Oh, Congress... Why the Bailout Mattered

The Wall Street Journal astutely captured the importance of what is now the failed bailout. Here are my thoughts on the debacle:

Well, the Dow didn't drop the critical 10% level and thankfully is on the rise after opening this morning. HOWEVER, we are now virtually certain to sink into a recession. There is no credit in the market... making a substantive, rapid rebound incredibly difficult. The Asian markets only lost about 4% and Europe is recovering slightly. I hope this means a true crisis was averted.

Yet, in what has escalated to be a legitimate financial crisis - which does affect everyone in the country (and the world) not just rich wall streeters and greedy politicians (greed being substantially different from wealth in my opinion... at least wall streeters produce something of value... or lose something of value not merely political power, approval, and a stream of endless favors based in worthlessness) - politicians couldn't get over their own political interests (even if supported by their constituents) to solve a problem. Not that the bailout would have been a permanent solution, or even a good piece of legislation. But, it would have served the immediate purpose of calming the critically unstable global markets. And, as many people pointed out this morning, the drop in the markets yesterday cost over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy instead of being bailed out with $700 billion. Personally, I would gladly have taken the $700 billion cash infusion that possibly could have prevented another $300 billion in losses and stopped the impending recession. Recessions are when losses become even more sickening to calculate.

As a proponent of extremely limited government and fiscal responsbility, this bailout is by no means a perfect or even desirable solution. But, sometimes in life we have to do things not for "the greater good" as so many people believe, but for overall [economic] sustainability. The Congress had its chance to restore market confidence and it failed because representatives are afraid they will lose re-election in November. By all means, I hope they ALL do.