Open Thread

September 29th, 2008 9:49 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Wall Street appears destined to get bailed out, but stocks around the world still suffer.

As this crisis has come to a head, we've been regularly told that we taxpayers have to spend billions nay trillions to bailout troubled financial companies in order to avert a 1929-style stock market crash. Although the bailout bill seems almost certain to pass, we're still seeing stocks decline.

Is this an indication that the situation is worse than we're being told, and that the bailout will not accomplish what's being sold to us? Or, is the bailout a kind of chemotherapy whereby the cure is still initially painful, but will not produce positive, verifiable results until months from now?

On the other hand, are stocks performing poorly today due to the possibility the bailout might not pass?