The same folks who said the economy is "fundamentally sound" and reassured the public over and over are now saying it has to be socialized instantly to prevent the wealthy from losing money.

WASHINGTON (CNN) Feb. 28, 2008 -- "President Bush acknowledged Thursday that the economy has slowed down but said the United States is not headed toward a recession."

"Administration calls for quick action on bailout."

And those are repeated over and over. By Bush, Bernake, Paulson. And we can add Greenspan. Nothing's wrong, trust us, it's fine, we know what we're doing, we're going to have to slide $1 trillion over to Freddie and Fannie, everything else is sound, I promise, OH DEAR GOD WE NEED $800 BILLION RIGHT NOW OR THE WORLD WILL COME TO AN END! AND IF NOT THAT, THE WEALTHY WILL LOSE A LOT OF MONEY.

This stampede sounds a bit like the prelude to the Iraq war. Gotta do it, and now. Smoking guns and mushroom clouds.

I don't know that anyone has considered the consequences of the $1.8 trillion addition to the national debt these bailouts entail or how the government will function without printing so much money a $5 bill becomes memorialized as a "Bush quarter".

The only future planning I've seen is "the sky is falling", as with Iraq. What would happen if we let the "fundamentally sound" economy adjust to realistic levels? And didn't spend another fortune socializing it? Didn't acquire the debt of the capitalists who made their own decisions, "risking" their capital in the quest for riches? Shouldn't we respect their decisions, choices?

I certainly don't trust the people who got us here to get us out.

Arf