Yet Another Bailout

Well, Paulson's Plunder didn't stop the Wall Street free-fall. I know, I know, huge shock, right? It's not like we could've predicted from other Bush power-and-money grabs just how well this wouldn't go. From what I'm understanding, the bailout was like a band-aid - applied to a cancer.

Credit markets are still frozen. Businesses everywhere are feeling the vise. Things are gonna get worse before they get better. But the Bush Banker Boyz have a plan!

The Wednesday issue of The New York Times is full of alarming economic news, but nothing more so than the announcement that the Federal Reserve is putting together yet another radical plan to goose credit markets back into life.

In "Fed Considers Plan to Buy Companies' Unsecured Debt," New York Times reporters Edmund L. Andrews and Michael M. Grynbaum detail the latest Fed scheme to fix the economy. The Fed is now considering becoming a major player in the provision of short-term lending to American businesses, by directly entering into the market for "commercial paper."

Commercial paper -- big loans with very short repayment periods -- has been in short supply lately. Everyone from California to General Electric has been running into problems raising the capital for daily operations. The decision by the Fed to even consider lending directly to businesses on such a huge scale is a dire sign of how bad Bernanke and company believe things currently are.

Check that: how bad they made them. Because, we must remember, if they'd headed this looming crisis off before it got through the pass, we wouldn't be in desperate shape just now. And, as much as I believe the government will need to step in and take some drastic action to get the economy running again, I don't think Paulson, Bernake et al have the slightest fucking clue what they're doing. But they're sure all about those bold "if it's struggling, let's buy it!" plans.

I wonder how many other things they'll find to buy?