Gee, good thing we passed that bailout bill. Yes, the Dow closed a "mere" 370 points down or so, but it was down over 700 at one point today.

Bush's new position is that the "federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely." That's interesting, coming from the man who last week said, "We must act and act now. We can't have another day [with a 700 point drop] like yesterday."

And yet, here we are. It's all I can do not to scream. Is anyone paying attention? Are we taking notes!? Clearly, immediate action was completely unnecessary. Part of me is feeling smug that the bill passed, because if it had failed again, today's drop (though likely no worse) would have been blamed on the bill's failure. Well, whose fault is it now? Can we blame today's drop on the passage of the bill? Isn't that what happened last week? Isn't that fair?

Of course it would be as inaccurate to blame today's drop on the bill, just as it was inaccurate to blame last week's drop on the bill's initial failure. The blame still rests where it rested before: on the individuals and corporate entities who chose to increase their profits at the expense of fiscal stability. Only now, those individuals and corporate entities get a $700 billion reward for their recklessness, and when the economy eventually stabilizes on its own, those who passed the bill will take the credit. Except that the bailout will, though inflation, make the market's forcible correction that much more devastating when it arrives.

This is what we get when the foxes guard the henhouse.

I keep intending to blog about something else. Honest. But I can't tear my eyes from this train wreck... and I can't shake the feeling that the worst is yet to come.