Our elected officials are supposed to reflect the common will, to represent the people. Do they? Apparently not. While EVERY major political player in this process was for the bill, the public scared the begeebers out of those in Congress who were vulnerable to election. The rest weren't listening. Personally, I blitzed them, but only got through to two members of Congress. Even some of the most outrageous scare tactics that I have witnessed in my lifetime did not work. The public rejected their ideas. Which raises a deeper, and maybe even more troubling problem. Our government has virtually no credibility with it's own people. Now that is something to reflect on. Personally, I have zero confidence in either party. I have zero hope that either candidate for President will have any significant effect on the political, economic, or social landscape. The numbers don't lie, the ratings of the President and the Congress are so low as to be comical. Interestingly, I have worked in some aspect of the government my whole life. I have a front seat view. If you think some of our Legislators look like buffoons in the media, you should see the process up close. We should rewrite the Constitution to require a National Civil Service System for presently elected offices and hire competent and qualified people who actually know what they are doing. This won't happen of course, but we might all be shocked at the quality of people who would apply. There is a huge disconnect between the campaigning process and the governing process. We have filled the halls of government with people who are good at getting elected but are basically lightweights when it comes to actually doing a good job. And the credibility gap is growing. What happens when it reaches zero?
We bailed out Bear Stearns, and took in AIG, Fanny and Freddy. $700 billion was just a ridiculous number at a time when people were still sore from high gas prices while saddled with increasing mortgage payments. This week's stock volatility will force more people to swallow whatever bitter pill politicians peddle....
We are seeing what happens when the belief in government efficacy declines. Less than 10% feel the country is on the right track. Well we have a conservative movement whose central tenant is that the government can do nothing right. About 30 years ago it was decided by the conservative wealthy that they wanted to pay less in taxes and the best way to insure this was to deligitimize government. Screw patriotism except for jingoistic war making. You have Grover NOrquist and the government hating wing of the GOP gaining power. If the government sucks at everything, why should we pay taxes. These folks can't be trusted to run government when their main goal is to discredit it. A good book that shows how this branch of gvoernment set out to discredit government and has suceeded. The Wrecking Crew. http://www.amazon.com/Wrecking-Crew-How-Conservatives-Rule/dp/0805079882
Very interesting, I will check it out. Thanks However, it is unnecessary to "spin" a negative image of government competency. Incompetency is real and observable for those who are in a position to see.
But what now with stocks rebounding? The market responded initially to the fear tactics being used to push the bill. But, my points are not so much about the "bill" but about the credibility of government, an even larger issue
I think it's bargain hunters who are betting on a post-bill rebound. Otherwise it's a trough to a very very steep decline.
It's called a dead cat bounce. It had to happen after a drop like that -- it was virtually automatic. Tomorrow will be interesting. Today's bounce would have been significant if it had been close to yesterday's drop, but even with the Dow going up 482 points it failed to sufficiently clear recent support lows, so barring some significantly bullish news, tomorrow should be ugly again. The SEC's action to loosen mark-to-market rules is significant though, and that might actually help to counter the strong downtrend.
I have worked at a couple of government jobs in my life. There is incompetency like eveyhwere else. I have seen a lot of competency in private business. As an example how can you pretend their is not incompetency in banking and on Wall Street given the current crisis. These folks are supposedly the best and the brightest. There is a difference between pointing out problems with government and setting out to systematically discredit and belittle it as many conservatives have done.
