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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

I cannot think of words that more accurately express how I am feeling  
right now about the bailout of capitalism's finest examples:

After nearly eight years, the phrase "trust us" no longer works.  Now  
we're presented with a historically unprecedented bailout proposal for  
the nation's financial institutions.  I have a jumble of differing  
reactions to this. First, for years  the Republicans have sold us a  
deregulation mantra and suggested that any form of regulation is  
"socialism." But anyone who's actually read Adam Smith knows that he  
and other philosophers of free markets made plain from the outset that  
the state needs to guard the integrity of the marketplace.  Smith says  
that there is a dark side to the entrepreneurial spirit that the state  
must guard against.  This is not a rejection of market economics--it's  
a protection of the market place against those who abuse the freedoms  
it offers.
Second, we are as usual placed in a position in which great pressure  
is brought to bear to quickly accept a deal which will reverberate for  
decades without close inspection.
We are again told that things are vastly complicated and we should  
trust Treasury and the Fed to do the right thing.  My trust reservoir  
is exhausted.  I actually respect Paulson, but I also believe he is  
"playing the hand he's been dealt," as he said.  This is not the way  
decisions should be taken that have long-term consequences for the  
nation's future.  If in fact all of this bubbled to the surface  
quickly, without being anticipated, then the folks at Treasury are  
incompetent.  However, I don't believe that for a second--I am  
convinced that in this case, again, the Bush Administration knew what  
was up and calculated that it could just muddle through until after  
the elections.  We should all be apprehensive about what is coming  
after election day.
Third, the administration's proposals continue a process of  
socializing loss and preserving profits and distributions, many of  
which were made with full knowledge of the pending losses. When  
management distributes illusory profits to insiders in full knowledge  
of a massive loss, this is called a fraudulent conveyance, and in  
equity proceedings such distributions are routinely recovered for the  
creditor mass. There should therefore be a careful scrutiny of  
distributions of profits and bonuses by failed firms.  The bailout we  
now see may mean effectively that taxpayer money is subsidizing the  
purchase of macmansions and Bentleys by investment managers who  
behaved irresponsibly.  How can that happen?  Only in the age of Bush.
Fourth, I really started steaming this morning reading the NYT article  
about the participation of foreign banks in the bailout. Granted that  
the US has an interest in protecting financial markets, but why should  
the US be bailing out German and UK firms?  At least this should be a  
burden shared with their own governments. This really needs to be  
subject to some probing questions. What's going on here?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/trust-us.html#more
> From waltonrp AT gmail.com  Mon Sep 22 15:59:03 2008
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Preparing your homestead
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> A couple years ago I played around with beef tallow candles. I
> triple-rendered it (boil it with water, let it harden, scrape the dirt
> off, change water and reboil until clean). Tallow alone is soft and
> burns quickly, but I mixed in a little bit of beeswax and it made
> beautifully-long-burning, almost smoke-free candles.

That is very good to know.

Rob -  Va