Barry gets it right:

If you are a fan of irony, consider this: The conservative movement has utterly hated FDR, and his New Deal programs like Medicaid, Social Security, FDIC, Fannie Mae (1938), and the SEC for nearly 80 years. And for the past 8 years, a conservative was in the White House, with a very conservative agenda. For something like 16 of the past 18 years, the conservative dominated GOP has controlled Congress. Those are the facts.

We now see that the grand experiment of deregulation has ended, and ended badly. The deregulation movement is now an historical footnote, just another interest group, and once in power they turned into socialists. Indeed, judging by the actions of the conservatives in power, and not the empty rhetoric that comes out of think tanks, the conservative movement has effectively turned the United States into a massive Socialist state, an appendage of Communist Russia, China and Venezuala.

To paraphrase Floyd Norris , we have become Marxists, but of the Groucho, not Karl, variety . . .

Good morning Comrades! You likes shiny new plan for make rescue of capitalism?

And Barry would do what, exactly to fix it?

As noted in other threads, he was helping create the problem while McCain was fighting it, at least insofar as Fannie Mae is concerned.

How exactly did Barry Ritholtz help cause the crisis?

Well, at least he hasn't frozen prices and wages or taken us off the gold standard. Yet.

"We're all Keynesians now." Or something like that.

Orin:

Because you reminded me that Bush is still technically president, I hereby default on that beer I vaguely recall owing you.

A government bailout of my football pool losses incurred due to my admittedly stupid faith in the Detroit Lions could, however, change my mind.

Or the solution.

Hundreds of billions to save investors: wise choice.

Hundreds of billions to provide nationalized health care: nah, let the free market work!

If it sometimes seems that I viscerally hate the Republican Party, well, this kind of thing is why.

If the government were to use the accounting methodology which required it to state the amount of unfunded liabilities as an actual liability, the national debt would be between 60 to 100 trillion dollars. Nobody really knows what it is, though, because the costs keep increasing (due to Medicate, Social Security, and the new prescription drug benefit.) I guess if you view the debt through this analysis, another trillion doesn't matter.

Eventually, though, this house of cards has to come crashing down. Because the government does not have 60-100 trillion to spend, and can't possibly raise the money via taxes to pay it, even over the course of several years.

If a situation can't last forever, it won't. Who will bail out Uncle Sam? Certainly not the taxpayer, unless they repeal the 13th amendment.

You're doing a heckava job, Georgie!

I'm sure Cheney will soon announce: 'Everything is going exactly as planned."

I'm sure Cheney will soon announce: 'Everything is going exactly as planned."

I'll start selling short (assuming I'm allowed to) when Bush announces "Mission Accomplished".

I blame Barry White for this problem.

The problem has been Congress's refusal to cut taxes. If the top 1% had more in their pockets to invest, they could have helped recapitalize the markets through stock and bond purchases of the tanking and tanked companies.

Perhaps the better Cheneyism would be this:

The economy is in its last death throes.

Danger Mouse raises a key question. All we know of the debt now is what the CEOs and CFOs who invented some arcane accounting practices have told us. I suspect there are quite a few folks in board rooms right now sweating because having misstated their liquidity via creative accounting, now have to fess up. If they want the bailout they should be required to submit their accounting practices to examination before they get a dime. Indictments come later.

Note that no one has said that we roll back the laws passed since the Raygun years including Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act,and bankruptcy

A low-interest government loan here, a housing subsidy there, one hundred million economic stimulus checks here, a Bear-Stearns bail-out there, an AIG buy-out here, and soon we'll be in a semi-fascist nation where the government controls all financial institutions and thereby controls most of the economy. Add enforced servitude for young adults in a National Service Program, and we'll jump to full fascism. I like mountains, so emigrating to Switzerland might a good idea.

PC:

Morris Berman, Kevin Phillips, David Cay Johnson and Chalmers Johnson have all joined in with you to describe the final phase of the dying American Empire.

I like the way Bush has become a "post-partisan" president when he wants a Democratic Congress to approve taking on hundreds of billions of bad debt, saying its no time for partisanship. It is exactly the right time for partisanship; the opposition party needs to hold the Administration's feet to the fire. For seven years a Republican Administration and Congress enjoyed their "seven years of plenty," is the country due now for seven years of poverty?

Anderson: "Hundreds of billions to save investors: wise choice."

Who isn't an investor? Those who aren't participants in the pension plan of any company, non-profit, municipal or state pension plans? And don't have anything in 401Ks, 403Ks, IRAs, Keoghs, ESOPs or other tax-deferred accounts? And aren't "invested" through life insurance or annuity products? And own no real property or other major assets? And aren't saving for their own or their children's education, home purchase, or other purpose?

Save for the truly poor among us, I think there must be few real "non-investors." And the poor won't be unaffected either.

I think the word you want is "speculators." That one, rather than "investors," is usually used to distinguish those regarded as greedy and deserving of whatever losses they suffer from the rest of us who deserve better.

"The conservative movement has utterly hated FDR, and his New Deal programs like Medicaid, Social Security, FDIC, Fannie Mae (1938), and the SEC for nearly 80 years."

FDR ran against Hoover and criticized his budget deficits. During the campaign he did his best to scare the public but then said said we had nothing to fear but fear itself as president. Nevertheless I think he did a good job with securities regulation. But his record in dealing with the Depression was mixed, but at least he tried.

BTW Medicaid was not a New Deal program as it didn't start until 1965.