Why is Friday crucial?

It's the day Congress has set as approvong Bernanke's bailout.

So on Main Street the pervailing view is, well not as the biased media would have it, that the bailout is right but quite the contrary:

"I'm not overextended," Merkle said. "I didn't buy a large home that I can't afford. I'm not behind on any of my payments. I'm not sure I want the government to take my tax dollars and buy someone else's house for them."

A Sense of Resentment Amid the 'For Sale' Signs
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2008; Page A01

The party that picks up on this and correctly identifies the, what we in Australia call, the mortgage belt seats and sets their actions and rhetoric to win those seats will win the current Presidential Election.

So the congress will dither over this political poser rather than address the issue ... and so will become the modern day Nero.

Currently both contestants support Bernanke's Bailout ... expect that to change over the weekend and watch the consequences.


Often people say 'It could only happen in America.' Not quite true it also happened in Rome ... once...

They have no choice but to keep it on life support.The big killer is confidence.The US like Aust have a services based economy.Manufacturing happens in Asia.Services are highly discretionary based spending.Our economies are now more sensitive to drops in demand than the Depression era in which a lot of manufacturing happened locally.

They have to inject money into the system to keep the wheels turning,since the alternative is to horrible to contemplate.Reform of our economies will have to be an evolutionary process.

On a political note: After 10 years of Liberal economic policy, they are already trying to blame Labour for the current woes. The sort of spending required to bail us out of the mess will perpetuate the myth that Labour is "tax and spend".
Next time we hear the mantra "totally free markets are best", lets remember that the bailout is inevitable if greed is the only factor driving things.
It is time to re-join the enlightenment experiment.
A USA with wounded pride is a scary, scary thing. Might make the Nazis look like petulant children.

The ALP is basically another Liberal Party. Both of them but especially the Liberal Party will now have to be challenged by Mary & Joe citizen each and every day on the sacred cow of 'free' markets.
We need to to hold all governments accountable and to learn fro history that government regulation and control over banks and the whole finance sector should always be the way; not just for these kinds of economic and market upheavals.
First lesson: the Great depression
Second Lesson: the Savings & Loans scandals of the 1980s- which took over six years to get over; at huge cost
Third Lesson: the current market collapse unless a world record injection of government monies is made soon

Speculative products and services withint eh finance sector need to be made illegal and criminal sanctions need to be applied; not for the short term but forever.
Sadly, the media still alow the spokespersons from the banks and investment funds too much air-time when they all have been discredited.
Why do we need to listen to these speculators?