Look Out Below

After the Dow closed down 777 points, the biggest one-day drop ever recorded, where do we go from here? The House rejected the bailout plan by a vote of 228-205, and markets worldwide plummeted. Blaming a "partisan" speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Republicans defeated the bailout plan, and the Dow dropped out of pure fear.

It really makes you hope that John Boehner has a lot of WaMu stock in his portfolio.

Something has to be done fast, and the House Republicans need to get their members in line, pronto. The longer this bailout takes to get passed, the worse the crisis is going to be. Already, Jim Cramer is predicting a Dow down 2,500 points and 20% unemployment, in connection with what he thinks are too small limits in the FDIC. Writing in the New York Times Economix blog, Alan Keueger sees an economic downturn that will be "more democratic", meaning that white-collar, skilled labor jobs will be at risk as well, this time.

In the face of this, the idea that the Republicans had their feelings hurt, and consequently voted against the bailout, is beyond absurd, beyond petulant--it's insane. I still have some doubts about this bill, but action needs to be taken now, while we still have a banking system. This bill seems to have been the best that could have been devised, given the time constraints. If Congress can't get their act together by this time tomorrow, then look out below.