I don't have time to write the full-boat diary I'd like to--gotta head out the door soon--but goshdarnit, this is urgent. The dems are getting railroaded by Paulson, and our plaintive complaints aren't helping much.
Why isn't anyone here talking about Chris Dodd's proposal for the bailout? He published the proposed bill this morning! Bloomberg. The bill.
In simplest form: if we buy $1 of distressed assets from a company, we get those assets, plus $1 in equity in that company. (Plus exec compensation limits [as kos says, bfd--but still, a good thing] plus a kickback for losses on the eventual sale of the asset [which seems a bit overboard to me; the equity stake does the job, at least in aggregate]).
More...
You can read comments from Krugman, DeLong, and Salmon.
Hunter did a post on the bailout with some economically half-baked ideas, but it barely even mentions the Dodd plan, and that dismissively. He's right that we need another solution, but he doesn't provide it. (Dodd does.) And Kos's post just pooh-poohed the CEO issue--appropriately, but that's not a solution.
The Dodd plan looks like a sweet deal for the taxpayers, and punitive to the Wall Street gamblers and grubbers--with punishment exactly where it hurts: their wealth.
Let's get some noise going behind this! It shows, once again, that it's the democrats who have the real economic savvy and solutions. (Though I have to say that dKos postings don't demonstrate that terribly often.)
And it shows which party actually understands the concept of Market Discipline.
Steve
http://trueconservative.typepad.com