Free Market Bailed Out

n the wake of what some are calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the government is at odds over how to resolve the issue. President George W. Bush has recently defended his plan for a 700 billion dollar bailout saying that the current financial crisis will affect "Wall St. plus Main St., and [he's] worried about Main St." Fellow Republican, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson supported the President's statements by talking about helping the public, though added that the best way to help the public is to stabilize the financial system.

The Democrats voiced their concerns about the Republicans words, warning the public that the plan for the 700 billion dollar bailout says everything about Wall St. and nothing about Main St. The Democrats say the plan needs to have better protection for people in danger of losing their homes, something Paulson has been resisting despite his supposed concern for the public.

There is even debate over exactly what this crisis means for the United States. Chief economist at ATL-CIO, Ron Blackwell, says that this financial crisis has left the neo-liberalist policies, upon which all of the structural imbalances in the United States have had their basis, at stake giving the country an enormous opportunity for change in the middle of a presidential election. Economist Prof. Ellen Frank from the University of Massachusetts has a much less favourable view, saying the bottom line of the crisis and resulting bailout plan is "socializing risk with returns still privatized."

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