plan for the Government to buy mortgage backed securities began to be released to the public, the story of how Hank and Ben scared the living daylights out of the congressional leadership was also being told.  Well, there are a few things that scare the living daylights out of me as well.  For instance, how is it that the men and women of the House and Senate (who will now be called upon to pass legislation authorizing the plan) did not realize - until told by H&B on Thursday - that the situation was so dire?  Hell, I had a friend telling me on Tuesday that he felt we were headed for a Depression style Crash.

And isn't it a touch scary that these same folks are going to be called upon to write a bill that will effectively change the face of America's financial institutions and that they're going to do it over the weekend?  During Senate hearings where H&B testify, most of these esteemed elected officials can't come up with questions more sophisticated than the ones I would ask.  Charlie Rangel has admitted that he didn't understand the tax code he helped write well enough to know he had to pay taxes on his rental property and Chris Dodd doesn't get the concept that you don't do business as a special friend of someone whose industry you are supposed to oversee and they are two of the brighter bulbs in government.  Admittedly, they will - for the most part - be the dummies to H&B's ventriloquists but, hey, that's scary, too.  While I haven't a doubt that H&B are both men who - at the very least - verge upon brilliance, I'm not sure I want the country's economy recrafted by the former head of Goldman Sachs and a Princeton professor with no real world experience who apparently sees the 1930s around every corner.

And talk about scary, the plan is already tabbed at $700 bil when - at this moment - most of those who set themselves up as smart enough to know will tell you that part of the problem is we have no idea what the properties underlying these mortgage backed securities are worth.  Also, much like homeowners who refuse to sell their houses for what the prices at which they are currently appraised, now that Uncle Sam has said he's in the market, will the various companies that hold MBS try to jack the government?  Also, also, if the idea is that we the taxpayers will hold on to this paper until it has a higher valuation doesn't that mean that real estate will have to once again appreciate at a higher than normal rate or are we expecting to be the nation's landlord for far, far into the unforseeable future?  Also, also, also, are the Dems going to try to trailer hitch even more bailouts onto the bill in order to make it more palatable to the voters?  I mean once you get to $700 bil (not including the previous bailouts for home mortgages as a whole and the $85 billion for AIG, oh, oh, I almost forget Bear Stearns and F&F), you're almost talking about real money here.

Finally, are there any monsters under the bed any scarier than the video on Friday of W telling us that he had been informed of incontrovertible evidence proving the need for this action followed by images of H&B flanked by the congressional leadership who had also just received the same incontrovertible evidence.  It has been a while since I've seen the President, the Republicans and the Democrats so united - as I recall it was October 2002.