Bailout One Step Closer – Economists Don’t Endorse

Expanded Bailout Plane Passes Senate, Economists Rage

The $700,000,000,000 bailout planpassed through the Senate today with lot's of bits and pieces added on, expanding it from an original 3 page plan to over 450 pages. The present plan has so many added sweeteners that I have yet to hear about them all, but the highlights include mandated mental heathcare coverage, an elimination of insurance companies avoidance of coverage through pre-existing condition clauses and a boost to FDIC bank account coverage from $100,000 to $250,000 per customer per bank. Also in the new plan is a heafty helping of greasy porkthat will cost taxpayers loads of dough, including $478,000,000 in tax write-offs to the film industry, basically allowing production companies to write off their production costs on their taxes. I may have to start producing films.

An ever growing number of professional economists are massing in oppossition to the Big Buck Bailout. Their numbers have grown from about 160 last week to about 250 today. Reasons for their concern are varied, but most see this as a gigantic waste of taxpayers money. Most offer much simpler solutions to ease our credit crunch and get the economies wheels turning again. In short, none of them think throwing heaping helpings of good money at financial firms with bad business practices is a wise idea. You think? And all of them think the added pork will strain the average tax paying citizen.

On the market fronts the Dow again dipped today, while the dollar soared and commodities such as gold, silver, platinum, palladiumand crude oilall dropped.