just thinking out loud
Ug and double ug. The Senate bailout bill has grown to 451-pages of pork-laden [insert profanity here]. Instead of just the bailout (Emergency Economic Stabilization, Division A, pages 1-113), the bill now also contains the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 (Division B, pp. 113-261) and the Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief [...]
Foon Rhee at the Boston Globe has an interesting breakdown of votes versus campaign contributions: A nonpartisan watchdog group calculated that US House members who voted yes received 51 percent more in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector in their congressional careers than those who opposed the emergency legislation. The Center [...]
I think even the most diehard anti-bailout partisans, both left and right, would agree that there have been increasing problems in the financial markets, and that those problems seem to be coming to a head. Although I have a degree in economics, it has been almost two decades since I have used much of that [...]
Whoops. The bailout vote didn’t got as smoothly as some predicted. The ‘blame’ appears to be bipartisan, in the sense that significant numbers of both Democrats and Republicans voted the bill down, but Nancy Pelosi’s anti-administration, anti-Republican rant certainly did not win any votes on the Republican side of the aisle, and likely lost enough [...]
I am not going to bother with a string of links, but the consensus of the Left and the MSM seems to be that Obama either won outright, or he tied and that was just as good as a win for him. I disagree with both assertions. I think McCain did win, and will discuss [...]
Prediction that McCain has a broader strategy for suspending his campaign, and will likely end up with a net gain despite the risks.
