Many here are focusing on the schennanigans of the Repubs surrounding the financial system liquidity bailout, but they don't have to fear this...
Reed and Shumer clearly had the right answer two days ago and the mainstream media knows the right answer too...
So Mr. Obama, I say follow the original plan that the Democrats had two days ago..and The Truth Will Set you Free!!!
My little hobby is economics punditry and although I do not claim to be an expert -I did pretty well in some graduate level classes at a Big Ten U. Besides, I listened to Bondad and other smart minds on the internet who were way ahead and have owned gold, silver and solar energy stocks in the majority of my investments for the past nearly two years.
There are many in the public that do not understand that we need government activism - especially the "Simpleton Conservative" crowd but Democrats need to be smarter and stick to their guns. Bailouts which simultaneously extract a pound of flesh from the fat cats and drive a big stake though the heart of the vampires - with the government actually holding the equity is a proven system to save economies in this current state.
While the mainstream media has been dead on with their aim...you can still learn more from the blogsphere. Interesting feedback on Reddit.com that precisely mirrors what I am trying to do here (Make sure that Obama and the Democrats understand that this is one of those unlikely times when doing the polar opposite of the quick legislation that the Bush Administration wants is the wrong directon.)
But this does not mean we have to loose. While McCain decides if he is going to join the "save our skins" Conservative Republicans - Obama can go to the Mississippi Debate (or town hall solo) and say that we had the right answer two days ago. This is an entire day before McCain blew into town like a hornet and then promptly sat in the meeting yesterday like a wall flower.
Finally, I love the installment idea too...the Democratic leadership on the hill clearly gets it and Shumer is one of my heroes right now and here is why - Take a look at the discussions on:
http://thehousingtimebomb.blogspot.com/
Here is my favorite quote from a participant:
The Treasury's plan isn't a bad one, its just too early.
Please read this piece from The Housing Time Bomb that I wrote back in early April. Sweden is a perfect example of how to dismantle a housing bubble.
We should have stolen their playbook. The biggest mistake the Treasury made is they are trying to jump in too early. Sweden waited until housing prices had bottomed until the government stepped in. Housing was down 50% and had reverted to the mean when they stepped in. Sweden's government also took stakes in the banks and made them pay an extremely high price for their greed.
The Treasury has the same idea, the problem is they are jumping in right in the middle of the housing decline. If this were a baseball game, the Treasury bailout would be same as putting in your closer during the 5th inning.
I don't consider myself smart enough to know if the "Doom and Gloom" prevails and the $700 billion will be wasted and that we just blow all this dough on am even deeper slide down, but I must admit that I really don't know. I would love to see a further discussion with even greater economic minds on this topic in more detail here.
What I do believe is that some action made now will help. We can have our cake and eat it too if we carefully use installments of say $100 billion per month right now...If we see that it does no good...a band aid on a hemorrhage..then we pull back and put the rest in the FDIC and civil emergency support measures like buying the homes outright at the bottom for example.
Having an installment plan allows us to look good politically, hope for the best as well as planning for the worst.
Obama can talk about all of this in the debate...or just solo in a town hall and if McCain and the Repubs want to brake in with a news flash compromise at debate time then they can play all the games they want....Obama and the Democrats are on the high road with a true solution already.