http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU6fuFrdCJY

Oh crap!…time to return to the mountains, I suppose. Good thing I am built for and like the cold. Therapeutic types tend not to like it below 40F and I could care if it ever goes above. Neighbors tend not to talk to government types, too.

Yes, a form of Newspeak that has a good number of us old timers double-thinking in conversations so that younger folk must think we are slow. That is truly a nasty ploy that should prove to you that reports of the death of Old Media is vastly premature.

However, without the fifth column within the GOP the power of the left to make extremist demands are immediately blunted. For instance, the Dems can float a rider in the bailout bill that would fund ACORN that some think was just a ploy, but the GOP doesn’t counter that ploy with a similar demand to reduce whatever funds ACORN now gets.

At any rate, I only reintroduced that amalgam party for the sake of the argument that crisis driven “bipartisan” agreements are meant to shut down discussion right quick; and it isn’t for the sake of protecting the interests of the middle class.

Aside question: I have NOT been able to find any assorted news from March 1992 regarding how the Freon ban was signed. It was a crisis that smells astonishing similar to this one, only on a much smaller scale. NASA leaked, what eventually was revealed as fraudulent, about an ozone hole spotted over Massachusetts. Minority leader Gingrich rushed a bill to the floor that GHWB would sign. History repeats itself and George Santayana is haunting us.

Congress gave it a bit of forcing function to increased supply with CRA and the GSEs. The Fed helped with interest rates a bit too low for conditions, for reasons to do with managing the overall economy.

The result was a unrestrained (for a time) run up in overall housing prices which saw many jumping on-board the bubble, either for hopes of unbegotten gain (speculators) or just to buy a home of one’s own.

Congress set in motion forces that overcame the regular “PID” self-regulatory mechanisms. But not all of them. When the oil price run ups hit plus a slight rise in LIBOR rates (triggering ARM payment increases) a number of mortgagees on the margin walked away.

When there is no self-regulation, there are step changes, ie crashes.

Prices will return to their normal ranges, either by lower real prices or by inflation (lowering the value of the dollar.)

Why is the Administration so hell-bent on government assuming the bad debt? There are other solutions. I suspect that there are real international pressures at work that we aren’t being told of. We know China told their banks to suspend inter-bank loans to American banks.

At heart this is a failure of Congress to act responsibly. Having Barney Franks as the front man is scary. I don’t care too much about the corporate bosses – Franks needs to be in jail!

Those accounts are going down – one way or another – I want the plan with maximum punishment focused on bad financial houses. That’s the first order of business. Second order is Congress. Vote against your local incumbent. Soon and often.

Repeat as long as necessary.

Make responsibility cool again.

Well that’s the point. I can’t do that. But the other point – that I’ve been trying to illustrate with my “Musings from an Amateur” posts is that the public deserves & is more than capable of absorbing an explanation – one that is not forthcoming outside of the condescending “Main St doesn’t understand this, that, or what not” or the “it’s all over folks – the Dubya way or the Dubai way”, etc, etc, all variations on a theme, which is what’s not said. The 900-lb hole in the middle of the room.

Now The Boys are blaming Paulson for failing to “sell” the program. Reach your own conclusions.