Because Wall Street affects Main Street

Call it the bailout bill, Paulson plan or socialism on steroids, the US Treasury plan is all over the papers. Liberals yell that this is throwing free money at the CEO's of failing corporations and Conservatives cite that no government intervention is required. Many high-profile Republicans are standing firm against any solution, because principles must stay when financial hell has risen. As we sit on the brink of a grave situation, there are handfuls of congressman who actually get the situation. There is no good answer right now, but no answer would be the worst solution to it all.

Doing nothing is not a valid option. Conservatives do not realize how close we are to the brink of an economic catastrophe. The markets must be stabilized. We must restore trust to the banking industry. The shrinking of credit will affect every person in the United States, regardless if you have direct contact with Wall Street. The implosion of the financial structure will freeze all of your assets, hurt every business and will touch every American.

In the 1930s, a lot of people who had nothing to do with Wall Street were deeply impacted by the crash. Today, we are incredibly entangled with the financial sector. The bad choices of a few will dramatically impact the many. Irresponsible people should and will be punished. CEO's should not obtain the "golden parachutes" and oversight should be created for the implementation of the plan. These and other issues should be discussed and included in the legislation. Bad lending and greed will be reckoned with, but the crisis has gone by too far to stand back and do nothing out of principle.

Is this plan anti-markets? Hardly. The market is not this mystical force with no players, instead it is made up of people and these people engage in transactions and investments. Human beings can act completely irrational, stoking fear into outright panic. People do not realize how close we were to financial panic last week in regards to money market accounts and the ongoing exodus from these accounts. The trust has dissipated between financial institutions, banks and consumers. Markets cannot correct itself if fear remains within the system. Take the fear out of the system (through the removal of bad assets) and the market will correct. And besides, the assets that the government will acquire are less than what they were worth. The government stands to make a profit on these purchases and loans.

If action is not taken everything that you and I own financially will be cut dramatically. The savings account that we have will not yield the original amount. Retirement accounts will be hammered. I cannot stress this clearer that the financial system is in grave danger. A point can be made that one's ideology should trump all circumstances. A quote from a respected thinker says it best, "My ideology guides my thinking, but it does not replace my thinking." Ideology must not get in the way of logical decisions. There is no good solution, but out of all of those solutions lie the controlled crash solution. Quick, consistent government intervention is necessary to the health of the economy. Otherwise, the ramifications will be unconscionable.