Then allow Princeton economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman [on Bill Maher's show last night] to bring home the gravity of our current predicament.  “We hit the wall but good this time … there are no atheists in foxholes.”

I can’t help but notice some chilling similarities between the Bush Administration’s approach on the financial crisis and the Iraqi War Resolution.  I literally sat awake until almost 5:00 this morning fretting about this.
Let’s look at a few of them:

• We were told that calamity was imminent, and a failure to act and do exactly what Bush asked of us would result in a disaster;
• Congress was strongarmed into doing something big and something fast, without time for proper analysis;
• We were conned into spending hundreds of billions of our hard-earned dollars (much for the benefit of corporate malfeasants) – only to take a giant step backward;
• We handed legal immunity and absolute control to the very authorities who demanded the actions;
• We were lied to every step of the way.

And eventually the majority came around to see it as a colossal blunder.  So, I think Congress would serve itself and the People well if it took a much more measured approach to this, or even refused the bailout.  I know, I’m asking for cajones of steel here, but I can dream.

If this goes through, it will be the swindle of the century.

I’ll close with a few words from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That is fascism; ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

How did we get here?  Is it too late to stop it?

Every American should sit through (and actually digest) this interview in its entirety [Part 1] | [Part 2].  Whether you watch or listen, please take the time to do so with open ears and an open mind.  It is probably the most powerful and sobering assessment of the American condition I have heard in years.

Bacevich’s 2007 op ed in the Washington Post provides some sad but interesting background.  His new book is here.

Associated Press has this gem.

I think the FairTax is worth talking about.  J00?

Late today, the FDIC seized IndyMac.  Not surprising – but I am seeing some really ominous numbers.  The FDIC statement – issued after the markets closed yesterday – said that their preliminary estimate of the FDIC cost was $4 to $8 billion. About $1 billion of IndyMac deposits were uninsured and will be lost, affecting about 10,000 customers.

But now for the really troubling data: the FDIC’s total insurance fund is less than $60 billion.  If IndyMac ends up costing $6 billion, that’s more than ten percent of the FDIC’s total insurance fund that’s been wiped out with a single collapse.

Yet, the FDIC “insures” more than eight thousand banks with about $7 trillion in deposits.  The top 150 banks have total assets of at least $20 billion each and deposits exceeding $2 billion each.

I just don’t see how this can end well.

So, what happens when (not if) they fail?

Former Fed Governor William Poole says,

“Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer..”

Big trouble, kids.

Bryan Burrough has penned a riveting article in the August issue of Vanity Fair exploring the death of Bear Stearns.  Did CNBC reporter David Faber murder it?  (No, but what an interesting media angle the piece contains.)  Was it a hit job by shadowy speculators?  Or did it just die of exposure to years of toxic, high-leverage mortgage shenanigans?

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Says Fed has “lost all credibility;” sees massive global unwinding.