Treasury Deparment

And allegedly, out of spite, voted against the bail out. Of course, Barney Frank offers them a hug and a kiss :

Give me those twelve people's names, and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they'll think about the country.

LOL!

That said, I still think this bill was a crock of horse effleurage. We the people of the United States deserve to be better informed about this fiasco. George Bush's 14 minutes on TV didn't do it. Paulson's screaming "the markets are falling" didn't do it. Certainly the non-answers I got from my Senators and US Congresswoman didn't help either --they seem to have been characteristic of most of Congress communication skills.

This just in straight from the Treasury:

I have to reblog this because last night I saw one of the best quick comments about this bailout travesty : On the eve of a black man coming into the White House, they hustle all the money out of the Treasury. (H/T Ruby and Professor Kim)

Michael Moore sees it more broadly : this is the way the wealthy stage a coup before they're taxed in the coming administration.

Many bloggers think of Lou Dobbs as a wanker. I have always thought of him as a markets journalist with more than a few interesting things to say.

Can I hear a witness for "faith-based free trade"? Oh yeah, baby, preach it! :

Eye-glazing stuff, international trade. But the consequences of faith-based free-trade will be eye-popping in the disaster it wreaks on our economy and working Americans. The facts are anything but dull: For 30 consecutive years the United States has run a trade deficit, and our trade deficit has surged to record highs in each of the past four years. Our monthly deficits have reached record levels in two of the past three months.

Our current account deficit -- the broadest measure of international trade -- is on track to approach $1 trillion this year. And our current account deficit is almost 7 percent of our nation's gross domestic product, considerably above the threshold at which Federal Reserve studies have acknowledged our economy must make policy adjustments or face major financial crisis. We're borrowing about $3 billion a day just to pay for our imports, and our trade debt now stands at $5 trillion.

We will no longer have to be patient to see the impact of these faith-based policies in free trade. Signs are already beginning to mount that a reckoning is nearing. Our trading partners in Europe are counseling "vigilance" in the currency markets, as their anxiety rises with the value of the Euro against the dollar. For the first time, the Chinese government is publicly expressing its concern about the more than $1 trillion it holds in reserves.

But most disturbing of all are the comments of new Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said in London Tuesday, "A strong dollar is clearly in our nation's interest and I feel very good today about the strength of the U.S. economy," as the U.S. dollar hit a 20-month low against the Euro. Treasury secretaries are not paid for their candor, but Paulson's rejection of our current reality won't bolster his credibility with either our trading partners or the new Democratic-led Congress.

Source

When I travelled earlier this year to Amsterdam and walked into an H&M store, I was hit by the painful realization that having dollars in my pocket didn't and couldn't get me far in the European city. A sweater that costs me 39 dollars in the US costs me 39 euros in Holland. Fair trade for a bargain seeker? Of course not.