Why should we trust them... again?

"...because when they're in a state of shock, they are unable to protect their interests, they become childlike and regressed...

"The exploitation of crisis and shock has very consciously been used by radical free-marketeers, and I start the book quoting Miilton Freidman, something he wrote in 1982, 'Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change.'

"... the shocks need to get bigger for the disorientation to be greater, and that's where you have what I call disaster capitalism."

Feb. 14:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke both told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that the U.S. economy will not fall into recession.

"I believe that we are going to continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate, and the risks are to the downside," Paulson said at a hearing before the Senate committee.

July 15:

During a press conference Tuesday, President Bush said the nation's financial system is "basically sound" and urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

July 21:

"Our banking system is a safe and a sound one," Paulson insisted on CNN's "Late Edition." He had earlier told CBS, the list of troubled banks would grow.

But "this is a very manageable situation ... our regulators are focused on it."

Tuesday, Sept. 16:

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday the American people can remain confident in the "soundness and resilience in the American financial system."

Briefing reporters at the White House, Paulson said he "never once" considered it would be appropriate to put taxpayer money at risk to resolve the problems at Lehman Brothers. The nation's fourth largest investment bank filed for bankruptcy protection earlier yesterday.

Two days later, Thursday night... [Click "Congress Scared Straight]

Bernanke says if Congress doesn't act, "they are days away from a financial collapse."

Bernanke and Paulson said "this [bailout] is the last wrench in the toolbox."

Friday...

“If we don’t get this [bill passed], it will be nothing short of a disaster for our markets,” Mr. Bernanke told House Republicans in a conference call Friday, according to a detailed account of the call.

Congress is being led by the nose because, surprise!, the economy is crumbling down all around us. But don't worry, say Bernanke and Paulson, we have a last-ditch plan that will surely save it, just pass this proposal as quickly as possible - never mind that it breaks a few rules, saddles the taxpayer with ALL of this risk, allows the people to created the problem to survive, keep the profit they made off the fraud, and continue their game afresh, and most likely makes the inevitable negative effects exponentially worse in the future. They say, "oh don't worry, we won't do this again, we promise. It's a one time thing." Do you believe them? What makes these people at all trustworthy? Do their previous words and actions show them to be honest or dishonest?

Where is the skepticism, criticism, dissent? Both sides of the aisle fight like dogs over any other piece of legislation, but watch with amazement as they come together to blindly pass this into law, a bill more damaging to the country than anything else they've debated this year. Don't think for one minute that this won't affect you personally. We are talking about an estimate of 1-2 trillion dollars of the most worthless mortgage paper being saddled on the taxpayer - you and I. Taxes have to go up and this sets precedent for any future "sudden financial crisis" - aka risk taken by private companies that went bad - to be saved by the public, and the Fed/Treasury can go ahead and create new money to give to the banks in exchange for the bad assets, and the Treasury is then contaminated with risk (our foreign investors may look at us and think hmm, the US is now even less likely to pay back the money I am lending it, and more likely of defaulting, so perhaps I should take my money elsewhere). The government requires over $2 billion in new foreign investment every day to remain in operation!