Bankruptcy

When Bill Krystol, Bush's #1 water-carrier says no to the bailout, you know the United States are in for a world of pain. This from his Op/Ed A Fine Mess:

It’s not that I don’t believe the situation is dire. It’s not that I want to insist on some sort of ideological purity or free-market fastidiousness. I will stipulate that this is an emergency, and is a time for pragmatic problem-solving, perhaps even for violating some cherished economic or political principles. (What are cherished principles for but to be violated in emergencies?) And I acknowledge that there are serious people who think the situation too urgent and the day too late to allow for a real public and Congressional debate on what should be done. But — based on conversations with economists, Wall Street types, businessmen and public officials — I’m doubtful that the only thing standing between us and a financial panic is for Congress to sign this week, on behalf of the American taxpayer, a $700 billion check over to the Treasury.

That's Lehman, Bank of America, Merril Lynch and the whole banking industry there. Say buh-bye to any all of what's left of the US as an economic power. Am afraid though, the Wicked Witch is not dead yet and that we will need to go through way more pain than mere melting away.

This from the Grey Lady :

I have a friend looking for work in the corporate world. It's been rough, one of the reasons being she is competing for work with people at least 20 years younger than her.

We were musing about how far away we are from realizing the middle class dream of a steady and retirable job as well as that house in the suburban sky. Compared to our parents, our education far exceeds them; yet when it comes to actual middle class accomplishments, boy are we lacking.

Then I read this :

Foreclosures Spurring Blight In Central Valley

[...]
As California house prices soared, cities in San Joaquin County attracted buyers priced out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Developers built more than 30,000 new homes in the last six years. But with the spike in adjustable mortgage rates the flood of buyers turned into a flood of defaults - 11,000 in the county in the past 18 months.

Not long ago an overgrown area with a murky pool that Blackstone toured was someone's backyard paradise, but now foreclosure has taken it all away. There and at hundreds of other properties across the county, even the swimming pool has become a hazard - a source of mosquitoes and West Nile Virus.

County workers who used to patrol swamps and streams now do their work in neglected back yards.

It gets worse though. Those who believed they could gamble their future on a no-down no-interest loan that would balloon 5, 10 or 15 years down the road are now gone. As in war, it's the survivors who stay behind to cope with the neverending pain left by the wounds of the mortage meltdown :