And didn't it all lead to an even bigger, and worse, bubble? I mean, if you make borrowing money effectilvely cost free, like Greenspan did in 2000-2002, doesn't that encourage people to borrow like crazy and dump the money into some commodity that "can't fail"?

Wouldn't it make more sense to encourage savings so that banks would have money on hand to lend, rather than create money at the discount window? How about making a hefty percentage of all money you save in passbook, CD, and 401k accounts tax deductible, and all interest on such instruments tax free? Wouldn't that make more sense than mindlessly shoving money into a system which already has too much debt in it?

The key moment will come VERY early in the upcoming Administration after Obama is briefed on rendition and the secret prison/toruture/murder complex. If he does not jump on this in the first days of his administration, he never will, as he will become complicit in this ugliness very quickly. If investigations begin without his full support, the day will come when Obama himself will have to answer why he knew about criminal activities yet failed to act. I fear that "for the good of the system" he will cover Bush and Cheney's asses. At best, he may have the spooks hunt up a few "rogue elements" and throw them to the wolves (then pardon them for being "misguided patriots" a la Iran/Contra).

As unpopular with the Powers That Be as Jimmy Carter is, even he has kept his mouth shut about things he found out as President that you can be damn sure were illegal. Whether it's fear or misguided loyalty, those at the top are loathe to spill the beans to us mere citizens.

We are now in a "who guards the guards" scenario. We may, as law abiding and law-supporting citizens, be out of options as there may be nobody within the system with clean hands, and therefore nobody available to enforce the law. The idea that powerful people in 2008 America will fall on their swords in order to atone for the sins of these past eight years is just not credible. The Power Elite is not going to form a circular firing squad, either.

Glenn, I know how pissed you get when people throw up their hands, but you've got to have the sinking feeling that no power on earth is going to round up this bunch of miscreants and march them before the bar of justice. Crimes have been committed, and crimes are and will continue to be committed to cover up those crimes. As an historian, I can bet that in future these past seven years will be a black hole of disappeared and shredded documents and computer files wiped clean. I will dutifully write my senators (as a New Yorker, it would be nice to know who the second one will be), but Cheney has put the ruling elites on notice that if he goes, they go, and the powers that be today are not going anywhere.

I think it your reaction was completely understandable but you have to remember this: we live in America, and nobody wants to be a powerless loser. And for a very long time, people of a Progressive bent have been perceived as just that, powerless losers. That is why the desire around here to think that having Obama in the White House is some kind of victory for our side, and having a Deocrat and a woman as Speaker is some kind of victory, because we're on the winning team right now, and so, screw you, Rush and all his minions.

But we haven't won a damn thing yet. And that realization is very painful. And many people are, and will continue to, fight that ugly realization. Because, today, the Repubs are the losers, and we're the winners (or at least we'd love to pretend we are). As Glenn points out here, though, the fact is that the system stands intact, and it is out of control, and that system has done evil, and nobody's likely to ever pay for that evil. Well, it's more fun to cheer Nancy and Obama and smile, knowing that, today, I'm on the winning team.

While America was both rich and a good investment risk, people above a certain level of income security could pretend that no collective action need be taken and that dreaded "collectivism" was an unalloyed evil. Sure, they depended on soldiers, cops, firemen/papamedics, and the legal system to get and keep their loot in peace and security, but these coercive arms of the state never really bothered the free market fanatics because they normally got to weild them against the rest of humanity.

Now, we need collective action to stave off disaster, and they know it. If they are not idiots, they know we are in for both economic and environmental troubles on a vast scale, and that the free market has viable answers for none of this mess. They will try and salvage in public what they can, but if the rich aren't nuts (and most aren't) in private they will work hard to get government(s) to do triage and maybe dig us out of this mess.