This morning, I sat down and started a blog entry all about the discouraging trajectory of Jamie Lee Curtis's career. (She's starring in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, people! IT'S A TALKING DOG MOVIE!!!) I didn't get it done, so I saved it and perhaps it will get posted eventually.What stopped me from posting about Jamie Lee, though, was when I happened to pop onto the New York Times website this afternoon only to learn that the House voted down the projected bailout -- sending the stock market on a 770-point plunge into the gutter. Considering there were students in the room, I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from uttering the expletive that sprang to mind.
Okay, I know I'm not anything remotely close to a finance wizard. My worse grade in college was in the one econ class I let my adviser talk me into taking. A lot of what I'm about to say here is pretty much steeped in the rhetoric I've heard over the weekend from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and the like.
This morning, it seemed as if this proposed bailout was not necessarily a perfect plan but it was a doable plan that would address the problems. It seemed as if the staggered dispersal of the $700 billion was a good solution that would address the squeamishness many of us feel about that sort of money being handed out.
It seems clear that some sort of solution is needed, and I'm concerned that Congress is dragging its feet to the detriment of the rest of us. Their inability to pass this proposed bailout plan has sent the stock market plummeting. As a student of American history and literaure, I know what happens when stuff like that goes down -- banks close, dust storms come, and people become hoboes whose only substinence comes from the breast milk of mothers whose babies were born dead. Yeah! I know! People, I will not make it as a hobo!
It's time for Congress to get their act together and get something passed. The bailout may not be the cure to our woes (it's definitely not, I know), but it may at least put some minds at ease enough to keep this economy on the rails.
The ONE little sliver of silver in this cloud? At least the price of oil is dropping along with the stock market.
1 comment:
And the worse part, from what I heard, stems from the fact that the bailout failed due to out-and-out politics on both sides of the aisle. The Republicans didn't get enough of their own to back it, and the Dems didn't want to have it pass on Democratic votes. Seems that all these elected officials worried too much that the public would find out all the ugly bad stuff in the deal (funding mortgage securites and not individual mortgages, golden parachutes, etc.). So the Reps decided they'd better not pass it, forcing the Dems to pass it- so later on in future elections, the GOP could point and say, "Look who those big, bad Democrats gave your tax money to!" The Dems decided they wouldn't be strong-armed into that. And here we are. THANKS Congress for putting your careers ahead of your country's needs. Sigh.
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