I think you're being too cute by half. I think you know as well as the rest of us do that the market's is and was always going to tank bailout or no bailout.

Supposedly, the bailout is meant to save the credit markets, not the stock market, and stem a far greater and very far reaching catastrophe.Of course it may not do this either. But I don't have the surety on this issue that you seem to. I tend to agree with your colleagues Kuttner, Galbraith et al. that inaction was just not an option.

Well, both Governor Paterson of New York and Governor Schwarzenegger of California sounded pretty hysterical today.

The 110th Congress, will possibly go down in infamy as the least effective, thoughtful and craven Congress in history, except of course for 1994 though 2007. What's wrong with having meaningful oversight and true accountability from Treasury and the welfare recipients. My guess is it cuts into the returns on most members investments and back door deals.

There are starting to be concerns about something called a "recession." Besides, the bail out is just so yesterday... problem solved, right?

Interesting that Citi and Wells are now fighting over Wachovia.

My thanks to Ellen for loaning the Governator a few bucks.

We have a very interesting situation here in California. For example, one area is very good at growing garlic. However, the farmers are going out of business because garlic is being shipped in from China.

Roubini 10/3:

So we are now facing:
- a silent run on the huge mass of uninsured deposits of the banking system and even a run on some insured deposits are small depositors are scared;
- a run on most of the shadow banking system: over 300 non bank mortgage lenders are now bust; the SIVs and conduits are now all bust; the five major brokers dealers are now bust (Bear and Lehman) or still under severe stress even after they have been converted into banks (Merrill, Morgan, Goldman); a run on money market funds; a serious run on hedge funds; a looming refinancing crisis for private equity firms and LBOs);
- a run on the short term liabilities of the corporate sector as the commercial paper market has totally frozen (and experiencing a roll-off) while access to medium terms and long term financings for corporations is frozen at a time when hundreds of billions of dollars of maturing debts need to be rolled over;
- a total seizure of the interbank and money markets....
At this point the US, the advanced economies (and now likely even some emerging market economies) will experience an ugly recession and an ugly financial and banking crisis regardless of what we do from now on. What radical policy action can only do is preventing what will now be an ugly and nasty two-year recession and financial crisis from turning into a systemic meltdown and a decade long economic depression. The financial and economic conditions are extreme; thus extreme policy action is needed now to save the global economy from an ugly depression.

I'm suffering from bailout fatigue but figured I'd do one final(?) piece of oppo research on these TWAWKI-is-ending panic-spreading pontificators and their financial reporter amplifiers.

There is a difference between commercial banks (they fund the financial needs of businesses) and investment banks and hedge funds (who knows what value they add).

The panic in the market occurred on Sept. 15, the day Lehman filed for bankruptcy. How did the commercial banks do on that "day of panic" in comparison to their market lows reached two months earlier on July 15? Why lookee here; they were all up -- many way up.

Bank of America up 43.4%
Wells Fargo up 51.1%
BB&T up 63.7%
US Bancorp up 45.5%
Northern Trust up 5.3%
Citigroup up 4.7%
PNC up 41.2%

My, my! It looks like Mr. Market wasn't worrying about the health of the commercial banks.

Didn't stop the Wall Streeters from crying havoc and shouting about how terrified of the future average Americans should be (Buffet's Economic "Pearl Harbor") though, did it.

And I thought when Josh first mentioned this that it was complicated...accounting rules (EEEK)

It's just a garden variety Bankers' Con Job: Mark to Market Rule Change Should Meet Its Maker

http://www.rgemonitor.com/globalmacro-monitor/253859/should_mark_to_market_meet_its_maker

We're all so afraid of the unknown and so rushed that we're all better off if we just hand over the keys of 'their' tow truck company to the guys who just drove EVRYONE'S car into a ditch and made loads of money doing it? I'm incredulous over this whole thing. I saw Barney Frank do the dirty work for whoever shadow individuals give Paulson, Bernanke and Bush their marching orders. Beat the drum of fear, squeeze the politicians just before an election. This stinks. This is a sham. the american people know it. At least there's a handful of smart, sensible people in Washington D.C., such as the folks at www.cepr.net paying attention, keeping score, speaking truth to power, risking their necks - protecting history itself from revisionism and capture. Recording for history that, from right under our noses, we the American people got fleeced by The Bush/Cheney thievery corporation. Let it also be said that all of the main stream Media, Wall Street, and majority of our elected flawmakers - including both presidential candidates - were either the culprits or complicit to the great Paulson Panic and Plunder of 2008.

Does Paul Krugman count as "the media"?

Because I'd venture a guess this would rate pretty decently on most hysteria meters:

October 3, 2008, 8:42 am>:

A grim morning
Double plus ungood news on multiple fronts this morning. The credit crunch is getting worse: LIBOR jumped again, the TED spread is at a new record. Bad news on employment: payrolls down 159,000, average work week down, official unemployment rate flat at 6.1 percent but broad measure (U6) up from 10.7 to 11.
We are going over the edge.

And if, before the market opened, you were opening the print edition of the New York Times instead of checking his blog, you would have seen
Krugman sum up his op-ed like this:

One thing’s for sure: The next administration’s economic team had better be ready to hit the ground running, because from day one it will find itself dealing with the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The housing bubble, for the most part, is about houses on the coasts, especially California, Florida and New York. Ten years ago, houses in those states cost about 50%, maybe 100%
more than a comparable house in Omaha. At the peak of the bubble, a 20 year old 1700 square feet track home near LA cost over $900,000 while that house could be bought in Omaha for $150,000. In rural Tennesse, it could be bought on acerage for $150,000. One thing that happened is that a lot of baby boomers started retiring. They cashed in their houses in California and retired in Tennessee. They bought better homes on 5 acres and put 3/4 of a million in the bank. They couldn't believe the "bargains". They didn't find real bargains, just house prices that had not been inflated by speculators. The Tennesseans usually laughed at them, because they usually charged them a premium. They called it a Yankee tax (about 20%). I have personally talked with people from California who bought houses in the south, sight unseen. Just an internet ad with pictures, description and price. There weren't many speculators in Tennessee because too many good old boys grew up with a hammer in their hand and there is plenty of land to build new houses. And, there aren't obtrusive building codes, environmental empact problems, etc. A blueprint and a couple of acres kept the price of old and new houses in line with actual building costs.