It seems that everyone is writing about the financial crisis and the bailout bill today. Brandon's post was well thought out, and I've got to agree that it seems a good thing that congressmen and women were voting based on their actual individual feelings on the bill rather than sticking with the party line. Kris's post explored the allegorical nature of Toy Story as it applied to the current crisis. Some kickass cynical humor there.
I won't pretend to be well-educated on national finance, and I certainly don't have any kind of suggestion for a solution. The economy bounces around, and this looks to be another hiccup that may or may not be as bad as 1987. Of course, in 1987 I was fourteen years old and I knew nothing about any financial crisis - the only job I'd ever had was delivering newspapers.
Since Linda's business is architecture and construction, the housing crisis has certainly affected us - we've been living on one income for months, and it seems inevitable that there will be some kind of big change for us before the end of the year, although I can't really divulge details as of yet. Too much is still in flux.
Would the the bailout bill have worked? Will its new incarnation be better? I don't know. Maybe nobody knows with any real certainty. But seven hundred billion dollars is a damn lot of money. According to some quick calculations I've done here, it looks like that could mean $2324.50 for every man, woman and child in the country. While $6973.50 wouldn't solve all our financial problems, it would certainly help. Heck, I've got a coworker with six kids who'd get $18,596 from that. Would that kind of economic stimulus package help any more or less than the bailout? I can't even guess - I'm not an economist. I'm just hoping that the people making the decisions about our economy have listened to the men and women who have made it their life to study economics of this sort. Sadly, I don't have that much trust in politicians.