Chilling Bailout

ARNOLD KLING on bailout:

"I found this story too depressing to finish. It says that we have a bipartisan agreement on a bailout, and I read only as far as the proud quotes from Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.

The unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, about average for the last 30 years. What adversity there is in the real economy is due more to oil prices than to credit market developments. Acting historic emergency legislation now is like doing a heart transplant on a patient with a head cold or calling out the National Guard to stop a food fight in the school cafeteria.

The Case Against the Bailout seems compelling, or at least worth discussing. The case for it is a vague threat issued by the nation's leaders that awful things are in store if this is not done. Awful things are in store, all right. Because of what is about to be done.

For me, this is like watching an announcement that in order to restore order Washington is being taken over by a military coup. I find it that chilling."