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My friend and co-blogger at Market Correction [2], Andy Morriss, sent this letter to the Financial Times:
Sirs,
Your editorial on the failed bailout vote in the US House of
Representatives claims the bill “could be part of an effective answer”
to the financial crisis. Perhaps in the sense that as a 48 year old, out of
shape university professor, I “could be” an astronaut. The bailout
bill has grown from three pages in Sec. Paulson’s initial “give me
$700 billion and I’ll fix it” proposal to the size of a hefty
paperback novel. As of Thursday morning the Senate version was 450 pages long. My
chances of a moon walk greatly exceed the chance that this bill will be
anything other than a massive resource grab — those extra 447 pages aren’t
value added, they’re favors for special interests, like the attempt by
Senate Democrats to shovel millions to the radical group ACORN, or total
irrelevancies hitching a ride on the crisis atmosphere, like the provision requiring
insurance companies provide more money for mental health treatment.
Andrew P. Morriss
H. Ross & Helen Workman Professor of Law and Business
University of Illinois