This bailout has to happen, but it doesn't mean we have to be stupid about how we do it. Because of this I have developed a short list of key point that I wold love to see.
1. A return of real oversight of the industry. It makes no sense to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into a system that has already lost trillions of dollars, in part, because of poor regulation.
2. A deliberate process in the crafting the final bill. Quick law, rushed law, is almost always crappy law. Just consider the Patriot Act I and the Iraq Resolution. They were rushed and their flaws quickly became apparent. Take your time and do it right. Since this is a Rush, give a 120 day temporary OK for the expense of maybe 100 billion and do the rest right.
3. We should protect the tax payer, not the businesses. These bailout need to focus on limiting the long term exposure of the tax payer. Just because we are bailing out Wall Street, it doesn't mean we have to make every deal, and save every firm. If the deal is to ugly, skip it. Like medical triage, spend your energy on the good options, and let the hopeless die.
4. Get over the executive compensation issue. Yes, these guys are grossly overpaid, and have run their business and the economy on the rocks, but in the big picture it is a drop in a flood.
5. Accountability, investigate this mess, take your time, and discover what went wrong.
6. Re-regulation needs to start to keep the money flowing. No company can be allowed to get to big to fail. No industry can be allowed to run so free as to threaten our economy. This has to be addressed prior to spending more than the bare minimum to keep the economic wheels turning.
Do this and we will be making progress, much less and we are just help the rich and powerful get richer.
Tags
Economics, Wall St
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