You make some excellent points, Mr. Kahuna. My problem with this whole bailout situation is in the ideology. I think this country has to make some basic decisions as to what we really want to be when we grow up. Are we going to be a fast and loose capitalistic society, with big winners and big losers, or are we going to be a Sweden-like democratic socialist society which relies on the government for almost everything (and with an incredible marginal tax rate to support its welfare state - last I knew it was in the 80% range, including VAT, but could be different now). Personnally, I think we need to be somewhere in the middle. As I've gotten older, I've seen the light on health care and now think that nationalizaion of the health care system is not such a bad idea. I work for a large government defense contractor, but think that the Defense Department's budget is obscene and needs major cutting. Points of view change as our lives change, and I'm a lot more tolerant of politicians like President Obama, who strikes me as a person who is extremely intelligent, who demonstrates excellent leadership capability, and who will act in the country's best interest, as he sees it through his own idealogical lens. Personally, I'm willing to give him the benefit of my doubts, as I'm still feeling great about the departure of "W". I am wary of attempts to spend our way out of this economic tsunami, but can't come up with anything much better. While managed bankruptcies would be best in the long run, the short term pain would probably be too much for society to take. So I'm going to support the President as best I can. I hope that the Republicans can find a way to lend some support too, but fully understand their ideological objections, and the need for a "loyal opposition". I do think that the American people will give the president a long leash, as most people understand that the problems are systemic and not of Obama's causing. But if the markets don't start recovering by the end of 2009, I agree, Obama will likely be a one-term president. One other point. I think we can trace this current problem back to the bright idea of globalization, where the U.S. "decided" that there should be a global economy, and that we should give up our leadership of manufacturing to third world countries, in trade for our current service based economy. Looking back, this was a crazy idea, and it's really too bad we can't hold accountable the people who pushed this on the American economy. Unfortunately, you can't go back . . . .