Bailout

"The era of big government is over" is over. A major recovery program—featuring substantial public investment—will be inevitably the first initiative of the Obama administration. It should feature more spending than tax cuts—investing in renewable energy and conservation, in rebuilding everything from schools to bridges to a smart electric gird, in helping cities and states avoid crippling cuts of services, in keeping college affordable, providing health care to children, and aiding those most in need.

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In the slapstick classic Funny Farm, Chevy Chase ends up writing a novel called The Big Heist which is so bad - so painfully, terribly awful - that he ends up going insane and burning it in front of his horrified wife. more »

Per my post earlier today, this is huge news if it holds: more »

Remember when Doris Kearns Goodwin and the rest of the elite media socialites took to the studios of Charlie Rose's show to portray the opponents of the bailout as wild-eyed leftists? more »

There's a lot of discussion about what to do about the auto companies and none of the options are very palatable. In today's New York Times there is an article analyzing the bailout vs bankruptcy talk that's starting to emerge. I don't have an opinion on that except to the extent this is used as an excuse to destroy the unions. And that is certainly the theme that's emerging from the right. more »

The Innocent Bystander Fable is making its debut on the issue of the Wall Street bailout. The Bush administration is handing over taxpayer cash to banks, and banks are subsequently refusing to lend more money, instead either using the money to pay out executive bonuses or to buy up smaller banks. That's utterly outrageous, yet we see Democrats already claiming they can do nothing about it: more »

Naomi Klein's latest column in The Nation theorizes that the Wall Street bailout bill was not just a one-time giveaway of $700 billion to financial firms, but the creation of a never-ending river of corporate welfare to banks. She makes a compelling case. more »