History will demonstrate that this supposed crisis and the inevitable bailout was the final level in one of history's most outrageous Ponzi schemes.

If you're reading this I just want to point out that you are heard--and loudly!--from your prominent soapbox here on the web. And I am writing passionately today because I believe your too-glib commentary in recent days has contributed to the kind of fear--a non-reality-based community, if you will--that seems likely to permit such "bailouts."

Right now, I don't believe there is any urgency to the current "crisis." There might be, but I don't know. In my view, you haven't been doing your job on this one.

Has your credit card called you to cut off your credit? Have you called your local bank and asked them whether they have terminated their revolving credit facilities for small businesses? Did they do that last week when the markets tanked? And by the way, who are your sources?

You've been writing a lot lately about what it felt like being a Countrywide mortgagor (you didn't care) and and a WaMu account holder (you weren't worried). Have you been in touch with either of those institutions to find out if the terms of your agreements with them have suddenly and unilaterally changed?

How is it exactly that's what going on with mortgage-backed paper affects YOU? That's not a rhetorical question.

And the reason I ask is because that's exactly what Henry Paulson is threatening Congress with--a vague, universal, "Joe-sixpack" meltdown.

My point here is that you seem to be buying into the fear and urgency without delving into the facts on the ground. I, as one of your faithful readers, rely on you for more.

I read you religiously and usually credit what you say, but I think you have gone a bit off-course here. More facts, please.

-- stevedew

That's scary as all hell. At least I live in a liberal enclave so the Bushvilles should be moderately crime free.

Taxpayers shouldn't foot this bill. Let Wall Street fail. They will never learn a lesson if we don't let them fail. Wall Street believes in free markets...now they are free to fail. I would feel a bit of sympathy if the folks on Wall Street had rushed in to save the folks on the Gulf coast after Katrina and Rita.

Let everyone who voted for Bush take on the debt that Bush is proposing. Or don't they believe in personal responsibility?

If they did, they'd all be in Iraq, fighting the Galactic War on Terror.

... is that it renews our commitment to a financial business model than has a solid track record of spectacular failures. IMO, we should be burying the bloated parasite instead of trying to revive it. The damn thing will just bite us again, and the next bite will certainly be fatal (if we survive this one).

People who voted for W. Bush do not want to admit that they were wrong. They do not want to acknoledge that they ever have been wrong about anything.

That is the tragic problem. Damn the torpedoes! Don't confuse me with the facts!

No one should be surprised that the President is selling this with fear. Everything the administration has done in the last eight years has been sold to us with fear as the prime motivator. Where we were once proud, we have become a nation of cowards. The evidence of this is that the administration has gotten nearly everything it has ever asked for even with the President's dismal approval rating. Why would he change a winning strategy?

Just like the song and dance they gave to convince us that WMDs were in Iraq, only with more secrecy and less oversight.

The Bush Administration is criminal. They are looting our treasury.

Just wait, in a couple of weeks, something bad will happen again and they will suspend the election. Just like Musharraf did.

He was totally unconvincing, as were Paulson and Co. A failed speech from a failed President. Yes, he is scared. But we shouldn't be. He gave no credible reason why this problem can't wait to be resolved by President Obama and the new Congress.

He's scared, all right. Scared of what his Wall Street buddies and family fortune will face when the truth comes out.

What struck me was Bush's completely matter-of-fact description of the history of the mortgage crisis. It was as if everything that had happened, including where we find ourselves now, was so obvious.

If so, why couldn't the president and his advisors see what has been happening until a couple of weeks ago. Someone should provide our elected representatives with Internet access and basic cable so that they can watch PBS.

Seriously, though, I don't understand why they can't tell us (in specific terms) the nature and extent of the problem as best they know it. And why is $700 billion the number?

AIG is the largest insurance company in the world, with loads of these complex securities. It cost $85 billion to backstop them...and we got equity. Bear Stearns cost $29 billion. If they had chosen to bail-out Lehman would the cost have been similar to Bear Stearns?

$700 billion is 8.2 times the cost of AIG. Seems high, unless they intend to bail-out a lot of smaller firms that don't pose much risk to the system.

As of a couple of weeks ago, I was still receiving unsolicited offers from JPMorgan/Chase to borrow up to $35,000 at 3.9% interest forever. It's not clear to me that the credit system is completely frozen.

The policy should be to make it clear to the markets that the government will provide *just* enough liquidity to keep things from getting stuck and pulling us into an intractable downturn. We shouldn't attempt to put-off the natural business cycle. It is not the role of government to keep the stock market from going down.

This plan needs a lot more work.

No one should be surprised that the President is selling this with fear. Everything the administration has done in the last eight years has been sold to us with fear as the prime motivator.

One definition of "terrorism" is the use of fear to achieve political ends. I wish DHS would haul chimpy away and toss him in Gitmo.