Sorry for the egregious viral forwarding (and the fact that the title I've appended pretty much sums up the joke), but this drifted by in the Nettime gunkstream...itself re-posted from The Nation's website. Seems like liberal bien pensant opinion in the US (encompassing the continuum between the NYT and The Nation) is stridently anti-bailout, maybe like a tepidly progressive re-working of the "moral hazard" banner as a clash between 'Wall Street' and 'Main Street'. The FT I was reading on the Eurostar last night (thanks, Anthony), on the other hand, saw the moral hazard in the bailout plan perhaps being a touch too timid to restore confidence in markets bruised by the baying of populist mercenaries in the press and in Congress:
Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
