Post-Non-Bailout Reflection

Not being an economist, it is a bit difficult for me to know why the Wall Stree Bailout needed to be immediately, if not sooner. The spiral has been going on for how long? The government chose to do nothing, or very little, for how long? I can understand the need to keep money moving and banks in business, but I really think it should be done on terms the people footing the bill can live with. I have read where in order to successfully perform the bailout the government would need to pay more than the distressed assets are worth? In other words, we are paying premium for garbage? All while someone on Wall Street is still getting a nice check? Truly, this is a mess, but Congress needs to take a bit of time to come up with something. If another bill that is unacceptable to Congress gets put up to a vote, the same thing will happen, and this, I would bet, would be worse than no vote at all. Anyway, even though the Dow went down over 700 points yesterday, it does appear to have regained half of that, making me wonder if those numbers really have any bearing to anything.