Today congress passed the bailout bill, which by the way, is a term I find no more a pejorative than rescue, which some felt would be less offensive and presumably have led to more speedy passage.
If one envisions bailing out a boat to save its contents and passengers, how would that be less noble and no less a rescue?
But I digress. Let us jump backwards to that time long, long ago, Monday.
The bill went down to a thumping defeat, done in largely by GOP congressmen. Much was made of their philosophical opposition to this magnitude of government meddling or nascent socialism. But it was clear also that the normal fear of the electorate was galvanized to a new level by phone lines tied up by furious constituents.
(Note that I never heard about "thousands of emails." Telephone calls are probably the most effective way of registering your complaints, unless you can join a mob with pitchforks and torches.)
Alas, I submit that these callers were largely wrongheaded. All of humankind will be offended by the vision of Wall Street whiz-kids golden-parachuting their way out of the mess they profited from. And I further submit that the best way to prevent future excesses would be CEOs being perp-walked in manacles to court.
But the complaining callers comprehended neither the depth of the problem nor the domino effect that would ensue. It took a few days before the credit crisis became the disagreeable but needed medicine.
Oh, yes, we almost forgot. A generous swallow of pork helped the medicine go down. More about that in the next post.
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