It's Done

The Senate passed it's version of the bailout and it looks like the House will pass something similar sometime this week. (Slight Digression: I just noticed that I said a bailout bill had passed late last week when in fact it had just gotten out of committee and was the bill killed in the House on Sunday. I knew that when I wrote that entry, but my fingers didn't get the memo.) It looks like what started out as a narrow bill to do one specific thing (buy up the worst of the non-performing loans) has become the typical congressional bill loaded up with all sorts of vote-buying. The bill has expanded from its original three pages, something that could actually be read and understood by a member of Congress, to 451 pages that I seriously doubt any Congressman will read or understand. All I know is that as someone who has never been as much as a day late on any credit payment, I will be paying out the nose (either through higher taxes, inflation, or both) for people that took out loans they had neither the ability nor any intention of ever repaying. Just great.

It also looks like the auto industry, and by extension the state of Michigan, will get it in the neck some more. Of course, the unstated assumption in the article, that buying a new car is impossible without credit, really should be seriously looked at. Does it really make sense for an average family vehicle to cost $30,000 or $40,000? Maybe true low-cost vehicles, instead of these rolling mini Best Buy's, will become popular again. And by low-cost, I don't just mean initial purchase price but the total lifetime cost of a car. With every car maker jumping on the hybrid concept, I'm not hopeful.