What I didn’t ever hear is where the $700bn is supposed to come from. Do you have any idea? Seriously, no amount of Googling uncovers this information, and the fact that both Presidential candidates were asked in the recent debate how they would tweak the budget to fit the $700bn in makes me think that there really is no plan.
–Just print the money? I think that might cause some inflation.
–Cut $700bn worth of other federal programs? Good luck with that.

Still, it might not be such a bad investment either, according to a friend of mine who used to be a trader at CME. As he argued, this is “not a bailout, but a purchasing of assets at 20 cents on the dollar.” As he pointed out, those mortgage-securities aren’t worth zero because the houses are not worth zero.

What seems most damning about the “bailout” was the lack of oversight and the sweeping powers it gave to Hank Paulson. Not to mention the fact that not enough heads at the remaining banks have rolled — we’re extending ridiculous credit to the same “geniuses” who got us into this mess in the first place (not to mention that, for example, the 3-week CEO of WaMu got an $18m severance package!!) . Maybe if there’s a bit more new blood at the top on Wall Street, this plan would be more agreeable to the average Joe.