I watched the testimony by Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke on CSPAN today and while the questions and comments by members of the Senate Banking Committee were surprisingly tough (whether there actions follow their tone is still in doubt) the answers given clearly revealed exactly the kind of concerns many are been worried about…

• purchasing assets at prices much higher than their current market value (”fire sale prices”)
• no executive compensation limits
• no penalties for those institutions that accept the help
• support for foreign financial institutions operating in the US (where are their Treasury departments?)
• opposition to needs based incremental implementation of the bailout
• opposition to restrictions on asset manager selection for managing the purchased assets (hmn, I wonder who will get the no-bid contracts)

…and on and on.

Also not surprising is the admission that the Administration has been sitting on this plan for weeks or months and now presenting it as an emergency plan to be implemented in the moments before a complete financial collapse…and then, after the bill is passed it will be time to debate it (from his testimony today).

…save us from your leaders!!

A $700 billion (at its absolute minimum) bailout by the US Treasury, oops, I mean the taxpayer, of the “free market” with no checks and balances!??!?!? Handing over dictatorial control of our financial system to an ex Wall Street executive and explicitly declaring that no court of law or regulatory agency will have oversight? You’ve got to be kidding me!

This sounds suspiciously like the emergency implementation of the Patriot Act…

Step1: Whip everyone in to a panic frenzy…

Then: America is under attack, we must stop them before there is a mushroom cloud hanging over one of our cities (and it could be yours)!

Now: Our entire financial system is days away from complete collapse, there is no time for questions, you could lose your savings!

Real quotes from today: “The times are too urgent.” “…clean and quick [passage of the bill]”

Step 2: Urgently pass a vaguely written bill giving sweeping powers to the administration (the same administration I might add, not that this is a partisan post, it’s not) to “fix” the problems.

I suspect we’re all familiar with what happens later…

UPDATE 09/20/2008: There are signs of life in the Congress, hopefully they amount to something but I’m not getting my hopes up.