The US Congress is to spend the weekend coming up with a $700 billion rescue package for Wall Street.

The aim is to have the Republicans and Democrats signed up to a bill that the President can claim shows leadership and bipartisan support in a time of crisis

Ideally, this will be done by the time the markets open on Monday morning then the congressmen and senators can go into recess and go off to campaign in their home districts for the November elections.

I will get a bill in the mail for $2,333.

I should explain.

I pay US taxes.

I lived and worked in America from 1967 to 2000. I get a pension in the State of Oregon and pay US Federal Income Tax on the pension.

I have lived in Helensburgh since 2000. I pay British VAT on anything I buy and I pay Argyll and Bute property tax.

I am the sole support of two major world economies.

Add in the 20% drop in the value of the US dollar in the past three years and I can tell the folks on Wall Street that things aren't exactly peachy keen from my perspective.

Crisis in confidence indeed.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom.

I did get a check for $600 from George W. This was part of his Economic Stimulus Package for 2007.

I never did figure out how my spending $600 in Scotland was going to boost the US economy

Given the current state of affairs, the other taxpayers spending their $600 in the US didn't do much for the economy either.

Another brilliant Bush financial plan that didn't work.

What am I going to get for my $2,333? What is America going to get for its $700 billion?

I have been watching the news for enlightenment.

Not much so far.

Seems that the Wall Street credit markets are a bit constipated.

Somehow George W and his sidekick Hank Paulson have decided that $700 billion will work as a laxative and get things moving again.

The timing of all of this is interesting with the US Presidential elections due in November.

Idealogically, Obama should be against the rescue package.

With US election campaigns costing obscene amounts of money, its no surprise that both candidates are in hock to big money interests and are in favour of the rescue plan.

So, what's to do?

The boys and girls on Wall Street should spend a couple of bucks on a bottle of Ex-Lax. It will get things moving again.

There is NO FINANCIAL CRISIS.

This is a MARKET CORRECTION

Since the excesses of the last ten to fifteen years have been great, the correction will be more dramatic than most.

The market and its players will find a way out of the current problems. It is not the role of government to interfere.

Financial houses that are built of straw will collapse. Anything of brick, like a good shit house, will survive.

The $700 billion is a waste of taxpayer's money.

Greed got the Wall Street moguls into their current pickle. Why should rich greedy bastards expect a government hand out when things get sticky?

The whole notion of giving money to the rich to solve a financial problem is obscene.

©  John Black 2008.