Treasury to need "Unprecedented" financing

The dazzling incompetence and lack of understanding of financial markets would make me laugh, if it weren't so sad.

Bloomberg.com: quotes White House Press Secretary Dana Perino:

``What we're trying to do is get banks to do what they are supposed to do, which is support the system that we have in America''

Actually Dana, what banks are "supposed" to do is make money for the shareholders. They sure aren't stopping their dividend payments, so how bad could this crisis really be? They did that quite well the last several years- first through widespread use of dubious financial instruments, and now by getting the taxpayers to finance their mergers. It's everyone else that's in trouble. And by the way, if you wanted banks to actually lend with the money that we were so generously giving them, perhaps you should have made that explicit in the legislation that you rushed through. The fact that you designed this plan so vague that anyone can qualify and do anything with the money is your fault, not the banks'.

And just what system is it, that we have in America? If it's the system where there income inequality has reached record levels, Wall St. pays obscene bonuses that they didn't earn, companies legally pay no taxes and everyone else gets screwed, seems to me like it's working the same as it always has.