Words like “Doomsday,” “Shock” and Scary Graphs!
Remember when Congress voted down the bailout bill, and the market fell drastically, and idiots people started to panic and the MSM was filled with ignoramuses people declaring that the drop in the Dow was the direct result of the failure of the bill to pass. Remember? Of course, you never heard how the very people that opposed the bailout fully expected the Dow to drop, and drop big time, but realized that this would be necessary and much better than the alternative.
And remember when the market stabilized and even moved up a bit shortly thereafter? While a few folks dared to suggest that this was normal, expected and the result of the American people standing firm, most of the media and talking heads credited “an expected bailout” for the stabilization. Ah, the spin.
And remember when your congressperson said he or she would oppose this outrageously expensive, unfair and unfit bill because the tax payers would be paying for it for generations to come? Because it was unfair to Main Street? And then remember when all it took to get your comgressperson to vote on the bill was a few revisions (by few I mean a few hundred more pages) that filled the bill so full of earmarks and more bad debt that he or she just couldn’t resist? I mean, sure, we just added a few hundred years to your sentence, but our children’s toy factory gets a tax break! Woo Hoo!
You don’t remember that? Here are some quotes from the morning after.
WASHINGTON – In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, leaving both parties’ lawmakers and the Bush administration scrambling to pick up the pieces. Dismayed investors sent the Dow Jones industrials plunging nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.
The final stock carnage was 777 points, far surpassing the 684-point drop on the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. (source)
Oh the carnage! 777 points!
Stock markets reacted violently. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan’s passage sent the Dow Jones industrial average down well over 700 points. The stock gauge closed 778 points lower – nearly 7%.
Added [Barney] Frank: “Today is the decision day. If we defeat this bill today, it will be a very bad day for the financial sector of the American economy.”
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a lead negotiator in the bailout bill negotiations said, “If we don’t act promptly and effectively, then many people are going to lose their jobs.” (source)
777 point drop is an unprecedented, violent reaction. Remember that. It is the kind of thing that would only happen if we voted down this savior bill.
SHOCKED, open-mouthed and fearful US lawmakers stood in the well of the House of Representatives, dumbfounded by the magnitude of the chamber’s decision to kill a bid to save Wall Street.
Democratic and Republican party leaders who had battled to pass a $US700 billion ($840 billion) bailout bill, stared in disbelief as an electronic vote counter ticked down on the doomsday scenario many feared if the bill went down. (source)
Shock! Doomsday! Drop-jawed and fearful lawmakers….and by lawmakers, I mean people who have absolutely no idea what-so-ever what sound money is or how a free-market economy works.
I could go on and on. Get out your google and see for yourself. There was hardly a single news outlet that did not report the tragedy of the failed bailout or say “I told you so” when the market dropped 777 points. Doomsday, shock and horror filled the headlines.
Well, as most of us expected, they passed their bill, and oh what a bill it was. Having gone from 3 pages, to about 100 pages to nearly 500 pages before it was passed, the bill that made it through was exponentially worse than the one first introduced, or even the first revision that congress voted down. Folks, your representatives are criminals and charlatans who are looking out for just about anyone but you.
The public responded nearly 10 to 1 against the bailout that the people “representing” them then passed. I received a letter from my Representative, Gary Miller, in which he actually said that while the people did not support the bill, he had to do what was best for the country. He actually said, flat out, that he was NOT going to represent his people. I don’t even think he noticed it. Oh well. If he doesn’t represent me than it is clear I need to work tirelessly to get him voted out of office, which I will.
But the real punch line is this. About a week after they pushed through their savior, doomsday-diverting bill that was sorely needed after that catastrophic 777 point fall (which took us to around 10,500) here are the numbers as of October 9, 2008 4:05pm EST:
What is particularly telling, when comparing this to the “collapse” after the failed bailout vote, is the not the point drop so much as the percentage drop. Now let’s look at it from another perspective.
Click on the graph for a larger view
Folks, the economy is going to collapse. People like Ron Paul have been warning of this for decades. Austrian economics has predicted this for even longer. The Fed will continue to put bandaids on this, occassionally eliciting some sort of upturn, and the people will breath a huge sigh of relief because they simply have not idea what the real problem is.
Listen, I would rather see the Dow fall five thousand points over night while letting the market take care of itself, then watch it fall even farther over weeks, months or even years as we try to prop it up and disguise what it really is: a failed system for which we have no one to blame but Wall Street fat cats, greedy Senators and Representatives and a corrupt Administration.
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