32 Words Important Words On The Wall Street Bailout
Monday, September 22nd, 2008Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Um. Wow. These 32 words will make Henry Paulson the most powerful man in the history of our country and we didn’t even elect him.
Essentially, the “mother of all bailouts,” which use approximately $750 billion (possibly 1.1 trillion) taxpayer dollars to buy the distressed assets of several failed Wall Street financial institutions, will be conducted in a manner that is unchallengeable by any court and without any oversight by the People’s representatives. All decision-making authority will be consolidated into the Executive Branch – who, I remind you, will have the incentive to act upon this privilege as quickly as possible, before the administration leaves office in 43 days. This action will run up the budget deficit by a significant, yet unknown amount, with no guarantee of recovering any of the funds distributed, and no accountability should things go wrong.
There is a chance that this will ultimately end up being profitable for taxpayers but it stresses me out when I realize this deal was conceived in 18 hours last weekend. Both Obama and McCain agree (finally!) that this is very scary stuff. Very.
Amy thinks I’m overreacting and should stop watching the news and reading about it on the web. Though she’s usually, ok always right, I’m not so sure this time. I think this is going to be bad.

