Ups and Downs

The news publication timeline being what it is, there ware a lot of letters-to-the-editors of the newspapers I read that cried about the 777 point market drop Monday. "Can't you people see we *need* this for working-class folks like me, I was really hurt by the market drop."

I light of Tuesday 500 point recovery, I wonder how many of them will be writing back to say "never mind"?

I also noticed this pattern this week:

• Monday, passage of the bailout bill appears imminent--market tanks by 777 points (largest single-day loss).
• Tuesday, the bill has been rejected by the House--market up over 500 points (3rd largest single-day gain).
• Wednesday, slow news day--market stable, down 19 points.
• Thursday, Senate passed a revised bill chock full of goodies on top of the $700B (and plenty of earmarks in in "must-pass" bill), currently down 250 points.

It looks to me like passage of the bill hurts the market more than non-passage. This bailout bill will further devalue to dollar, set a horrible precedent (like that hasn't happened already), and the earmarks will come to light far too late.

In 2 or 3 years, will taxpayers still be paying for this bailout and be expected to bail out the next big losers (maybe the auto industry will come back for more than the $25B already slipped to them this week while everyone was looking the other way).