Are They Considering All the Options? [UPDATED]
Something, again, we have to leave to trust: is this basic bailout approach, in which the Treasury Dept. is authorized to purchase and hold on to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of debt packages, the best model for intervention? Have other methods been duly considered and rejected? I read the proposal of James Galbraith in the Washington Post, and of course didn't understand it all but it does leave you thinking, geez I hope the reason they're not doing that is that it has some big flaw, and not because they weren't really trying to think of any options beyond their default bailout reaction.

I have never understood why - being the majority - we have to start from the Paulson model, and the Paulson dollar figure, and amend from there. Why not from scratch? Here's hoping the reason is because it really is the best model, most likely to solve problems, and not because old habits die hard.

[UPDATE: Also, read Steven Pearlstein.]