Here Comes the Cavalry

Your paycheck is in the mail, thanks to Monday's roll-out by the Federal Reserve Bank of short-term financing to some of the nation's biggest businesses. The Fed's intervention is illustrated by the spike in the chart above. The issuance of 90-day commercial paper surged ten-fold, with the Fed committing over $60 billion in a single day. The money will help companies meet payrolls and replenish inventories.

"Of all the things the Fed has tried this year," writes Minyanville's Charles Payne, "I believe this is the smartest. Payrolls have to be met, and cash has to flow into coffers if businesses are to forge ahead in a tight credit environment."

Which Is the Party of Big Government?

Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe

Dear Senator Collins

Message just e-mailed to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME):

Please vote AGAINST the bailout bill to be voted on by the Senate this evening. The TARP will add to the mountain of debt being prepared for our kids and grandkids. It will protect entities that deserve to fail. It will saddle the taxpayer with assets that cannot be valued and may be essentially worthless. It will accelerate the process by which the national debt will be monetized, penalizing savers and crushing folks on fixed incomes. The debt needs to be destroyed instead.

Purveyors of panic insist that a bill is necessary to avoid financial armageddon. For the average American, the worst thing that will happen with no TARP is that he will lose his credit card. The other bad outcomes--loss of jobs, mortgage defaults--are baked in already. The bill cannot stop these.

A vote FOR the bill condones a radical power grab by the moneyed elite and condemns the middle class to indentured servitude for generations to come.