Wait... what?... Are we still here? Have I died yet? Am I still around? I'm pinching myself -- I SEEM to be awake and alive...
But I thought we were supposed to go down in a ball of flames? I thought, the annihilation of the United States and indeed the globe was at our doorstep and all but guaranteed? I thought that if the $700 billion bailout wasn't enacted IMMEDIATELY, that the earth would spin off its axis and all life would be extinguished in an all but certain surrender to the inevitable and undeniable laws of finance?
But the bailout wasn't passed onThursday...or Friday -- and humanity hasn't had to surrender to the knees of the dark master for having scorned the warnings of the omnipotent gurus of commerce?
I mean, wasn't it the deal that if this gigantic, near mystical sum of money wasn't sacrificed at the altar LAST NIGHT, that all fiscal "spit" would hit the fan? I don't know what to think. Life just doesn't seem to have ended, and we still haven't put the check in the mail...
Maybe... it's not so utterly essential?
Maybe... it's not as unbendingly uber-urgent as they told us?
But we have to protect the markets!!!
But... what if foreign investors said (instead of running hastily to their little village and stuffing their money in their mattress), "hmm, we invested (gambled) and got burned, now we shall have to be more sure that the US products are more well secured and less flimsy." Does it really mean that all foreign investment would exit the U.S. FOREVER; or just the risky investment in crappy, dodgy products and paper. Or is THAT, in fact, what we are trying to preserve here? Are we actually trying to preserve the right and ability to generate bad product and peddle the obfuscated junk to ourselves and our neighbors?
Will all banks in United States close their doors, and instead turn for income to phone sales of yellow page ads? Or will they continue to function as banks do, but with sensibilities and intelligence with regard to their behavior, instead of reckless and shortsighted poverty of wisdom.
Will life on the planet end as we know it, or rather, will United States markets and foreign investment steer well and clear of dodgy, peculiar, are undecipherable mystery products. Is it this ability to sell garbage the capacity our $700 billion "pay tonight or you will die a horrible death" bailout ACTUALLY seeking to preserve?!
Imagine -- the stock market might actually go down! There MIGHT even be fluctuation on Wall Street! I think we can all agree, if Wall Street were to go down, ever, at any point, for any reason, we will all spontaneously combust or turn into toads. Our cars will become pumpkins! Wall Street must never be allowed to go down, only up! We cannot afford, as a nation, to ever have Wall Street lose money.
Trust me, I do believe Congress wants to spend our money. Money is the blood these congressional vampires must suck from our veins to survive. And I do truly believe that the traders and bankers and brokers very much want to get that last evening at the crap table repealed ("We were just going to do ONE more spin off the wheel, but we lost everything!") But do I think that the United States citizen believes in this bailout, or wants it? Hell no; by at least a healthy two to one, in fact. Do I think (as I'm sure someone will try to explain to me) that the ramifications go well beyond Wall Street, and the little man on Main Street will feel heavy consequencies to our past decade's behavior? Yes. Do I think that poor stupid little "every man" on Main Street just doesn't understand this aspect, and consequently is against the bailout because of ignorance? Absolutely not!
I think most of us do get it. I think most of us do understand this will touch us, and do appreciate it can and likely will hurt a great deal. But we've decided to take it. We've had enough. We don't support the bailout. In numbers which could easily be called "majority". So where is our "representation"?
Should there be an absence of "representation", I believe we might want to consider another phrase like "no taxation without representation". It won't matter; the Federal Reserve can just print more money to bailout the IRS when no checks come in from citizens who just refuse to take it any longer.
But what do I know? I should probably just shut up and listen to the wise folks who led us into this mess.