"The worst case scenario is that we have an extremely scary day"

[koganbot]

Dean Baker opposes the bailout, thinks we're better without it than with it.

Paul Krugman thinks the bailout is necessary, and that this relatively poor bill is nonetheless likely the best the Dems could get.

I think Setser and DeLong think, like Krugman but unlike Baker, that something must be done, though I don't know their opinion on the specific bill that was unveiled this morning.

Meanwhile, four major bailouts/takeovers/nationalizations in Europe and one in the U.S. in the last 24 hours.

And the 1-month t-bill is at 0.04%, TED spread at 3.5. I have little idea what that means, but people who do are gaping in astonishment.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I'll be very interested to see where the failed bailout goes from here. Krugman is against Dems taking this one alone and trying to push through a more progressive bill that would get zero Republican support -- it would probably be the weirdest moment in Bush-era political history, Congressional Dems pushing through regulatory/nationalizing legislation with the backing of the Bush White House! I just really really really doubt it will happen.

I'm taking in more simple pleasures today by basking in the imminent schadenfreude (or is it a death drive thing?) high of Thursday's VP debates and waiting for CBS to leak the remaining Palin/Couric footage, which is reportedly worse than what's been shown so far. A very sad day.

[koganbot]

Krugman's response was to quote himself from three days ago:

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch.

As a friend said last night, we've become a banana republic with nukes.

I don't think there's a way that Bush/Paulson can shift right and get what Paulson wants. So, will they be willing to shift left? But as Krugman says, Dem leadership might not be willing to do this even if they had the votes. It would be very interesting what happens in the next few days.

Maybe Dean Baker is right.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Ha, hadn't seen the update...at any rate, it doesn't seem like any new legislation will be forthcoming. Barney Frank's response to accusations that it was the fault of Pelosi's "partisan speech" before the vote is priceless.

[koganbot]

Tell me about Talking Points Memo, who posted that vid and are also the people who are running that Dean Baker piece I linked. Never heard of the site until today. I wonder if they need music writers, and if they pay.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, they probably don't need music writers -- they're one of the more consistent (due in large part to Josh Micah Marshall, who writes the majority of main posts) leftish (left-Dem, anyway) blogs that I follow. They find a nice balance between "everything goes" sites like DailyKos -- which are impossible to read if you don't refresh them about three times an hour -- and more scattered/sporadic analysis like you might find in op-eds or op-ed blogs like Krugman's. Their video features have been excellent lately, though they could use some production values (they might pay for that, but probably not well).

A friend of mine worked there and enjoyed it, but because Marshall runs the show, it's somewhat difficult to break out, even for their political analysts. I still think your best bet might be a bigger online place like Slate or even Salon, though I'm not sure if the latter runs much music/pop culture analysis.