Bailout Blitz

Unless you live in a cave (in which case congratulations) pretty much all you've heard about this week is the financial services bailout package (aka Hanky Panky) and the last thing you need is for me (some other shmoe who doesn't know what he's talking about) to way in yet again.

A couple of highlights from reaction to Bush's speech:

Paul Krugman has a sneaking suspicion.

One possible explanation. It wasn’t until yesterday that they realized that it would actually be necessary to explain themselves.

But there’s another possible explanation, which I find terrifyingly plausible: the plan came first, and all this stuff about price discovery is an after-the-fact rationalization, invented when people started asking questions.

Dean Baker says to hell with rewarding incompetence.

There can be no presumption of good faith from this administration. Unless the conditions are written in stone, for example specific rules that limit executive compensation using the same type of language that CEOs use when they sign contracts with their companies, there is no reason for the public to believe that they will get a fair deal in this bailout. The public should also demand that some genuine outsiders, representatives of labor, consumer groups and other non-Wall Street segments of society, have a direct oversight role in this deal.

If these demands are too extreme for the Bush administration, then they are not telling the truth about the financial crisis. If the risks are really as great as President Bush claims, then he should unhesitatingly agree to guarantees that will prevent the incompetents from profiting further from their incompetence. We shall see.

Sounds good to me.