While there's a visible consensus that this is super bad, I'm not actually seeing a consensus that the sky is in fact falling and what we should do about it.
Most of the 'Smart people' that are adamant we are teetering on the brink of disaster and our best bet is to ram through legislation seem to fall into two categories; those that will most benefit from a huge bailout with no strings attached, or those that otherwise benefit from whipping up hysteria, such as the news channels that trade in fear mongering. There are plenty of Smart People that recognize there's a problem but don't advocate giving a massive amount of money with again, no oversight, to people that either caused this mess or didn't see it coming. It's bit of a red flag that Paulson or his people said that they need $50 billion, the other $650 is a number they came up with just in case. The House would have probably passed a lesser sum, but then there wouldn't be an emergency to leverage against a lack of safeguards.
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Date: 2008-09-30 06:38 pm (UTC)Most of the 'Smart people' that are adamant we are teetering on the brink of disaster and our best bet is to ram through legislation seem to fall into two categories; those that will most benefit from a huge bailout with no strings attached, or those that otherwise benefit from whipping up hysteria, such as the news channels that trade in fear mongering. There are plenty of Smart People that recognize there's a problem but don't advocate giving a massive amount of money with again, no oversight, to people that either caused this mess or didn't see it coming. It's bit of a red flag that Paulson or his people said that they need $50 billion, the other $650 is a number they came up with just in case. The House would have probably passed a lesser sum, but then there wouldn't be an emergency to leverage against a lack of safeguards.