``Congress is considering adding its own provisions to the draft bill provided by the Treasury secretary, such as helping people facing foreclosure. On Sunday, Paulson resisted such add-ons. Because financial markets remain under severe stress, `the need is for Congress to act quickly without adding measures that could slow down passage,' he said on ABC's `This Week.' `We need to be clean and quick,' Paulson said. (Christian Science Monitor)
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I am with Krugman. Absolutely not. NO. Period.
As Doug hints, this bill hands over to executive authority a 700 billion blank check. None of the decision making, power or regulation is retained by Congress who by law are supposed to regulate and review expenditures administerd by the executive. This bill is unconstitutional and the god damned Secretary and his legal beagles should know that. Semi-annual reports? Fuck you. How about monthly testimony and review with all the potential weight of investigation, referral to the Attorney General, and possible filing civil and criminal suits in Federal courts? How about that Poulson you arrogant asshole.
This bullshit was written by the same neocon neoliberal magalomaniacs who built this financial market crisis in the first place. They designed the Iraq war authorization, the Patriot Acts, and all the other dictatorial actions of the Bush administration.
Like the wars in Afganistan and Iraq, the War on Terror, and the explosion of domestic surveillance activies, this bill to `fix' the financial market collapse will not work either---or rather it will work just as well.
All these actions share the same mind set. The power elite know what they are doing, so let's give them even more money and power to fix the devastation they have done with the money and power they already have. This is rule by decree and hatched as an emergency expediant.
Poulson wasn't elected and as far as I could tell, there will be no elected officials to oversee, control, or regulate his activities, except the White House. And we all know how well White House oversight works.
This bill with its restriction on judical review is practically tailormade for massive corruption. Hell, no to that. I have to wonder if master white collar criminal Phil Gram had his hands on this thing behind the scenes.
This is 9/11 all over again. Do the most stupid thing first in a panic and do it in a big way.
The Congressional committee leadership better come up with their own plan fast, with all the checks and balances of power, review, and regulation in the right places. (Fat chance).
Screw this give the executive branch anything they want. And screw this idea the government needs to protect the investor, the capitalist at any price and do nothing for labor, the low income home owner in foreclosure, the low income credit card debitor locked out of bankruptcy court...
Here is a nice graphic to contemplate:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/09/20/business/20080921_ECON_GRAPHIC.html
And here is story on Senate and Congressional memmbers with large investments in financial markets:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aSEtGBXG0C0s&refer=us