Pigs, arrows and outrageous fortune

That giant oinking sound you hear is all the pork being herded into the Bailout Corral. Even though the plan passed last week has been so brilliantly successful at transferring all that nasty smelling bad mortgage debt to the Taxpayer Government, the Fed is planning to make us a present of bad commercial paper as well. There just wasn't enough pork in the original deal.

You can't expect to have a barbecue of wall street lobbyist proportions without big chunks of pork and little scraps like the tax relief for manufacturers of wooden arrows designed for use by children. You have to admit that their plight is central to the economic health of all of us. Who knows, your ex-broker may be making wooden arrows designed for use by children before the week is out.

Don't worry about it. All of us are going to hell or to Alaska in the next few months according to Sarah "ya betcha" Palin. She has a plan for everything.

Can't win for losing

Fed Chairman Bernanke says that failure to pass the trillion dollar bailout will threaten the economy. He may well be right, but experience with bailouts in other economies suggests that passing it may do the same thing; at least for a number of years.

Although most Americans treat the idea that what applies elsewhere may apply here too, Finland, Sweden and Norway faced a similar crisis in the early 1990's and the 5 years of economic misery that followed may provide a lesson to us. The Nordic bank bailout didn't end the recession which continued to deepen as unemployment rose. Would a recovery have occurred without the bailout? I certainly can't say, but if the Bernanke/Paulson plan is implemented, the new president may well have to deal with the continuation of the problems caused by deficit spending and revenue reduction for his or her entire term.

If by some miracle, Barak Obama is elected, the Republicans certainly won't show any restraint in blaming the cesspit that laissez faire supply side economics dug, on him and on the Democrats. Continuing recession may even persuade voters to return to the party that caused it - and make no mistake, most Americans do blame the Republicans for this mess.

If McCain wins, they'll blame the Democrats for everything, whether the bailout is implemented or not. They can, as always, depend on the loyalty of their flock and impugn the more objective voters as Libarals and Elitists. They will get away with it.

In short, I think it's hard to see a Democratic win in November as a win for the Democrats. It's hard to see an unqualified win for Americans no matter who wins.