The good news is that as of Sunday evening, it looks like the terms of bailout legislation have been agreed upon. Getting the bad mortgage loans off the books of the banks is a critical step towards stabilizing the worldwide financial system.

The bad news is that the U.S. can't accomplish the bailout by itself. We are beholden to foreign lenders who in the long run may not be all that friendly towards the U.S.--China and the oil countries of the Middle East. Read the following article from today's Wall Street Journal Online...(See the printed article in a reply below. The link only works for subscribers to the WSJ. Sorry.)
The lesson we should all learn from this situation is to listen carefully to what candidates for elected office are saying to us in the interest of getting themselves elected. Does it make sense to anyone that a country that has so much debt that it has to go hat in hand to two countries that might not be so friendly can afford a tax cut? Does it make any sense that the next time our Congress tries to pass spending legislation (like the huge spending bill passed yesterday!) that includes all kinds of earmarks, pork-barrel projects and adds significantly more to our alrready bloated national debt--that the taxpayers should rise up and say NO!...that the next time these legislators run for re-election we throw them out of office?

Folks, unless we begin telling our elected representatives that they (we) have to begin living within our means and begin to pay down our humongous national debt, they will spend us into being a weakened, second-rate nation. And they'll tell us that they plan to do it because it sounds good and they think it'll get them elected. That will mean that we should be prepared to pay more in taxes and suffer the inconveniences of significant reductions in spending by the federal government.

If we don't begin to accept reality we'll continue to elect people who will destroy the United States of America.