McCain Economy/Debate Update, for People Without Better Sources For This Info

Congress said they had agreed to a bailout (investment!) plan, McCain arrived in Washington and shortly thereafter the agreement was no more. Almost as if McCain had said "for God's sake, if you shut this thing down I have to debate on Friday!" Or not. For whatever reason, the deal was not reached today.

Interestingly, a lot of the discussion of McCain's campaigning suspension seems to only fall into two camps: It's good strategy, a gutsy move that will convince people he cares more about the country than his candidacy - or it's terrible strategy, obvious grandstanding that will just delay the inevitable and make him look like he's afraid of the debate. What's NOT being discussed is the possibility that McCain is sincere, which to me means the cause is lost. If we all think it's strategy, who is it fooling?

What's more, people hate congress right now. Why? Because they take forever to make decisions and they spend too much time in partisan bickering. And here they were, on the verge of a quick, bipartisan decision, and McCain gums that up. I can't imagine people are going to respond well to that.

It's generally felt that if a decision isn't reached by Sunday, the market is going to open badly on Monday. Very badly. From there it could see-saw back up or we could slide into the next great depression. I'm inclined to think, as much as it would suck, that bailing out the markets would stop history from repeating itself. Remember the FDIC, which insures your paltry sub 100k deposits, was started as a direct response to the Great Depression and it's already saved our bacon in the last couple of weeks. We don't have to go through this thing twice. I don't want to be like my grandparents, 50 years from now still refusing to throw out a pair of socks until there is nothing left to darn. 

And I can't stand in breadlines. I've given up bread. Too many carbs.