The 1919 World Series was a fix. The Chicago White Sox were clearly the better team. Everybody knew it. They knew it. The fans knew it. Cincinnati knew it. And the bookmakers knew it! That is why everyone except a chosen few few laid their money on the Black Sox. The bookmakers made a killing on this series. After all, when you are betting illegally, who are people going to tell when they are cheated, the cops? Even though the players were in on the fix, they never saw a dime of the fix money. Soon thereafter, most of the Sox team was suspended from baseball for life.
Wall Street could be much the same way. Under any other circumstance WaMu's failure would have cost the stock market over 500 points. The collapse of Lehman and the endless list of names like AIG, Merrill, etc. should have sent the market below 8000 points. Even though the last squeak from NCC may well have been heard as the stock was halved at one point today in trading. Wachovia has been racing it to the bottom. Yet, the bailout. The big, BIG , Bailout seems to be the lynch-pin for Wall Street... aside from a rate cut from Fed, everything is riding on this bailout plan. It is a chance to wipe out debt by simply placing it on the American taxpayer... and what more of an American thing can one do than that? Should this scheme come to fruition, I could well have missed my opportunity to play the surest thing since the Reds in the 1919 World Series!
The D.C. Reverse
If I didn't know any better, I would say that the Democrats have been had over the past couple of days. I would not normally say this, but I have become increasingly suspicious that the bailout plan has taken on a very political nature.
President Bush is the most up-popular President in recent history. He could well go down as even being more disliked than Jimmy Carter, and that is saying a lot! Bush's (and I used the possessive lightly) plan has brought on an onslaught of public outcry.
When Bush invited the two candidates to the White house for that useless photo op, something else happened as well. Obama finished rallying the Democrats to a quid pro quo. Passing some version of the bailout for Congressional oversight, limits to CEO pay, and a future stimulation package. It was a SLAM DUNK! Evidently, McCain and the Republicans had something else up their sleeve... a different plan. Not only was this plan different, it used less taxpayer money!
The irony is that Democrats are now supporting a watered down version of President Bush's Bailout, and the Republicans have left the Democrats and Bush holding the bag. If the bill passes, it will be the Democrats who supported Bush's plan... and the D.C. Republicans can stand back point fingers and say I told you so.
This could well be the breaking point of the bailout plan. More than likely, it will be an issue of contention tonight at the debate... and if it appears that each candidate is positioning themselves on this issue... the bailout plan could be in trouble! And if the Democrats are tagged with this bill, there will be hell to pay.
Consider the following:
1. Democrats are associated with a Bush Bailout?
2. Obama wanted to get this thing and focus on the Presidency...
3. McCain gets the White House...
4. The rich get their HUGE tax break.
5. And Wall Street gets their $700..I mean $1.4 Trillion dollar garbage can!
While I hope Congress takes their time and drafts a bill that is worthy, I am convinced there will be political fallout on this bill. And if things go down this way, we will all be witness to the D.C. Reverse Republican style!
P.S. I received a letter from McCain. It was so generic that it really wasn't worthy of publishing...sorry!
2 comments:
But unlike Bush, who will go down as the most unpopular and dumbest President in history, Carter has made a 2nd career and set the bar for post presidential achievemnet.
Anyway, thought the debates were interesting and questions last night favored McCain.
Like this quote from Markman on the hearings this week:
"In his close-up this week, Paulson appeared uncomfortable, unknowledgeable, uncaring and often unintelligible, as if notes he had scrawled on a cocktail napkin on the way in were just out of reach. Bernanke was more patient with senators' dumb questions and self-serving speeches, yet he clearly gave the impression of an egghead who would rather be teaching Econ 363 back at Princeton."
Carter has definitely set the bar for post-Presidency. He may well have been a person who was too good of a man for the job. As a rule of thumb, he should not criticize other Presidents...at least publicly...
I read an article that DC is flooded...flooded with contact for constituents... Hopefully, this "plan" is re-evaluated a bit longer...
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