I can’t say I’m disappointed, but I have no idea what will happen next, which is a bit unnerving: The House of Representatives has rejected the proposed $700 billion bailout plan. The plan was 13 votes short of passage, in what sounds like a nail-biter of a session.
Meanwhile:
Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.
From the New York Times:
House leaders pushing for the package kept the voting period open for some 40 minutes past the allotted time, trying to convert “no” votes to “yes” votes by pointing to damage being done to the markets, but to no avail.
And if I heard him correctly in the live feed on CNN, Rep. Barney Frank–the guy heading up this project–is heading out of the Capitol for a few days to observe Rosh Hashanah.
Now what?
Well, we need to keep things in perspective. The media keeps hyping the fact that this is the biggest point loss in the history of the market… and it is. But it amounted to 7% of the market’s value.
The crash in 1987 was 22% in one day. Everyone predicted a depression. It didn’t happen.
My 401k lost $4000 yesterday. So one would think that I’d have preferred that the bailout passed, and I got hit with $2000 in debt, than fail, but actually, no, I think the entire bailout is pretty irresponsible, and if I lose some money because of my beliefs, I’m okay with that…