Over the weekend, news trickling in over how the bailout is supposed to work. The current proposal makes it nothing like the RTC. Instead, the government can, with taxpayer money, buy up the shitty debt from the financial institutions, most probably at premium prices. The RTC, on the other hand, took over failing financial institutions and sought buyers for the shitty debt. So, there really are zero repercussions for the financial institutions' recklessness under this new proposed plan. The government will simply buy the shit from those who made it. It will be moral hazard times 1000 ... or more like 700 billion.

The current proposal appears to be the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act - an attempt to push through a panoply of highly undesirable, power-centralizing, and flat-out kleptocratic provisions under the rubric of emergency.