A couple of pieces

[solarbird]

elfs has a post worth reading here, noting most importantly a report that White House Deputy Press Secerary Antonio Fratto says this "emergency" plan has been put together over months, and concludes that this is exactly the raw looting you think it is.

Also, check out the popular impression of the economy numbers here, particularly the 0% responses in the economic sector. I've never seen that before. You can usually get 1-3% of people to say anything, and they had no people saying the economy was getting better and no people saying their household financial situation was getting better. Nobody. When these numbers show up in the official consumer confidence stats, it's gonna get even uglier.

Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, the major problem here is a failure of confidence. What we're now seeing, I think, is the failure of confidence in the Government itself, which in some respects isn't a major surprise given the wonderful bailout program they came up with.

I really don't want to think about what comes after confidence in the government collapses.

[solarbird]

No, we also have an actual solvency problem. It's not liquidity; it's not just confidence. Solvency is an issue. This solvency issue is being made worse by confidence crisis, absolutely - much worse. But both are real.