What Do You Call 10,000 Lobbyists at the Bottom of the Ocean?

Sure, it's a good start, but R. Neal has an even better start on the stock crisis in which we find ourselves:

We need Resolution Trust Corporation v2.0 to shut down the bad actors and seize their assets and sell them off to the highest bidder instead of some half-baked scheme for taxpayers to buy their house of cards. If this was the counter offer to their desperate plea for a quick bailout, how many of of these companies would suddenly realize things aren't really so bad after all and retreat to the board room to figure out some way to restructure and survive? ....

The notion that credit will dry up and business in America will grind to a halt if this deal is not approved is ridiculous. There's good money to be made by responsible lenders who exercise due diligence in making loans to reputable companies. Republicans are basically telling us the only way business can operate in America is if shady lenders make dubious loans to corrupt companies and then get taxpayers to bail them all out when they turn out to be idiots or liars or both. Seriously? They should all go bankrupt, and in some cases straight to jail, while we get back to doing business on the up and up according to, you know, actual conservative principles where calculated risk involves reward and consequences.

Go, read, and heed his voice of reason in the midst of panic and overreaction. Being progressive also means being conservative.


UPDATE: Josh Marshall believes that Republican/McCain plan is to set up the Dems, whom they will run against for bailing out their pals on Wall Street. John McCain once again might get to have it both ways. Friend and enemy of Wall Street malfeasance. On HBO last week Naomi Klein rhetorically asked what person wouldn't like to be in the finance industry's position right now, to wake up one morning and find one's debts and mortgage wiped away clean by the government. Wall Street is going to win either way because the government is going to give them a do-over, and John McCain obviously intends to ride their coattails while making Dems take the hit for his part.