No I'm not being facetious, I've just lost the thread of the discussion.

I presume you mean the idea that these desperate measures are justified to rehabilitate the economy, to put it back to some similar condition as it was before. Or, it's opposite, that we are better off in the long run if we just let the market take its vengeance and let things go down the tubes and restore some discipline to the system.

Actually, although contradictory, both ideas have much to recommend them, and a good case can be made for each. But in the real world, no political party, left, right or center is going to do nothing and let the crash come and its consequences cascade through the economy taking everything and everyone with it. It just ain't going to happen. You know that.

The temptation will always be follow the line of least resistance. It would be political suicide, and even if the long-term consequences were benign, in the short term, there would be teeth on the sidewalk and the "let it crash" party would be finished. But the party out of power, can always afford to talk big and point fingers, because whatever happens, the other guys will take the blame.

In fact, if McCain (or any Republican, for that matter) had won the election and his party swept the congress, I bet the positions of the two parties would actually be reversed, with the Dems knowing they could hoist the Reps by their own petard by yelling "deficit, deficit, bailing out Wall Street fat cats" knowing they would have no consequences to pay if they were wrong and everything to gain if the Reps blew it.

I was just stating my own personal position in my original thread-opening post, what I think should happen, even though I believe I made a compelling case that I, Elisee Reclus, am financially better equipped personally to survive a Republican disaster than I am a Democratic one, mostly because my political prejudices played a major role in formulating my financial planning over the last few decades. It's the Republican disaster I've been preparing for. In other words, I'm voting now against my own economic interests because I think its the right, patriotic thing to do. I may be proved wrong on the facts, but at least my decision is not based on self-interest.