Bail Out?

Hank Paulson wants the American taxpayers to help his friends out.  See, they drove their companies into the ground.  So now Mr. Paulson is asking Congress to provide almost a trillion dollars so he can distribute this money to Wall Streets suddenly solemn.  He has asked for no oversite of how this money is spent.  He only gushes that it must be approved now. 

First impressions are:  How did this little problem sneak up?  This fact alone is outrageous and should get Paulson fired.  Alternately, if he knew, why did he not tell Congress and the taxpayers?  Where was Bernanke?

Not only is it ridiculous that this has just been sprung upon the country within the last week but it is a terrible deal for the American people.  

Of course, there is a need for Congress and Treasury to come up with a plan to spur growth in the country.  Government needs to be involved in terms of steering any deals through the SEC and by tightening regulations so predatory lending practices and shady monetary schemes are checked.  But, this deal, as structured, is  a no go. 

Why not let the market correct itself?  Let other organizations buy up the assets of the fallen giants.  Ramming a $700 trillion dollar bail out bill through Congress so quickly is reckless.  If anything, work toward passing another stimulus package.  

Paulson and Bush have done an awful selling this deal to the American people.  The reason is because it's an awful deal for 99% of all Americans.  Congress can craft better legislation than what has been presented.  It should reject Paulson's folly.

Six a.m.

I hear elephants.

The people that live above me have elephants running through their house, from the living room through the dining room of our row house, and into the kitchen.  I'm not sure they know. 

Once in the kitchen, they simultaneously turn the water on, open and shut the silverware drawer, and drop, from a distance of nine feet, a four and a half ton weight onto the floor above my bedroom.  Every morning.  At six a.m.  On the dot.

I still cannot figure out the reason why.

Up until about a month ago, this guerilla band of elephants had limited their living room to kitchen antics to normal business hours - seven am until two am.  Now every morning, I'm awoken at six a.m. on the dot by the stomping and slamming of at least eleven elephants.

I wake up to go to work at about 6:20.  But, I really miss those twenty minutes of sleep before my sixteen minutes of snooze.  Argh.