13 Comments

• Geoffrey Payne 29th Sep '08 - 11:28pm

  MyDD? How about OMG?

• Mark Wright 29th Sep '08 - 11:35pm

  The financial services industry fully expected politicians to blink first, but they didnt. Good for them I think – A better deal for the tax-payer can be reached.

• Clegg's Candid Friend 29th Sep '08 - 11:58pm

  The Telegraph reports:
  “Vince Cable, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said he expected the FTSE to take a further tumble tomorrow on the back of the US rejection of the rescue plan”

  This man’s powers of prescience are truly remarkable! If only the rest of us could foresee the future with such clarity …

• Darrell 30th Sep '08 - 12:42am

  I agree with Mark Wright. Congress did the right thing.

• Dave R 30th Sep '08 - 7:17am

  Really a relief that Congress had the guts to stand up to the fear mongering by the Treasury Secretary.

  Dave
  http://www.islandersoftware.com/weblog/2008/09/27/just-say-no-to-the-bailout-plan/

• CCFCF 30th Sep '08 - 7:58am

  Yawn.

• Martin Land 30th Sep '08 - 8:11am

  CCF: Keep it up! We all appreciate your incisive and intelligent critique from your (you assure us) ‘Lib Dem’ point of view.
  See we now have a CCFCF. Glad to see I’m not alone in finding your endless sniping tiresome.
  If we accept your assurance (at faceless value) that you really are one of us, please pass on my deepest sympathy to your local party. You must be a positive joy to them.

• Geoffrey Payne 30th Sep '08 - 8:33am

  As this article shows, the bailout plan is flawed;
  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081013/stiglitz
  This article was written before the bailout agreement was rejected.
  However the alternative of do nothing does not have much going for it either.

• Clegg's Candid Friend 30th Sep '08 - 9:12am

  Martin:
  “If we accept your assurance (at faceless value) that you really are one of us”

  As I’ve pointed out to you a number of times, you don’t have to accept my assurance for anything – you can check with the site owners. Why do you keep pretending otherwise?

  As for my comment on Cable, it just amused me because it sounded like a statement of the blindingly obvious. Though, as of now, the FTSE is actually up …

• David Heigham 30th Sep '08 - 11:32am

  Geffrey Payne

  The Paulson bail-out plan was deeply flawed. As presented, it was politcally naive, panicky and unintelligible. As rejected by Congress, it was barely workable, but far better considered.

  A number of other proposals on the table from academics look better focussed on the problem, more fully worked through, and lower cost to the US taxpayers. However, we will need a lot of luck to get one of these now. And the plan that Congress rejected could have been amanded after the election to improve it.

  I fear that we – and the Congressmen who voted against the plan – are going to really regret the rejection.

  CCF

  See Vince Cable’s post above.

• stephen 30th Sep '08 - 12:14pm

  I’m affraid there is one other reason, why some people voted against this Bill. Speaker Pelosi decided it would be a good idea to take massive swing at the economic policies of the Bush Administration, during her speech in the debate.

  That meant in one swing, she (probably) angered enough republicans into switching their votes back against the bill

• Chandila Fernando 30th Sep '08 - 12:16pm

  The Single aspect that will harm any BAILOUT in the US is the Presidential Election. MCain and Obama must show real leadership and draw the discussions to a swift and serious conclusion. Innocent taxpayers, savers and homeowners are at the mercy of politicians.

• KL 30th Sep '08 - 12:51pm

  Let’s face it – the main reason it was rejected is because the whole House of Representatives is up for election in a few weeks time, and a large number of them didn’t want to be seen to be supporting the dodgy bankers. A few Republicans may also have voted against it simply to spite Pelosi – which is, quite simply, astounding and a clear lack of responsibility.

  Eventually something will get through – not because it’s great, but because it has to. The Republicans will realise eventually that the political and social cost of letting the banks go bust will be greater than the cost of the financing.

  By the way, Nick Clegg’s suggestion of all parties working together in the UK on this seems to be a good one – Vince for Chancellor next week, anybody?