I'm sorry. I'm black and I'm getting sick of seeing and hearing repugs equate bad, dangerous, and fear to blacks. This election has just topped the cake with that. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a Southern Repug calling Obama a "ni%%er" in the next few weeks.

people talk about ageism in this election, but mccain hasn't gain wisdom with age. he's gained cynism and confusion.

Fuck, it would be comedic if it weren't so damn expensive.

Meanwhile, economists on the left like Robin Hahnel have been warning for years and years that these invented securities were a huge risk and demanded close regulation. If they're even allowed to be traded at all.

But we voted for eight years of a failed businessman who believes that unfettered markets magically produce ideal outcomes, and Jesus has blessed us, every one. We put incompetents in charge and now we're angry that we have to live with a huge mess?

@1 is totally right about this being the "scary black man" meme. Obviously "not ready" refers to the idea of Obama as well as to his purported lack of experience. As in "We're not ready to have a black man in charge!"

hey Ayn Rand, come back & tear these fuckers a new one!

Here's the recipe: Precipitate a crisis, hold the economy hostage until the taxpayer-funded bailout money arrives, walk away with the profits from your actions plus the money you made from cashing out your stock early plus the bailout money and whatever golden parachute you had set up. Deposit this in a numbered Swiss account. Take a vacation in the Caribbean.

Rinse. Repeat.

"Paulson Argues for Need to Buy Mortgages"

"An enormous, taxpayer-financed program to buy up bad mortgages and other distressed debt is necessary to protect the savings and aspirations of millions of Americans, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said on Friday."

"He said the problems were spawned by shaky and sometimes opaque real estate investments, and now streams of credit had been clogged, not just for big investors but also for families wanting to buy houses and cars and pay for tuition."

Waitwaitwait...so the lines of credit that were streamlined to make it easier to obtain mortgages are now clogged, and need a bailout, using the same taxpayer base which is affected by this whole debacle, in order to make it easier again to make big debt-inducing purchases? My head is spinning.

OK, that is bullshit. I just got approved for a 5.75% mortgage with 10% down. Why do I have a feeling that what they really mean is that people with shitty credit can't get loans?