That is the only possible meaning that can be attached to his statement that limits on CEO compensation would be a "poison pill" if included in a bailout bill. After all, if the banking system is really on the edge of collapse, what sane person would consider mild (what Frank proposed) restrictions on CEO pay a big deal?

Let's see, on the one hand we have the collapse of the financial system if we do nothing, on the other hand some multi-millionaire CEOs may not get their golden parachutes after driving their companies into bankruptcy. Paulson tells us that he considers the loss of golden parachutes the bigger problem? This means that he must not really believe that we are facing a financial collapse.

This is like WMDs and Iraq. Don't let Congress buy it!!!!!!!!!

Nothing personal, but Secretary Paulson has demonstrated his incompetence by completely missing the housing bubble and underestimating the seriousness of the crisis every step along the way. Now he is demanding a total blank check from Congress for a $700 billion revolving fund to give to the financial industry under whatever conditions he chooses.

This is the domestic equivalent of the Iraq war authorization. The threat of financial collapse is analogous to the weapons of mass destruction. The markets will wait. Congress can give a proposal with real conditions and then it will be Bush's call if he wants to be responsible for collapsing the U.S. economy.

Congress can't be taken yet again.

[sorry, my alternative is just down the list.]

The events of the last week showed the urgency of dealing with the financial crisis. There is a real risk that the banking system will freeze up, preventing ordinary business transactions, like meeting payrolls. This would quickly lead to an economic disaster with mass layoffs and plunging output.

The Fed and Treasury are right to take steps to avert this disaster. While there is an urgency to put a bailout program in place, there are several important issues that Congress should address in the context of bailout.

While there is not time to prepare all the details of the financial restructuring that will follow after the bailout, there can be an agreement on the outlines that this restructuring should take. This list of suggestions is presented in that context:

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The hot shot billionaire financial wizards of Wall Street went running to the government to protect them from the market yet again. Today they got the SEC to ban all short selling on financial stocks. Apparently they are worried that traders think that their companies are worthless and therefore will depress the value of the stock they hold. Markets can be so cruel to rich investment bankers.

This ban shows clearly that the whines about "naked" shorts were nonsense. There is nothing sinister about a naked short. It is just a convenience, like buying stock on the margin.

So where does the SEC get off banning shorts?

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In the best "kick em, when they're down" spirit of American politics, now is a great time to be pushing a financial transactions tax. The greed and incompetence of the Wall Street crowd has thrown the economy into a recession in which hundreds of thousands have already lost their job, millions are losing their homes, and tens of millions of losing their life's savings as their home equity vanishes before their eyes.

In the fallout, some of the big Wall Street firms are going down too, Lehman and Merrill Lynch yesterday, maybe AIG today. Of course Freddie and Fannie sank last week. But even with the collapse of these financial giants we still have a badly bloated financial sector that preys on the rest of the economy.

We should seize on this moment in which the public is rightly outraged by the greed and stupidity of these financial wizards to drive a stake into the heart of Wall Street. With a financial transactions tax we can bring this financial behemoth down to size once and for all.

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The financial firms keep tumbling. Add Lehman Brothers to the dead and Merrill Lynch to the zombie takeover list. Still, the Wall Street crew are relying ever more on the generosity of taxpayers to save their hides.

This is coming from the Fed, which is extending ever larger loans at below market interest rates, and accepting ever worse collateral in exchange. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Fed will now be accepting shares of stock as collateral.

We don't want the financial system to collapse, but can we get something out of the Wall Street boys in exchange for the government handouts?

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