Now that I’m in DC I guess it’s a moot point, but damn, these people need primaries.

But for now, if firepups are represented by the Blue Dogs, they can be Stranger Bedfellows, right?

http://www.investorsinsight.co…..world.aspx

Teddy you swanky devil,that is the NEIMAN MARCUS POOCH{NeedlessMarkup}…”g”

fix th e housing crisis,so the Merkins can go shopping again at Home Despot,and buy gasoline,and more gatorade for the football season
booooooooyah…Wall Street let them eat cake…………….”g” or shiite

okay im confused so many threads so little time

Teddy, I love how you capitalized welfare and trademarked it. LOL When it was regular ole welfare for the schmucks in the country, the word didn’t look important, oh but now that it’s $700,000,000,000 in welfare for the wealthy elitist companies on Wall Street–well then—it’s important, man!

LOL Jane. Do tell.

You are not alone and I’m pretty good at multitasking. I know there must be some great reason to have all these blogs strung together but I don’t get it.

“Wealthfare™”

For example, you hit the “Pat the frat boys” link below left and you get an afternoon post with three entries. Hit “Mc Cain wants to be a dictator”, bottom right and you get a thread with no responses. WTF?

Thanks for the grammar check. Corporate welfare….wealthfare…schmuck welfare…all the same thing, except one is truly more important than the others and is trademarked so no one is embarrassed to say they’re on it. LOL

that’s a good one. I was going to call it the Taxpayer’s savings protection bill

We’re rats in a maze, working for the Big Cheese.

I just copied it from Teddy’s post. Please give him the credit.

from the debate on the senate floor:

difi up.

she has received 91 thousand phone calls and emails. 89 thousand against. the people are confused.

Difi up there lying like she gives a fuck what her constituents think. Plus she has four years until the end of her term.

Yeah, I wouldn’t mind getting a little corporate welfare, bet you could buy a lot more with your foodstamps.

There is a good point made in this article about the so called credit crunch. Namely that there is always a credit crunch in a recession:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsme…..eze_scare/

Don’t fall for it. No bailout!

evening all – been away most of the day.

Is the Senate gonna pass this thing?

(have been watching CSpan for a few minutes, all I’ve heard seem in favor)

she has received 91 thousand phone calls and emails. 89 thousand against. the people are confused.

They certainly were when they elected her.

Thanks, Teddy. I would be truly ironic if the Blue Dogs led the way to something good.

Not only is the Senate skirting the Constitution tonight, they are defying public opinion, too. I just found a USA Today-Gallup poll that says 57% want Congress to start from scratch on a bailout bill and only 20% want something similar to what the House rejected. I did a diary with key question highlighted.

I don’t know….$700,000,000,000 check for corporate welfare, whereas, the schmucks get $70/month for food.

It all boils down to integrity and so far Corporate America has zero. Those eating hot dogs 3 nights a week have way more.

dodd:

this is the moment we must take to restore american’s optimism.

this may be the most important vote we will ever take in this body.

please vote for the future believability in our system.

[me: what crack has dodd been smoking?]

Now that the United States Senate has decided to defy the Constitution by initiating a tax bill in the Upper Chamber,

How the hell *have* they pulled this off, anyway? Did they end up deleting the text of some other pending bill, and inserting the bailout?

I also find it disorienting.

I think we need to do a better job explaining structure. I will do a post tomorrow morning

MsAnna, I believe you are the one who posted nakedcapitalism linky earlier. thanks. Holy crap! But thanks for the link, good info there.

I was referring to the new and improved super-duper stamps the corporate fatcats will get to use.

My strategy would be to add a transaction fee to offset.

bailey hutchison up. to talk about amtrak. she says that will be the first vote, and then it will be the taxpayer sellout / wall street bailout bill.

Selise, I don’t see Dodd being his regular self in the last couple of days. It’s possible he’s on crack or maybe he’s realizing all the loop holes in his bill, the House bill, and the whole thing. Not sure…though it’s possible he did start doing crack. LOL

You live in a good State! My friend with terminal cancer just saw her’s increased to $37 a month! That good ol’ Texan generosity…

I get lost when I dive into a post on a subsite other than FDL’s main area. Once I’m in EW or Oxdown or what have you, the navigation is solely for the subsite unless you go back to the FDL home. that’s where I get lost.

Now that the United States Senate has decided to defy the Constitution by initiating a tax bill in the Upper Chamber, while predictably festooning it with gifts to high-income taxpayers, your own personal Blue Dog

This is a great this is the argument we need debt is a tax this is the only thing Milton Friedman was right about what right does Congress have to spend without figuring out a way to pay for it?

something stinks about the train thing. Trains ought to be supported esp. when gas costs so much. California is trying to get a high speed train between no and so calif. France has an awesome train system. We could to if we weren’t so in love with cars & planes and the oil co.s didn’t run everything.

Did they end up deleting the text of some other pending bill, and inserting the bailout

yes.

from yesterday’s UC:

H.R. 1424 (ORDER NO. 610)

2.–Ordered, That on Wednesday, October 1, 2008, following the
debate with respect to H.R. 7081, the Senate proceed to the
consideration of H.R. 1424, an act to amend section 712 of the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public
Health Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to
require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related
disorder benefits under group health plans, to prohibit discrimination
on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and
employment, and for other purposes.

i think i remember hearing somewhere that they were calling it a REVENUE bill because they were buying assets.

Eli owns the ™ on Wealthfare™

If we just make the Vice Presidential debates
Pay Per View.

We can solve all of our financial problems solved.

http://www.wilytrax.com

I wonder what the CEO’s of these companies ate for dinner last night? I think the FBI should send out private investigators to take pictures of these assholes so Americans can see what they’ve been doing while they await almost a trillion dollars from us.

This reminds me…

Today on news radio I heard a republican Senator (it sounded like Mitch McConnell, but I’m not really sure) saying the CEO’s should do a presser to apologize to the American people before they get this money. I almost drove off the road laughing my ass off! Remember all the times the right wingers have lambasted Barack for wanting to talk to the enemy? Well, the right wingers want the enemy to apologize to us!

I’m sorry but the irony, hypocrisy, and the right winger ‘humor’ is hysterical and getting very entertaining.

She’s gonna bag the Senate and run for governor in 2010, I betcha.

Dugg

I just threw that number out, Nonplussed. I know these checks are low (urks me the right wingers think welfare recipients are loaded to the hilt), but I guess it depends on how many kids the mother has.

Well, if the French thought of it, you know it’s no good!/s

Did they end up deleting the text of some other pending bill, and inserting the bailout?

Yes:

AMENDMENT NO._______ Calendar No. _____
Purpose: In the nature of a substitute.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—110th Cong., 2d Sess.
H. R. 1424
To amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health
Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental
health and substance-related disorder benefits under
group health plans, to prohibit discrimination on the
basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance
and employment, and for other purposes.
Referred to the Committee on ________________ and
ordered to be printed
Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE intended
to be proposed by _____________
Viz:
1 Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the fol-
lowing:

Thanks.

Yes, exactly.

The Lower House sent them a tax bill, and the Senate stripped it out, inserted the Wealthfare™ Bill, then added a bunch of tax stuff at the end.

I hope some traditionalist ‘Critters will be offended by this.

Apparently, House GOPs won’t vote for an AMT “correction” with new taxes to make up for what the “correction” loses. Pay/Go Democrats (those listed in my post) won’t vote for an AMT “correction” without makeup taxes. So they may gain some House GOPs with this Senate bill; they may also lose Blue Doggies.

Or maybe Steny wants to be a hero.

From the other responses, looks like I was wrong. Apologies.

thanks Jim & Selise

Somewhat off topic but I noticed that the talking points for the bailout package are all about the same now with the news reporters and politicos.

I know there are big media firms, whose clients include foreign governments, who are used to sell the spin from these clients to the US.

Is there a chance we could find out if one of these firms were hired to sell the bail out to mail street USA?

I try to keep lotsa windows, or tabs, open at one time. But I have spent less time on other blogs.

and Teddy.

or it might be this:

Since 2003 Dodd collected over $4 million in contributions from Securities and Investment companies. His top five doners include Citibank, SAC Capital Partners and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Is it just me or does the stock market seem to ‘cringe’ at the thought of a bailout? Seems the stocks are high when nothing happens in the House & Senate, but when there’s action, there’s a big sell off.

What is going on? Anyone understand the psychology of these people?

I don’t believe in the system… I have no faith in it. Let’s get a new one!

Why hasn’t someone filed a lawsuit to get an injunction against the Senate initiating a tax bill, or is the Senate immune from judicial injunctions? How about a declaratory judgment or something? What is the proper remedy for an unconstitutional action by a body of Congess? Checks and balances…where are they? (I know, the check to Wall Street is in the mail…)

Could be, but then when you realize Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac have given to 99.9% of Senators & House members, well, it’s very difficult these days to find anyone in DC who isn’t getting something.

Yep. sigh.

Again, they bypassed the yes/no bailout question and went straight to How?

You know, the country can’t just turn on a dime.

doesn’t that maneuver amount to legislative fraud?

Did you read about the rumor that they were all booking reservations at the top restaurants and getting out their xmas shopping lists. We are being had by Wall Street.

It’s pathetic that these slackers can ruin the economy. And disgusting that they get rewarded for doing it again and again.

We need to take back the con from the Rockfellers and the CFR who are pulling the strings in finance and foreign policy.

I’m having trouble understanding the haste of Senate Dems to push this Modified Limited Paulson Bill through. They’re smart enough to understand that on the underlying reality this is only a superficial and temporary measure, and that lots more steps will be needed, some of them before the election. They also know full well that that the voters are overwhelmingly against this thing, and yet Barry O’s name is right there on the thing. So… what’s the strategy? What do they know is coming down the pike, that we don’t yet know?

Which financial corporation paid for the dinner that the McCains had with the Liebermans at a four-star restaurant the other night?

Was there a lobbyist or two under the table?

yes, but i think dodd is near the top of the list:

The center analyzed contributions from the financial sector from 1989 to 2008. Of the top 20 recipients, ten were Democrats. It’d be 11 if you counted Joe Lieberman.

The top six, in descending order: Hillary Clinton ($31 million), Barack Obama ($27.9 million), John McCain ($26.6 million), John Kerry ($19 million), Chris Dodd ($13.2 million) and Charles Schumer ($12.8 million).

Just because Dodd was good on FISA doesn’t mean he is good on Wealthfare™

i have no idea, and really don’t understand the rules that well. if i remember i’ll try calling the senate parliamentarian to see if i can get some explanation.

exactly. doesn’t take a thing away from his work re fisa, but he sure does suck on this.

What causes an Oxdown™ post to appear on FDL as an FDL post? Some do and many don’t…

“despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage“

punaise!

As predicted, KO says the wingnuts are going off about Ifil!

neuro!

good catch by CR on the sellout bill:

SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b) is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new subparagraph:

‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finished or unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly—
‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in diameter, and
‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.

Some are saying online (various blog posts I came across the Web) that the reason why De Rothchild is now wholeheartedly supporting McCain is because she wants to benefit from his love of deregulation of the banks. It’s also being said that since the NYSE is computerized the computer could have been tampered with (may not be possible but this is a rumor at this point) to make the market crash (shows a huge sell off when there really isn’t any selling off), so the De Rothchild could benefit who are in the banking industry.

Hey could be. Everything being computerized really isn’t the safest thing, but then again, it’s the stock market.

Can this kind of thing happen? Anyone know?

doesn’t that maneuver amount to legislative fraud?

What’s your point? I mean, even if it is/was, who’s gonna do anything about it – Mukasey?

(not meant as any insult to you, neuro)

Oh good god. Is the thing about removing the bank reserve requirement still in there?

p.s. i have no idea if that a joke or for real – i did not check the bill.

a quiver of gratuitous earmarks!

Interesting discussion at Naked Capitalism
My understanding of bottom line is that TARP supports the mortgage finance industry at the expense of drying up loans for working capital needed for real economy.

Anyone have opinions on this take?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com…..arket.html

BTW, Ives Smith of Naked Capitalism did a bloogerheads thing. So first time I new what Ives Smith looked like. I thought Smith was a big fat, hairy, red headed guy (dunno where I got that idea). I was quite wrong.

And welcome back punaise (who I thought was a elegent, small and compact gentlemen with a goatee, monocle and yellow spats…)

This is because the market works on perception… so they think of they send a message and a few hundred billion to Wall Street the trading frenzy will resume.. even if the “problem” is not solved.

It’s how alchies work… give em another tot and they are good to go.

haven’t read it – but my link to CR takes you to his post with a link to the bill pdf if you want to give it a quick read (450 pages).

i was so hoping for a comment from you on that one.

great to “see” you punaise. i think we could all use some of your good humor tonight. i know i could, thanks!

The value that was lost was never there. Stock values are total BS.

give em another toot and they are good to go.

Adjusted for Larry Kudlow.

great link. i’m going to wait to read it carefully, but it’s probably beyond me (maybe we can get hugh and ian and/or others to weigh in).

the post begins:

Bailout Bill To Make Money Market Liquidity Crunch Worse?

Boy, I wish I had thought of this, and why no one else save some smart readers have focused on the mechanics of the Paulson plan operations is beyond me. This bill is moving ahead like the Titanic…..with high odds of similar outcomes.

Hoisted from comments, we turn the mike over to reader Don:

The bailout, I mean rescue plan, can be seen as nothing less than a new Ponzi scheme…

Thank you, selise, I’ll try to inspect it for this. In case anyone is interested, here’s what I was referring to in the (yes, failed) House bailout bill:

This is how the bank code would have read had the [House] bill passed today [Monday actually]:

Each depository institution shall maintain reserves against its transaction accounts as the Board may prescribe by regulation solely for the purpose of implementing monetary policy—
(i) in a ratio of not greater than 3 percent (and which may be zero) for that portion of its total transaction accounts of $25,000,000 or less, subject to subparagraph (C); and
(ii) in the ratio of 12 per centum, or in such other ratio as the Board may prescribe not greater than 14 per centum and which may be zero, for that portion of its total transaction accounts in excess of $25,000,000, subject to subparagraph (C).

Yeah, but in that case they should be very very clear that they’ll likely be back for another $700BB before too long. And they’re not.

heh, peeking out from under my rock….

Been reading articles on crisis on Joseph Stiglitz’s homepage. He said neglect of real economy, particularly the inventory of new homes is dangerous because one mortgage finance industry strategy mayb be to let it rot into the groud. That would reduce supply and find a price floor.

Some of it should rot into the ground (especially some bogus developments I have seen in the Central Valley California). But, using that method to increase price of housing overall would be a ghastly waste and high economic crime.

So I saw some wingnut proposal (from National Review? Not sure) saying, that it was all government waste created by Big Gummint CRA and Fannie and Freddie. Why not bulldoze the boondoggle into the ground?

There is not telling how ridiculously bad it can get.

Watched a a few minutes of Ives Smith on bloggerheads. She said that the Paulson proposal was written on “tissue paper”. I think she was being very polite. I like that about Naked Capitalsim, it is a polite site.

Thanks for your work on this selise, you were live bloggin the Senate debate.

BTW, I never would have thought an elegant, small and compact man who wore a goatee, monocle and yellow spats would live under a rock. But Northern California is like that.

this neck of the woods is practically festooned with oddballs….

Yeh, well, effective like that we don’t need, not much. I hope the Lords & masters will forgive me for pointing out that Katrina and Ike were pretty effective at reducing housing supply too.

YES, it’s still in there, at page 84 / Sec. 128:

13 SEC. 128. ACCELERATION OF EFFECTIVE DATE.
14 Section 203 of the Financial Services Regulatory Re-
15 lief Act of 2006 (12 U.S.C. 461 note) is amended by strik-
16 ing ‘‘October 1, 2011’’ and inserting ‘‘October 1, 2008’’.

Again, analysis is available here.

now the senate moves on to their vote on selling nuclear technology to india even though they have not signed on to the NPT.

i think the senate is having a stupid day.

I think I like Seersucker Day better than Stupid Day in the upper chamber

has this been discussed?:

But the most duplicitous and frightening aspect of the plan, as always, was to found, buried in the back of the document, located there in the hopes everyone would have fallen asleep from the legalese before they made it that far. There’s the innocuous sounding Section 128, which was in both the original and amended versions, and says simply:

“Section 203 of the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006 (12 U.S.C. 461 note) is amended by striking ‘October 1, 2011’ and inserting ‘October 1, 2008.’”

What would this effectively do? It was intended to speed up the enactment of this section of the law from 2011 to this week.

And what is the impact of the change in this law? (Take a moment to let this sink in.) This wonderful bipartisan bailout proposal, negotiated into the wee hours of the morning by sleep-deprived members of Congress was designed to come with a furtive Trojan Horse embedded by Wall Street lawyers. Banks already in trouble for lack of capital would get to hold as little as “zero” capital for transactions.

But it does solve one giant mystery. All of Wall Street has been attempting to understand why firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who have concentrated on mergers, acquisitions, stock and bond underwriting for more a cumulative 212 years, decided in a heartbeat to enter the bean counter world of retail banking and transform into bank holding companies. (That’s like asking General Motors to retool overnight for washing machines.) Now we know. Effective this week, if this bailout proposal would have passed in its current form, these firms would have had a new best friend at the Fed that was going to let them hold zero reserves for transactions…

BTW, I never would have thought an elegant, small and compact man who wore a goatee, monocle and yellow spats would live under a rock. But Northern California is like that.

i used to live in northern CA (well if either santa cruz or the sf peninsula qualify). all kinds of surprising things and wonderful people.

That’s what I’ve been pointing out. DKos rec-list post with analysis & commentary at the link I gave.

festooned, that French? Where does that word come from?

OED says the verb comes from the noun, festoon, which is

1. a. A chain or garland of flowers, leaves, etc., suspended in a curved form between two points.

1686 W. AGLIONBY Painting Illust. Expl. of Terms, Festoon, is an Ornament of Flowers, employed in Borders and Decorations.

The use as a noun was not adopted until around 1800, OED sez.

These kids today with their slang… That McCain boy doesn’t seem well bred to me.

Kind of going in the wrong direction. But if they do go that way, I want in too. I could use some infinite leverage, if some one would bail me out when it all went south.

thanks – I should know better than to parachute into a discussion about things way over my pay grade… ! :~)

a little bit, iirc professor foland and hugh had a discussion about it and hugh mentions it in his item #87. but i think it could use a lot more visibility. glad you all are bringing it up.

i’ve got outrage whiplash.

your comment really impacted me.

OK festoon IS French. McCain used a cheese eating surrender monkey word on national TV during his Big Debate. Gaffe yet?

[ad. Fr. feston (= Sp. feston, Pg. festão), ad. It. festone; believed to be f. festa FEAST n.; the etymological sense would thus be ‘decoration for a feast’.]

Say it aint so, punaise. FDL readers have assured me that you are well bred. They say they have documents.

Not at all surprising not to recognize it, its meaning has been extremely highly obfuscated! Almost as though…. nah, couldn’t be…

bunting is a verb too. :~)

I took best in crass.

bailout/sellout bill is on the senate floor. sanders is up.

Sanders amendment failed.

gregg now up saying its a good bill, will probably make the taxpayer some money, will prevent golden parachutes and if not passed bad things will happen. sanders’ amendment is controversial and new.

‘impact’ didn’t used to be a verb.

voice vote on sanders’ amendment.

i heard exactly one “yea” – obviously sanders’ voice.

failed without a roll call vote.

i owe you a drink!

If it passes in the Senate, is House reconciliation (I mean conference committee) the next step (b/c the bill’s a body-snatcher)? Or does a real House bill have to get passed first?

I could use a double…

reid up now talking about one of his aides.

me too. whatcha having?

Got some leftover wine somewhere…

Things could play out this way. It gets back to the point that pumping $700 billion into buying toxic assets doesn’t have any necessary connection to unfreezing credit markets. Yes, banks and financial institutions will have more money but there is no compelling argument, beyond wishful thinking, that they will lend it out in ways to unfreeze the system. So what to do with the money? T-bills would certainly be one way to go.

To unfreeze credit as I keep saying the government needs to establish a pricing mechanism for mortgage based assets by sampling tranches and adjusting to a 40% (or more) mark down from falling housing prices, and then have financial companies recalculate their balance sheets according to this formula. This is different from Paulson’s reverse auction proposal because companies would have to apply all their assets against this rule, not just those they chose to. From here we can make real decisions based upon real information about the financial position of these companies. And liquidate or re-capitalize as necessary. This re-instills confidence in the system because, unlike now, everyone knows everyone else is solvent so a good credit risk.

sellout up. mcconnell talking about how well they have worked together: both candidates for potus, superb job by reid and dodd on a bill that can be passed in a bipartisan way.

McConnell’s gonna make me barf and I haven’t started drinking yet. At least he now has a good chance to lose next month…

Shouldn’t patrick murphy be on that list? It was a correct vote by the way. The AMT needs to be fixed for good, not patched and costing us $50B every time.

reid up. lots of phone calls and letters have been received. he now reads one of them.

This is interesting:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GqIFoBXGizc

real decisions based upon real information

i don’t know. that’s a new concept. probably controversial. we’d better stick with the tried and true.

This rescue ais nothing but a bait and switch. Nutin gonna change on Main Street. nada.

reid:

if we do not act responsibly tonight, …

my friends, it is time for action… [is reid channeling mccain now?]

on a bipartisan basis we insured oversight, prevented golden parachutes, insure that homeowners will receive much needed help,….

Make punaise quit picking on me! Impact went in the other direction.

I think this is a very good article by Josepth Stiglitz, from his homepage

The Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 and its Macroeconomic Consequences, June 2008

http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/f…..Crisis.pdf

LOL

Wow. That needs to be heard. How does that relate to the no-reserves part?

reid: this bill tells the american people that help is on the way.

Voting now.

thanks.

If the big problem is that firms cannot value their own holding, and have no way to evaluate solvency of other banks, then sucking out an unknown fraction of the bad securities out of the system won’t do anything.

And then, the industry had the assurance of the Treasury Dept that they would “support the industry” (that is, keep zombie banks on life support).

So, I think I understand the Naked Captial argument better (but I am not financial economist, as my goofs here have revealed several times… so let me know if got anythng wrong)

voting now.

Impact went in the other direction.

oops…

We just got told the reason why so many are supporting this; it’s called payment in lieu of taxes. The Western State Senators and that includes Texas apparently have been bought. And that they wouldn’t allow other than a voice vote on Senator Sander’s amendment tell you something also.

Outpact?

Can you elaborate on that a little?

Dunno, but I don’t think the critters understand what they are doing. This is the AUMF all over again. FEAR FEAR FEAR.

They skeered main street to believe that their “fortune” and future is linked to Wall Street.

We need to DECOUPLE Main Street from Wall Street. What happens in Vegas stays in Vagas. Let’s follow that rule.

attempting to find a sliver lining here…. very rarely do we get such a revealing vote, this is one that will separate the progressives from the rest. imo no progressive could vote for this – regardless of what they think about the economics, the stupidity of giving paulson our money to play with is beyond stupid.

TERM LIMITS

As Reid said in his 2 minutes; such monies had NOT been flowing to the Western States despite it having been law.

Russ said no

It passed

So did Bill Nelson. Good on him.

It’s passed; interesting that Shelby went on record against it. Repub side of the Banking Cmte.

Now we gotta flood the phones and faxes to congress

according to cspan’s running total (voting not completed):

Y=63 N-19

60 are needed for passage, so that looks like what will happen.

74 yes
21 no

final vote.

Yep. Busy day tomorrow…

Wow. So, who voted no?

Goodnight, gang. Think I’ll go sulk a while.

The House has already sent a bill to the Senate to further extend unemployment payments; it will be interesting to see if the Senate acts on that given all the talk about ‘having more to do’; watch to see if Gregg of NH speaks against it.

yes.

and email. whatever people feel most comfortable doing. its all good.

74 to 25; Kennedy wasn’t there I think; a quarter against it.

I smell a great big rat. The bill doesn’t fix the problem it’s been proposed to address, and it also allows a whole hell of a lot of money to be used in a whole hell of a lot of nefarious ways, including allowing US Treasury money to be used to buy troubled mortgages and mortgage-related assets held by foreign banks, even when the property itself is outside of the US. Who owns all the US banks has changed, and they wont need to have any monies held in reserve any more.

W. T. F.

the official roll call will be posted here, probably within the hour.

when i called kennedy’s office this morning, i was told that he would not be able to make to dc for the vote.

New post up. I am, umm, displeased with obama.

Bailout Bill To Make Money Market Liquidity Crunch Worse?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
Boy, I wish I had thought of this, and why no one else save some smart readers have focused on the mechanics of the Paulson plan operations is beyond me. This bill is moving ahead like the Titanic…..with high odds of similar outcomes.

Hoisted from comments, we turn the mike over to reader Don:

The bailout, I mean rescue plan, can be seen as nothing less than a new Ponzi scheme. It works like this:

Fed as only lender, in an attempt to keep the financial system from imploding;

TARP needed to keep Fed balance sheet intact so that it can continue as only lender;

Treasury will need to significantly increase the amount of Ts (public money) auctioned to fund TARP;

Panic serves to encourage T. buyers, especially for bills;

This represents a liquidity trap: TARP recipients of Ts will hoard cash to buy Ts: rinse and repeat.

This results in drying up of lending to corporations/crowding out private capital – no new credit lines;

The Fed becomes a holder of private capital, the later of which is now frozen to protect that capital from deteriorating, The rollover scheme will restrict even more lending in the private sphere for purposes of keeping the financial sphere on life support, but with the consequence of furthering the deterioration of the ‘real’ economy.

The counterargument is that the TARP will end the fear, breaking the Treasury-hoarding. But with banks (presumably) able to use the new phony prices paid by the TARP as marks for asset valuation purposes (whether they sold to the TARP or not), you get less transparency and hence less faith in bank balance sheets.

Further remarks from reader FairEconomist:

My thoughts exactly, Don. Plus the durations target the drawdown precisely on the capital we need most. We’re desperately short of 3 month working capital, and here comes Paulson to take $700 BB of what we’ve got left away and dump it in the mortgage industry. I don’t think you could devise a worse plan. We might be better of if he *did* steal it.

Informed reader comment very much appreciated.

some “no” votes – grabbed from the cspan graphic (so needs to be confirmed):

sanders
sessions
shelby
stabenow
tester
vitter
wicker
wyden
allard
barrasso
cantwell
bunning
brownbeck
cochran
crapo
demint
dole
dorgan
enzi
inhofe
johnson
landrieu
nelson (bill, fl)
roberts

missed some, will try to fill in

Hugh says it is a plausible scenario.

sanders
sessions
shelby
stabenow
tester
vitter
wicker
wyden
allard
barrasso
cantwell
bunning
brownbeck
cochran
crapo
demint
dole
dorgan
enzi
feingold
inhofe
johnson
landrieu
nelson (bill, fl)
roberts

kennedy did not vote.

i *think* this is it. but must be considered tentative until confirmed.

cspan is now giving the final vote as 74 to 25. will need to refer to official roll call for final total.