Sickbed Thoughts on the Crisis

I was really sick last week and so wasn't blogging during the last days of the week that was. A few thoughts, now that I'm vertical.

1. Where are the allies? If all this toxic debt is a global problem, then why isn't there an international meeting of finance ministers and central bankers going on to come up with a global solution for the problem? Surely, we don't have to be the only ones who buy up this crap?

2. Could CNBC have been more in the tank? I watched a lot of CNBC last week. The network did a great job covering the crisis and swung the markets by breaking the story of Treasury seeking to buy up the toxic debt. But all of the anchors seemed enamored with the Paulson plan. I thought only Mark Haines seemed the least bit skeptical about the buyout plan. Everyone else had an "it's-unfortunate-but-we-have-to-do-this" tone. There was more skepticism about the S.E.C. temporary ban on shorting financials than on the plan itself.

3. Will Democrats blow this? If the plan gets through Congress, will the Republicans and Paulson and the White House get the credit or will Democrats get some of it? Will resentment of the bailout grow after it's passed? It doesn't look like there's really enough opposition to kill it right now although But watch for the opposition will grow.

4. Can you imagine if John McCain had picked former Bush O.M.B. Director Rob Portman as his running mate going into this mess? Many Republicans were arguing for it. They'd be totally screwed if they'd gone down that road.

5. The next Treasury secretary. Who the candidates pick as the next head of the Treasury Department is now even more important since they'll inherit this wild-ass checkbook for buying bad debt. Would the candidates benefit from actually naming their Treasury bosses now rather than waiting? Could Paulson wind up staying in the job?

More questions to come now that the Cipro is kicking in.

Matt Cooper

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