I only have a few minutes between flights, and I must admit that I could not have picked a worse week to stop watching the news for the last of my pre-work vacations, but I am torn between whether this bailout plan passing or not passing is a good thing. I'm going to think more about it on my flight and try and come up with an intelligent point when I return to the east coast in a day or two.
Seven quick thoughts on today's crash and comedy of errors.
1. The fast-paced nature of a huge government bailout bill. With the business world still reeling from Sarbanes-Oxley, I am not totally surprised that a small core of Congress is hesitant to wade deeper into the water of government-sponsored bailout and federalization of private enterprise. Should the government get involved? Should it not get involved? Another way to put this is should we have a small government or a big one? This is the core of federalism/anti-federalism and what I thought was the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. See point 2.
2. The Republican and Democratic (two-) party system is broken. I will not be at all surprised by this if a third, or even a fourth party forms from the two factions of both parties. We need some member of Congress (probably a Senator moreso than a Republican) or some governor to step up nationally, step up and lead, and just do something substantive. Isn't this sort of national crisis how the Republican party formed in the first place? I'm not perfect on my history, and I would think that this sort of change will take a few years, but perhaps this financial breakdown is the jolt that is needed for someone to make a real difference as a public servant. So that my viewpoint is clear, the Green, Libertarian, Independent, Donald Duck, or whatever other parties are currently in existent are not it.
3. Is it really the failure to pass this bailout plan the route of the problem or is it simply exposing the flaws in the financial lending system? The house of cards seems to be collapsing. How long did people really think a lender could loan millions of dollars nationally to people with bad credit before getting burned?
4. This stock market meltdown, whether it was inevitable or catalyzed by what I am tentatively categorizing as a vote of "no-confidence" in the government, will have serious effects on the general public, like it or not. What is going to happen when grocery stores start charging (as some gas stations do) excess fees for credit card usage? While New York and apparently nine other states prevent this practice, these sort of laws hurt businesses, or, alternatively, simply operate to drive up prices directly rather than indirectly.
5. Did twelve Republican senators really vote "nay" out of spite? See Lawmakers quickly point fingers after bailout fails; Lawmakers blame partisanship for failed house bill; Republicans accuse speaker of shattering fragile bail-out deal. Seriously?
I'm not a fan of government bailout when we have a perfectly good bankruptcy system in place, but when the crisis has reached a fever pitch, I would hope that the vote against such a massive government project has a good reason, and not simply, as Rep. Boehner is quoted as saying, "I do believe we could have got there today, had it not been for this partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House" (see also Rep. Cantor: "There is a reason that this vote failed - and that is Speaker Pelosi's speech"). One word to this: RIDICULOUS.
If this bill, for better or worse, failed because of a doofy speech by the House speaker, then our government is more broken than I thought. See again Point 2.
6. I just hope that once I land my 401(k) hasn't turned into a 201(k) (with credit to some guy I heard make this identical joke to one of his friends at the airport bar a little while ago).
7. Hopefully the airline in my connecting city doesn't go out of business before I land.
Monday, September 29, 2008
A quick point from an airplane terminal regarding this bailout plan
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