Wall Street: The Bailout

[Thorin]

So I watched Jon Stewart and Colbert Report last night, and they had a field day with the proposed seven hundred billion dollar bailout.  So here's some funny (or sad, depending on how you view it) items:

Prior to September 15th the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury of the United States, Henry Paulson, boldly proclaimed that there would be no bailout!  (detailed here: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTM0YWI2NWJhM2YzOTAzZmJhM2YzNjllNjY3MTg0OTU=)

A scant few days later, Henry Paulson convinced the President of the United States, George W. Bush, to try to push a bill through Congress within the week that included giving Paulson the power to spend seven hundred billion dollars at will and Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency. (detailed here: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/09/20/treasurys-financial-bailout-proposal-to-congress/)

So...  He doesn't want to do a bailout, but he wants to be able to spend $700B without accountability?  I'll bet this guy used to be a CEO of a bank.  Oh yeah, yeah, here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson#Career_highlights.  Turns out he was CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that would be (immensely) helped by the bailout!

Jon Oliver had a hilarious spot on The Daily Show, talking about Bush (starting at about 6:48 in this clip: http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/september-23-2008/#clip95448)

John Oliver: "Look, we all know he'll never be ranked as the best president, but he could still, if he works hard enough..."
Jon Stewart: "Be the worst?"
John Oliver: "...the last."

As an aside, Jon Stewart had Bill Clinton on as a guest, and Clinton is an eloquent speaker and clearly intelligent.  As compared to Bush, who seems to struggle with his words and thoughts more and more these days.

So now Obama and McCain are squaring off.  McCain is painted with the Republican brush and a lot of people think that the Republicans are fleecing the public to pay their cronies, what with their idea to take taxpayers' money to help out rich CEOs.  Meanwhile, Obama's being painted in a much better light, as he has been pushing the idea of using taxpayers' money to help poor and middle-income people retain the properties they shouldn't have been approved to buy.  Either way there's hundreds of billions of taxpayers' dollars being spent by the government, but Obama's idea connects better with the typical American.  We might just see the first black man in office.

[Mr. Analog]

Whichever party wins control, they have a LOT of work ahead of them...

[Thorin]

So what do you think of the suggested act that places Paulson's decisions on how to spend that money above the law?  The suggested act specifically states "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

That's the part that really gets me, and that is cheesing off a lot of Americans.  I wonder if even Bill O'Reilly thinks it's a bad idea?

[Mr. Analog]

Bill's probably too busy yelling at people (real or imagined).

[Tom]

Bill's probably too busy yelling at people (real or imagined).

Yelling at people is Colbert's job. Yelling through people is Bill's

[Mr. Analog]

Bill's probably too busy yelling at people (real or imagined).

Yelling at people is Colbert's job. Yelling through people is Bill's

Bang on there...

[Darren Dirt]

Well, I would be angry too if there were "NO WORDS ON IT!!!" I mean how can I be a wise, trustworthy talking head who encourages others to blindly accept what I rant on about instead of thinking for themselves, without a working teleprompter?? (@%&#ing thing sucks.)

[Tom]

Well, I would be angry too if there were "NO WORDS ON IT!!!" I mean how can I be an angry talking head without a working teleprompter??

Lol, there were words on it he just refused to read them and blamed it on the teleprompter