The solution to this problem is simple. All you need is some rope, a tree, and someone to sell lemonade.

Every single asshat you quoted was part of the ruling elite that is responsible for this mess. It's not a uniquely American problem, and it's not just the American pinstriped class that created that mess.

When 9/11 happened, Americans were ready to sacrifice. They were never asked to. Well, guess what, they are ready to sacrifice again. I have never seen such cohesion. American will gladly stick together and work their way out of this mess - key word here is work - Wall Street and bankers be damned. They should be strung up.

What is the problem with you Andrew? Your stocks are going south and you're going to take it out on the rest of us? You don't want to go back to school to learn about a new world order? What?

When the goddamn trillion dollar bailout passes, and it will; when the economy still staggers and falls, and it will; the people who were asked to pay and pay and pay for the debacle will be pissed. If you think people are angry now, just wait until that happens. If you think the current situation is mess, wait until you see a real crisis. A crisis that could be ameliorated by not asking people to bail out uber-rich criminals.

I used to read this column to get the inside scoop on the economy, but right now, all I'm seeing are the talking points of the rich and powerful.

They had someone from "main street" on CNN today talking about the bailout. They interviewed him in his store. His store was filled with, um, what's word for it, ... crap. A store full of silly painted lawn ornaments, knick-knacks, and other detritus from and for the landfill. He was worried that if people started pinching pennies, that he might not have a good holiday season, and that would break him.

Good.

People who do stuff that matters are fine. It's time to give the economy a great big cleansing enema.

What a fiasco. First a bailout package, worth a trillion or so dollars, fails. But wait! We have a trillion dollars to spend if we say the economy depends on it! And away they go! Nothing like spending a trillion dollars to make Congress feel good about themselves. The rest of us, well, hey, it's time for us to stop stepping on those poor downtrodden bankers and chip in a little. I mean, come on, it's just not Christmas if you can't spend it on the Riviera!

And both Barack "change" Obama and John "they will know their names" McCain will bless this and say it must be done.

Anyone who thinks the banks are suddenly going to start lending money again as soon as this bill passes is delusional. Mortgage backed securities are not the problem. Mark to market accounting is not the problem. Fear is the problem. Watching Congress make hay with a trillion dollars while working Americans continue to get screwed by usurious interest rates on their credit cards and adjustable rate mortgages makes me very afraid. I know I'm not alone. The banks get it too, of course, because they know first hand that their little racket is running out steam. People just can't keep up with their demands anymore. People against this bill are already at their breaking point, and they are pissed. They get it. The banks get it. They are scared.

Congress and the Media are euphorically petting each other.

When I was a kid, I used to think that the world was on a fast track to progress; that increased access to knowledge and non-local points of view would cause people to shed their poorly informed misconceptions. Now I know many well educated well traveled people who still cling to their ineffable spirituality. Granted, I don't personally know anyone of the abject fundamentalist persuasion, so perhaps there has been progress, but not so much as I expected. I'm baffled.

The thing that struck me most, as a child, was that Christian parents never had Muslim kids. Everyone talks up the "personal" nature of their beliefs, but somehow, they almost all invariably believe almost exactly the same thing as the people living next door. One can take great comfort in having one's personal conclusions affirmed by so many friends and neighbors, I suppose. It's just like the scientific method, isn't it? You form a hypothesis, and then when the independent inquiries of your family reach the same conclusion, you have a theory as strongly grounded as any scientific proposition. Well, minus the observable measurable evidence bit, but that's just a nit.

I find people's failure to recognize the overt influence of culture on their beliefs deeply disturbing. Religion is a polite word for xenophobia.

You know what's odd, though. I know a lot of folks who'd religiosity IQ isn't so high who I'd much rather spend time with than some of their nihilistic genius counterparts who lack social grace or empathy. That's the nut that's tough to crack: sans religion, how should we live? Dostoyevsky took a swipe at it (and decided religion wasn't so bad after all). Sagan was trying to work up to something. I've never yet found an insightful secular position on the subject.

Will Bill convert anyone? I hope so, but probably his movie will mostly piss a bunch of people off. That's good too. But what I'd really like to see is a really strong argument about human behavior that wasn't grounded in superstition.