However, the regional approach could be really useful in other areas of reporting — how about reporting crime stats on a regional basis? Milwaukee would improve immensely. Same with student test scores — why not report on a regionwide basis and just footnote the results from individual school districts?

Late on Sunday, the U.S. government unveiled a bailout plan for Citigroup Inc, agreeing to shoulder most of the potential losses on $306 billion of high risk assets, in the latest attempt to restore confidence in the stricken financial system.

The government will also inject $20 billion of new capital, on top of $25 billion it just put into the bank, and receive preferred shares with an 8 percent dividend. Citigroup received the latest injection after its shares plunged 60 percent in the last week, amid worry it lacked enough capital to survive.

Perhaps it is just time to forbid firms from getting “too big to fail.”

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Now a deal is near (again) so our elected Congress people can come home and tell us what a good job they did on our behalf. The deal isn’t done, though. According to the New York Times:

Among the last sticking points was an unexpected and bitter fight over how to pay for any losses that taxpayers may experience after distressed debt has been purchased and resold.

Democrats had pushed for a fee on securities transactions, essentially a tax on financial firms, saying it was fitting that they contribute to the cost.

In the end, lawmakers and the administration opted to leave the decision to the next president, who must present a proposal to Congress to pay for any losses.

What a shameful cop-out.

Another Bushie tries to put himself above the law.

No.

Robert Preston, business editor of the BBC, puts the $700 billion Bush is seeking in start-up funds in perspective:

That $700bn is about 35 per cent more than the entire annual budget of the US defence department.

And to facilitate the funding, the statutory ceiling on US public debt is being raised from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion a rise of 6.6 per cent – which puts this ceiling at around a fifth less than the entire annual output of the US economy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, formerly the hugely-compensated head of the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs, would have enormous discretion in using this money under the plan, according to the New York Times.

The administration’s proposal, laid out in a three-page plan, would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

Didn’t we learn our lessons about giving Bush broad powers in the Iraq/torture/illegal spying scandals that sprang from the broad powers he was given and claimed after 9/11? Haven’t we seen enough cronyism and corruption in this administration to make sure there are plenty of safeguards in place in how this money gets distributed?

This proposal needs careful review, but it’s more likely that Congress will again abandon its oversight role. From the Times:

Congressional leaders are hoping to recess at the end of the week for the fall elections, after approving the bailout and a budget measure to keep the government running.

This financial mess isn’t going to be easy to deal with. Moving quickly and blindly isn’t going to make things better.

And we are supposed to bail out the lenders who gave loans to people who didn’t actually have jobs?