Wall Street Bailout

I don't know if it is that economics and financial journalists ultimately do not know what the fuck they're talking about OR if they're so immersed into their own little worlds, they don't get that most of what they write is not even academic, it's just utter jargon.

Herewith is a partial and quite short list of words I'd love to see defined more often in articles addressing the current banking crisis. I will be updating today as I find more of my favorites and will start (hopefully with your help) to define them in the coming days.

Oh, and given how many words and terms I am finding myself looking up, the list I'm compiling is in alphabetic order :

So let me get this straight : The US had 750 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street; a sector of the US economy which has been historically controlled by "white" or US Americans of European ascendancy. The US Congress found 750 billion dollars for them and their European and Asian investors. A bailout, by the way, that now said banks are pooh-poohing, lest the US Treasury and tax-payers find out the depths of their accounting infamies. Yet there's no money to pay back reparations to African Americans for the evils of slavery and Jim Crow laws?

Discuss.

[A scene from the movie Birth of a Nation (1915). Image found in Wikipedia under "Lynching in America")

The House of Representatives needed 218 votes to approve the bill. It has passed with a final tally of 263 votes.

See my liveblogging at Liveblogging hearing of H. R. 1424 Revised Financial Markets Bill.

Started watching the hearing more than an hour ago.

Saw Charles Rangel bullfrog his way into another year as Chairman of the House and Ways Committee. At least that's what it looked like when he was saying his "good-byes" to Jim McCrery (R-La), the minority's leader in the Committee. McCrery is retiring from Congress after failing to land the Chairmanship.

Republicans and Democrats are selling hard the bill, especially the California caucus but for Rep. Sherman(?). Roy Blunt gave a rousing speech. So did John Lewis. David Kucinich decided not to speak but to have his rejection of the bill into the record.

Paul Ryan asks if the bill will stop us into going into a recession? Of course he answers, NO.

Best quote so far has come from Barney Frank, the chair of the Banking Committee : "Ever weary of having George Bush leading us down the path to socialism, I yield my time to the gentleman from Georgia". Awesome.

Rep. David Obey asks Congress to ... obey. Heh. He also agrees this bailout is not going to stop us from going into a recession.

This exchange between Obama and McCain was also noted at The New York Time's Caucus blog :

So Obama crossed over into enemy territory.

He walked over to where McCain was chatting with Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida and Independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. And he stretched out his arm and offered his hand to McCain.

McCain shook it, but with a “go away” look that no one could miss. He tried his best not to even look at Obama.

Finally, with a tight smile, McCain managed a greeting: “Good to see you.”

Obama got the message. He shook hands with Martinez and Lieberman — both of whom greeted him more warmly — and quickly beat a retreat back to the Democratic side.

McCain deserves to have his nose wiped on the floor with a massive Obama landslide. Comeuppance. It's a thought that has been on my mind for the past few weeks whenever McCain is the topic.

Wow, I almost missed this. H/T to Talking Points Memo.

Jack Cafferty is really mad at John McCain for his VP pick. I don't know which way Cafferty swings politically but I know he's been a Capitol Hill journalist for a hell of a long time; making me believe he may even know McCain personally.

It must be such a betrayal for guys of his generation to see this "Maverick" who they admired and propped up, throw everything away for what's looking like a desperate attempt at a power grab. A rather pathetic power grab, that is. 

With this "bail out crisis" we can see that not even members of his own party want him.

Here's a summary of my Twittering :

brownback no

cantwell no

no : cantwell, cochran, crapo, dole

dorgen, enzi, feingold, NO

inhofe, landrieu, NO

McCain yes

McCain yes

Nelson (FL), No

Nelson (FL) No. Obama, Yes

Roberts, Sanders, Sessions, Shelby, Stabenow, Tester, Vitter, Wicker, Wyden, NO

Barrraso, DeMint, Johnson, Allard, NO

Do they need 2/3 of the votes? Can someone please clarify? They don't have them yet.

There's several no-shows including Kennedy.

56 votes with several unconfirmed no-shows

58 and Kennedy is a no-show

58 and Kennedy is a no-show
they reached 60 votes

up to 65 now ... Kennedy didn't vote

up to 65 now ... Kennedy didn't vote

74 yes, 25 no

now this bill goes to the House. we have until Friday to read this ---450 pages of it.

As I told Gregg, this buys everybody involved some political time. The Senate's amendment to the Paulson bill goes to the House --were 200+ forward thinking Democrats and Republicans had killed the first Paulson bill. They can make further changes between now and Friday.