Arkady's Thoughts

Late breaking news, Tony Blair attempts to set the record straight by letting us know what he really believes about George W. Bush in this latest Politico piece .  As always, partisan hacks provide hours of amusement in the comment section and I encourage you to explore the banter in order to get a glimpse of the utterly pathetic state of intellectual discourse in this country. Other than the obviously superficial, is Tony Blair correct?  While the frenetic left relished in insulting Bush due to his perceived "stupidity" it largely pertained to his speaking and communication ability, see, they wanted an intellectual elite much like what we have right now in the White House.  Yet do you believe the hallmark of a great leader is one that communicates to the masses as opposed to an elite upper crust of society much like Hamilton once envisioned?  Sure Bush made a few speaking errors and may have waved to Stevie Wonder, but if the Bush haters cons...

The first 250 billion is now being allocated. So far I have mixed feelings about this. I am elated that they are not buying up garbage (toxic) mortgages and instead using the money to inject the banks with liquidity. This is important as it guarantees their solvency and that banks will continue to operate. This should alleviate the credit crunch that is precisely what is grinding our economy into a halt. I assume however that this ownership is a temporary measure. We do not want our govt to dictate the bank's policies - that will be a disaster. If they plan to do the same thing as Japan did, at the very least they can learn from Japan's mistakes. Nationalizing banks must be a swift and temporary measure to provide confidence and a source of security to the ailing banks. Buying up mortages is the worst thing they can do because it just rewards bad behavior. I heard talks that some Democrats proposed refinancing loans to a new lower adjusted rate. This is horse shit and ...