. But I think he got the point.

- And we’re pretty tired of all this talk of “executive compensation” and “punishing the evil-doers in the board room” and blah, blah, blah… Give it a rest. Do we want the responsible parties punished? Yes. But the incessant populist-driven yammering to string up the suits is pretty far down on our list of priorities when it comes to getting this whole mess straightened out. Besides, it just provides cover for those who should’ve been minding the hen house in the first place and who are currently the very same people crafting the legislation that will make everything all nice and pretty again. Foxes!

- “We have to do something”. Do we? Its been nearly a week since this meltdown occurred and Congress has not passed any legislation and there have been no runs on the banks. If we can wait this long to “do something” that must be done “urgently” or “immediately” can we wait a little longer, keeping the wolves at bay, to “do something that makes sense?”

- This is a fantastic opportunity for McCain to drive the final stake between he and President Bush. By rejecting this bailout he distances himself from Bush, he burnishes his Maverick credentials and makes Suit look more and more like the Bush III he really is.