Bush's Financial Katrina

"'The administration seems to have no stomach for taking action,' Brusca told ABC News. 'This is a president that had no trouble intervening in Iraq, but does not want to intervene in the housing mess. It's as though we should worship the private sector even though it is what got us into this mess.'"

Paul Krugman asked in his New York Times opinion column on Monday: "When the feds do bail out the financial system, what will they do to ensure that they aren't also bailing out the people who got us into this mess?"

E. J. Dionne Jr. writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. . . .

"It's just fine to make it harder for the average Joe to file for bankruptcy, as did that wretched bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005 at the request of the credit card industry. But the big guys are 'too big to fail,' because they could bring us all down with them.

"Enter the federal government, the institution to which the wealthy are not supposed to pay capital gains or inheritance taxes. . . .

"So now the bailouts begin, and Wall Street usefully might feel a bit of gratitude, perhaps by being willing to have the wealthy foot some of the bill or to acknowledge that while its denizens were getting rich, a lot of Americans were losing jobs and health insurance. I'm waiting."

Bush as Hoover

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press about how, "throughout the economy's recent turbulent times -- lost jobs, sky-high gasoline prices, plunging home values, a free-falling dollar, shaken consumer confidence, a growth slowdown and possibly even a recession -- Bush has projected an air of unwavering optimism, even joviality.

"He is the nation's biggest economic cheerleader at a time of deep uncertainty.

"'The United States is on top of the situation,' he declared Monday.

"It all has some people shaking their heads. Is there a disconnect here? Does the president get how this might feel to the little guy? Is there a different standard for the big financial community and the strapped homeowner facing foreclosure?"

Loven writes that readers should "remember Herbert Hoover, infamous for presiding over the onset of the Great Depression. . . .

"Hoover's reputation was built in part on remarks viewed as too rosy. 'The problem is not at all insurmountable in the long run,' he said on Oct. 6, 1930, as unemployment, poverty and desperation climbed."