Slow, Deliberate, Careful

The Caretaker at the Yip Blog is correct. The spending of nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer money to bail out the financial industry has got to be a decision made thoughtfully, carefully, and deliberately by Congress, the representative of the people. One person, even one as smart as Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, should not be making that decision or trying to push Congress to rush a decision. Especially since Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, in a very real sense represents the financial industry that he is trying to save.

It feels too much to me like the decision to invade Iraq or to pass the Patriotic Act. Please, no more 'take it or leave it'. No more 'now, now, now'. This is too important. The order of the day should be slow, deliberate, careful.

Mike Whitney, writing in Counterpunch, puts the same point in a bit more flamboyant way.

Don't let the prospect of a national crisis trick you into giving up your liberty, America. The people behind this scam are the same landsharks and flim-flam men who polluted the global marketplace with their snake oil and toxic sludge. These are the fraudsters who manufactured the crisis to begin with. Be resolute. Don't budge. Our economic foundations may be crumbling, but or determination is not. This is our country, not Goldman Sach's. The people who destroyed America must be held to account. Their time is coming. Justice first.