clusterfuck

Something that I've pointed out conversationally several times over the course of the bailout dialogue has been that the question shouldn't be "can we afford it?" The question has to be "Can we afford not to do it?" This was evidenced in real terms by the Dow closing down nearly 800 points yesterday. Bailout = approximately $700 billion, with the possibility of getting some of that back. No bailout = $1.1 trillion in lost market value (taking into consideration Nasdaq and S&P losses). Of course, the market has rebounded a bit today, but don't think that means things are okay. That's just investors grabbing some (perceived?) deals and being optimistic that there might be another vote this week.

The bailout bill fails 228-205 (link goes to roll call). Per Paul Krugman:

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch. As a friend said last night, we’ve become a banana republic with nukes.

Dow is off 681 as of posting time (moving between 500-700 off). What an unbelievable clusterfuck.