Problems usually look easy to solve with other people's money

Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson’s proposed bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is expected to cost American taxpayers billions of dollars:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced plans Sunday to take control of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the companies’ chief executives. The Treasury will acquire $1 billion of preferred shares in each company without providing immediate cash, and has pledged to provide as much as $200 billion to the companies as they cope with heavy losses on mortgage defaults. The Treasury’s plan puts the two companies under a conservatorship, giving management control to their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA.

With that, the U.S. mortgage crisis entered a new and uncharted phase, potentially saddling American taxpayers with billions of dollars in losses from home loans made by the private sector.

I’m sympathetic to people who’ve been burned by the mortgage crisis; I’m more sympathetic to the people who had nothing to do with it and are about to get burned anyway.

President Bush is ushering in, and by all indications, John McCain and Barack Obama plan to perpetuate an economy in which no one makes any money, unless they’ve been showing poor financial judgment, in which case, they get yours.