The economic news over the last few days has been dizzying. On Sunday (!) the Federal Reserve Board announced a plan to lend money to Wall Street investment firms and approved a deal that allowed J P Morgan Chase to buy the failing Bear Stearns Company for pennies on the dollar. Yesterday, the Fed announced yet another decrease in interests rates. Finally, today we learned that the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight will pump up to $200 billion into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to give a boost to the sagging home mortgage industry. Once again, Heaven and Earth move quickly—at great taxpayer expense—to help the wealthy and powerful, but the wheels of government move much more slowly—if at all—for the less powerful who are losing their homes. Somehow, President Bush’s 800-number doesn’t seem like an adequate response.