And re-read Denninger. According to the text of the bill, $700bn is just a limit on how much bad debt can be purchased by the Treasury at any one time. After clearing the books of the initial $700bn, the Treasurer can continue the scam until all $5tn plus is cleared.

The $700 billion figure is meaningless, a smokescreen, a magician’s trick.

I sincerely doubt that a guy like Paulson has a partisan bone in his body.

> Is it a given that Paulson himself or some equivalent won’t be
> Treasury Fuhrer in January, especially if McCain is enthroned?

Paulson is not stupid; he *has* to know that his bill will wreck the credit rating of the country, cause foreign bond holders to stampede for the exits, hyperinflate the currency, and turn a moderate recession into a for-real capital-”D”epression lasting for years. If him and his Goldman cronies get their $700 billion, I can’t imagine him even living here come Easter. No; he’ll be retired to tropical paradises far, far away.

Reminds me of when the Clinton Administration left office and took all the furniture and silverware with them. Oh, and I’m sure they pocketed a pretty penny in the Marc Rich pardon among others.

The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans seem to think bigger.

Is it a given that Paulson himself or some equivalent won’t be Treasury Fuhrer in January, especially if McCain is enthroned?

This is not about “power”; it’s about highway-robbery — Paulson and his cronies intend to loot the ever-livin’ bejeezus out of as much swag as they can, then skip town. I’m sure that, as far as they’re concerned, leaving Bush to take all the heat is fine with them. After all, if the *Democrats* in the Congressional committees approve it, they’re not going to turn around and spank themselves over it later. No, it’ll just be all Bush’s fault, and STFU and pay your higher taxes we just passed.

1) It’s disappointing that the about the only way to get the left to pay attention to the financial swindle of the century is to appeal to their Bush Derangement Syndrome.

2) “The White House” in misnomer: i.e., Bush probably knew very little about this, and if he did, wouldn’t have understood any of the arcane gobbledegook anyway. Not many people on all of Capitol Hill do, and it’s being done right in their face, with their approval being desired to have it enacted!

– This is all a Paulson/Treasury/Fed/Goldman-Sachs plunder-run. That Paulson’s Treasury under Bush instead of Clinton or Obama or McCain is happenstance.

~~

Finally, we learned today that The White House was planning this little piece of financial dictatorship for quite some time:

“Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.”

What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.

If this was being prepared for “some time” then the “emergency” status was manufactured. Instead of bringing this before Congress “months and weeks” ago for consideration where it could be debated and passed, ready if necessary, The White House and Treasury instead back-pocketed their plan and then sprung it on Congress with an outrageous and ill-advised “bump in the night, Freddy Kreuger style” scare campaign at the last possible minute in an attempt to give Treasury dictatorial power over our entire financial system.

~~

2. The stick-figure ends before the housing-collapse and stock-market crash. To pick up where it left off, go here, click Sept.14 on the calender, and read from there.

Hell, I am a pragmatist and I hate that I might have to invest in some tin foil hats. I am a pragmatist, I keep telling myself. In the turtle and hare fable, I identify with the turtle, in the ant and grasshopper fable I identify with the ant. I am not alone.

As the ancient Chinese philosopher said; ‘May you live in interesting times.’

“Blow Me”

Priceless.

Found it wading thru the comments at Balloon Juice (and it’s name has a nice ring to it).

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/