For the last several years, progressives -- from Atrios to Thom Hartmann -- have been predicting a major economic meltdown. Hartmann, going back several years, has repeatedly invoked the Great Depression to describe the magnitude of this thing.
And I've had no reason to disagree -- the very basic indicators along the way have led me to conclude the same thing. I own a home and a small business. I own some stock and mutual funds, and so I've been feeling the cold hard ass-end of this thing first hand for the better part of a year now. In a wide variety of ways.
So what should happen? A government bailout? Nothing? Something in between "nothing" and bailout?
I mean, we as liberals can't, as the intellectually honest side of the discourse, pretend like nothing is going to happen after spending years suggesting that doom was on the way. And, subsequently, screaming on the blogs that we should do nothing in the face of it seems irresponsible to me considering the consequences of an economic collapse. That is, unless it's time to make some soap and embrace our inner Tyler Durdens.
This much is clear, however. Passing something quickly without the proper oversight and regulatory safeguards would be a massively careless knee-jerk mistake. And McCain's erratic, sneaky political maneuvering is only serving to sabotage the proceedings and accelerating the on-coming chaos.