Daaaaaa-yum. That sucks. I'm not expert enough about the bailout to really know how effective it'll be (is anybody?), but I don't think you can take anything good or bad away from the bailout based on a few days of stock market news. It's like saying global warming doesn't exist because yesterday it snowed. Or the war in Iraq was a failure because of one major mosque bombing. This bailout is a massive outlay of money intended to fix major long-term problems that could have (and may still) lead to a deep and lasting recession. You can't say it worked or didn't work because the Dow went up or down 1000 points over a few days. Still, though, daaaaaa-yum. I'd hate to be a politician running for re-election if I voted for that bill right about now.
I agree the bailout is a long term plan. But I think today's market is a reflection of whta invetors (and economist) think about how effective the bailout plan will be. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street NEW YORK - Wall Street tumbled again Monday, joining a sell-off around the world as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The Dow Jones industrials skidded nearly 500 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain. The markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash. That's caused investors to exit stocks and move money into the relative safety of government debt
This is panic money leaving the market at any price. We may see the Dow go as low as 8,000 but it will edge back up as soon as people adjust to the new reality. Right now people have no idea what to do. These "Great Depression" discussion in primary media outlets aren't helpful. The closer parallel is what we experienced from '73-'79. If I were Barack Obama, I'd quit the race and let Hillary run in his place. Whoever takes office is going to be a despised one-term president.
It might be a little early to say that, isn't it? I mean FDR inherited quite a mess, but he didn't seem to have any problem getting re-elected. Same with Reagan. Obama's lucky, though, that this whole thing blew up now and not six months from now. This disaster will be remembered as Dubya's last parting splatter of crap on a giant turd of a presidency (fairly or unfairly). It's up to Obama to figure out how to clean it up without just smearing it deeper into the carpet.
Lucky? Oi-vay. There's nothing "lucky" in any of this mess, perhaps "less awful," or "less of shitstorm," but make no mistake this is going to be a deep, long recession at minimum. I got a bit more of an education last night on Sixty Minutes when they were talking about "Credit default swaps," I admit I don't know a ton about high level finance, but it doesn't take a genius to understand that when you have "insurance" without any capitalization that's a recipe for disaster. Possibly worth reading/viewing: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/05/60minutes/main4502454.shtml
