Dale Says

September 29, 2008

I was in a mildly bad mood all afternoon today after I heard about the House voting against the Federal Government’s proposed bailout program. The Bush Administration wanted Congress to approve spending at least $700 billion to buy bad loans (many of them home mortgages) from the country’s financial institutions, which are failing. Wachovia (#4) went down today, bought at a fire-sale price by Citigroup, which itself is on unsteady legs. Washington Mutual was taken over the past weekend by the Feds (the largest single bank failure in the country’s history), and Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mack, and Fanny Mae went down or were bought out earlier. Unfortunately, it looks like there are more on the horizon.

So the Bush Administration came up with a plan for the U.S. Government to bail out financial institutions by buying their bad debt. Today, the House voted against that proposal, so there’s no plan and the markets are running for cover. The U.S stock market had its worst day ever and the Dow Jones Industrials dropped nearly 800 points.

I had a slight headache when I got home, and I wasn’t in the mood to hear any more about the economy on TV or the radio, so I put on “The Best of Van Morrison.” By the time “Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You)” came on I was feeling better, and I actually got up and danced to “Moondance.”

Things will get better.