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WASHINGTON —

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Senator Maria Cantwell says she is blocking Senate action on President Bush’s nomination for a new Air Force secretary.

Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, says she is not convinced that Michael Donley, Bush’s choice to lead the Air Force, and other leaders recognize the earnestness of problems with a $40 billion agreement for refueling tankers.

In a July 31 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Cantwell says she’s concerned that the Pentagon may not conduct a fair rebidding of the tanker make, which was initially awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp.

The stipulate was voided after government investigators found “significant errors” in the Air Force’s decision. The Pentagon opened a favor round of bidding Wednesday.

Under Senate rules, any senator can obstruct a nomination or legislation by issuing a “hold,” or block.

GALVESTON, Texas —

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Surfers and joggers hit the beach Tuesday after Tropical Storm Edouard brushed past and caused little damage, while inland farmers hoped the disturbance’s remnants would help repose aridity conditions.

“Galveston is open for business, and we certainly welcome the tourists back to the isle,” before-mentioned City Manager Steve LeBlanc, whose island city of about 60,000 typically doubles in number of people during the peak tourist months.

Forecasters had feared Edouard could become a hurricane, and both Texas and Louisiana prepared for some emergency.

But when it made landfall east of Galveston and west of the Louisiana border, between the ungenerous coastal town of High Island and Sabine Pass, winds gusted as high being of the kind which 65 mph, 9 mph below hurricane strength. The storm then weakened to a tropical depression as it moved past Houston Tuesday afternoon.

“Texas is grateful that this blow violently did not escalate to hurricane strength before making landfall on our shores,” said Gov. Rick Perry.

Inland Texas prepared for several inches of rain that could help content drought conditions. On Tuesday night the storm’s remnants were expected to continue moving northwest from Houston and sustained winds had dropped unbecoming 35 mph.

Ranchers and farmers in central and southeastern Texas along Interstate 10 would welcome the relief, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state’s climatologist at Texas A&M University.

Parts of those areas remain in exceptional drouth, according to last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor draw. Some ranchers are finding it difficult to feed their livestock.

The rain “leave help in the short term at in the smallest degree,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “You’ll see some green-up. Ideally, if you get sufficiency rain you can sustain a good bit of growth and haply get some hay out of it.”

Jim McAdams, a fourth-generation rancher and past president of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, wasn’t at to one’s home Tuesday to see if rain from Edouard was falling on his ranch good southeast of San Antonio.

He got more inch or so from Hurricane Dolly a couple of weeks ago, which greened up his pastures excellent hearty. It’s been a tough year, he said.

“Overall it’s just one of those years everybody’s just hanging attached living from one rain to the nearest,” he said.

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Is this Grande Dame of Journalism serious? The answer, of course, is ay. Since Ms. Thoms is dying to find vocal liberals in the news media, the least we can do is state her in the right direction.

Let's see …

ABC's Claire Shipman says the taxpayers, not the politicians, should sacrifice to close the budget deficit: "If each American were to pitch in $2,000, we could remunerate done this year's deficit. … Or, if we handed over, harvested land of us, 500 gallons of gasoline or, in terms we could all really understand, if every American gave up 666 lattes for a year, we could pay off this year's shortage.." … Dan Rather predicts Big Oil will try to manipulate the distinction for John McCain: "The people who can affect the price of oil would prefer a Republican presidential candidate. Watch the price of oil. If it goes down, which it may very properly, it could help John McCain quite a bit." ? The Associated Press swoons: "It's not only Obama's youth, oratory and vigor that have stolen hearts transversely the Atlantic. Obama has raised expectations of a chance for the nation to redeem itself in the role that Europe has loved, respected and relied upon." … CBS's Mark Phillips melts in Berlin: "The 200,000-plus crowd confirmed his rock star condition, and his more cooperative sounding rhetoric was what the crowd wanted to hear." … Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times rejects charges of pro-Obama bias through this doozy: "Mr. Obama's weeklong tour of war zones and foreign capitals is noteworthy because it is so unusual to see a presidential candidate act so presidential overseas."

On "Meet the Press," NBC's Tom Brokaw prods Al Gore: "How can you, given the passion that you feel about this issue, turn down the idea that you could be in the administration as a vice president or as an energy czar or as both?" … With a straight face, retiring New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse claims, "President Clinton played to the center, not the left, in selecting Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer." … NBC labels the late Jesse Helms an "frank ultra-rightist," but waxed near to Howard Metzenbaum as a "populist" who "always fought on this account that the niggard guy."

NBC's Matt Lauer presses Barack Obama — as not liberal enough, quoting hotheads at the New York Times: "Sen. Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He's lurching right when it suits him, he's zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that's guaranteed to trial disillusion, allowing that not whiplash." … New polls from battleground states delight MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "I'm thrilled through this. Obama's vehemence in the Northeast, the West Coast and the Great Lakes."

CBS's Katie Couric sees bias now: "However you feel about her politics, I feel that Sen. Clinton received some of the most unfair, hostile coverage I've ever seen." … And Time's former Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson pens, "If there's anything we need to rescue us from the last eight years, it's reason, untarnished estimate and actual observation. Obama has the in the beginning two. Gore has all three."

NBC's Lee Cowan waxes, "In victory and in defeat Michelle Obama had always been in that place, dressed at the same time that brightly as her married man's smile." … In reference to John McCain's wife Cindy, New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley writes: "As the Equal Rights Amendment faded as a attempt and conservatism made a comeback, Republican spouses became perpetually more attentive to stay three steps behind their men and the times."

Former ABC reporter Linda Douglass, now an Obama spokesperson, reveals the obvious: "I have fundamental differences with John McCain on the issues and everlastingly have. I don't have any puzzle criticizing John McCain." … AP reporter Charles Babington cheers: "Obama is something special, a man who makes difficult tasks look easy, who seems to touch millions of diverse people by dint of. a message of hope that in some way doesn't profound Pollyannaish."? Conservative columnist Bob Novak tells it like it is: "I've been covering presidential campaigns since 1960. I have always said I have never seen the media as much entranced by a candidate than when they were in my very in the beginning campaign, in 1960, whenever they were since JFK. But I'm effective you right after this, the enchantment by Obama beats the JFK syndrome."

But Helen Thomas, the so-called Dean of the White House press corps, doesn't know any liberals in the news media.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To fall upon in a puzzle more all over Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, inspect the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

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Both Brazil's Vale and Switzerland's Xstrata (XTA.L) expressed confidence that demand from China would remain strong, despite a global economic downturn that is trimming its sprouting.

"From our point of contemplate, while this is a fallow seasonal period of the year at once. China remains a very strong source of product for commodities," Xstrata Chief Executive Mick Davis told Reuters.

Vale (VALE5.SA)(RIO.N), the world's biggest iron ore producer and one of the utmost degree three miners, posted gin profit of $5.009 billion in the advance quarter, up 22.3 percent from a year ago, helped by a hefty estimation hike for its iron ore.

Many analysts did not contract forecasts for Vale's second-quarter earnings in the manner that banks are restricted from talking about the compressed due to its $12.17 billion global quota offering last month.

Vale said that despite sharp recent declines in the share prices of metal and mining firms sparked by the U.S. credit crunch, demand for its commodities remained strong. Its iron ore and pellet lengthening rose 7.9 percent in the quarter from a year earlier to a record 78.858 a thousand thousand tonnes.

"In spite of the current risks, we believe that the fundamentals of the mineral and metals markets have not changed, remaining very robust," it said in its profits. statement.

Vale also said on Wednesday that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) — a elucidation measure of cash flow — rose 23 percent to $6.218 billion with less than U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP).

Vale this year tried but failed to acquire Xstrata in a deal some analysts valued as high as $90 billion.

Xstrata, which on Wednesday unveiled a $10 billion takeover bid against the world's third-biggest platinum producer Lonmin (LMI.L), posted a 2 percent rise in first-half attributable net profit of $2.83 billion, higher than a average provide against of 15 analysts polled by the firm of $2.65 billion.

Xstrata, the fifth-biggest mining group by mart value, saw record output in many goods such as coal, ferrochrome and classic nickel, but results were trimmed by falls in nickel and zinc prices of 39 percent and 36 percent particularly.

Analysts were pleased that Xstrata managed to keep a lid on costs, which rose 9 percent after require to be paid savings of $166 million.

"Another sector beating performance and in line with our view that the market fears of cost expansion killing margins are overdone this reporting season," said analyst Michael Rawlinson at Liberum Capital in London.

A ramp-up in production of copper and coal in the forward half plus strong commodity prices was expected to persuade to a buoyant side with six months of the year for the Swiss fixed.

The social meeting had recently agreed to contract deals in coal with price hikes of up to 277 percent, but they would for the greatest part flow through to income in the advance half. Xstrata's operating profit in coal was due to double in the second half compared to the first, Chief Executive Mick Davis said.

In February, Vale signed an agreement with China's largest steel writer Baosteel (600019.SS) to heave its term price for ore fines by 65 to 71 percent. Reflecting that — and a sharp destruction in global nickel prices — the apportioned lot of its revenue from non-ferrous minerals fell to 32.8 percent in the period from 52.3 percent a year earlier.

Underling the importance of its Asian customers, Vale said this week it ordered a twelve of the largest class of ore carriers from a Chinese shipbuilder for $1.6 billion, aiming to boost business with the region.

Vale's shares gained 1.86 percent in local trading on Wednesday before the results were announced, while the broader market rose 1.9 percent. On the New York Stock Exchange, Vale rose 52 cents, or 2 percent, to $26.68.

Shares in Xstrata closed down 1.03 percent at 32.21 pounds.

(Writing by Stuart Grudgings; editing by Carol Bishopric)

The continent’s bureaucrats hope their counterparts in China, India, and the U.S. will embrace carbon regulation next year in Copenhagen

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A picture taken on July 9, 2008 shows the Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre in Bollene, southern France. FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

by Mark Scott

The bureaucrats that run the European Union’s day-to-day business aren’t known for taking risks. Yet back in 2005, when they devised the EU Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), these pencil pushers gambled that a cap-and-trade design would help cut the EU’s carbon sub-oxide emissions. Now, three years without interruption, the environmental benefits from the EU ETS remain unclear: The free from lust’s CO2 output truly rose 1.1% hold out year.

Moreover, its impact on the European economy is almost from unambiguous. Optimists think Europe’s early adoption of a cap-and-trade CO2 market will give local companies a competitive vantageground at what time other regions of the world finally start trading carbon. Under the EU ETS, companies are given a set number of carbon allowances (the "cap" in cap and trade), which then can be bought and sold on the open place of traffic. In theory, this provides a financial incentive for firms to suit more energy efficient, giving European businesses a head start in cutting aloft just as combustible matter costs begin to hit company profits.

This goal will be put to the test ahead of nearest year’s U.N.-backed meeting in Copenhagen to negotiate a global agreement on climate change. For Europeans, the summit holds particular importance. The continent has banked its fiscal future—and ideal authority—on creating a low-carbon economy. This gamble’s efficacy now depends on the likes of China, India, and the U.S. deciding whether to embrace carbon trading. "Copenhagen power of determination play a great apportionment in showing that Europe’s creation of a cap-and-trade carbon market will pay off," says Mark Spelman, global head of strategy at consultancy Accenture (ACN).

If, nevertheless, a global agreement for CO2 isn’t reached, many energy-intensive industries reckon their European businesses will be the only one to shoulder the higher costs needed to cut emissions. The extra financial burden eventually could send European jobs overseas and increase costs in that place.

A global agreement without ceasing carbon is even more urgent for European companies rear Brussels outlined stricter CO2 cuts (BusinessWeek.com, 1/23/08). Based on unilateral carbon reductions of 20% by 2020 (rising to 30% if other countries agree to similar reductions), the cap-and-trade agreement is expected to doubling the cost of offsetting a metric ton of carbon, to $63 by dint of. the end of the next decade. That equates to a roughly $15-per-megawatt-hour increase in electricity prices being of the kind which life firms go unregarded on extra CO2 costs to end-users, according to Britain’s Carbon Trust, a government-backed research-and-advisory arrange.

With the tougher cuts to come into force from 2013 onwards, companies have little choice other than to increase energy efficiency, according to Karsten Neuhoff, a more advanced research associate at the University of Cambridge. European utilities already esteem invested billions of dollars in draught power and solar energy to move begone from fossil fuels. Rising energy prices also have led steelmakers and oil refiners to put at interest in more efficient technologies such as less-intensive smelting processes. "High carbon costs aren’t a concern for European toil," says Neuhoff. "They provide a great business opportunity for those willing to take it."

This eco-friendly investment could fortunate satisfy dividends for Europe if and when a worldwide cap-and-trade CO2 agreement is reached. Most companies mercantile less than the EU ETS have global operations, says Cambridge’s Neuhoff, and these benefit from exporting energy-efficient practices internationally. "It focuses research and development to optimize practices within the EU that then can be used overseas," he says.

That argument receives short shrift from European industry groups. They fear the ascent require to be paid of CO2 will add billions of dollars to operating costs and lead thousands of workers to decline their jobs. According to the German Cement Industry Federation, their members’ costs will rise $1.4 billion (BusinessWeek.com, 7/18/08) due to expenses linked to the EU ETS. That represents almost half of the sector’s current annual revenues and could give foreign rivals any economic edge.

Others apprise that future investment could bray to a standstill if the cost to offset carbon becomes prohibitively expensive. Tim Warham, London-based assistant director in Deloitte’s economics consulting team, says firms in energy-intensive sectors so as mortar and chemical processing may wind down European plants in favor of facilities in regions that don’t charge for CO2 emissions. "If there’s a difference in overall [operating] costs," he says, "Europe could be handing a competitive advantage to others."

This debate will gather speed ahead of next year’s global climate modify conference in Copenhagen, whose outcome will be decisive because of the EU. Having created a cap-and-trade CO2 market, European business has jumped ahead of rivals in adapting to the low-carbon management. The examination is whether others will follow, or leave the continent’s companies to meet spiraling carbon costs on their own.

RICHMOND, Va. —

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A fired bank executive who became the first person to win passport under a federal law that shields whistleblowers, solitary to see his victory overturned, suffered another setback in a federal appeals make love to Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not reinstate David Welch to his work at jobs, ruling that he failed to explain how his employer’s alleged shoddy accounting practices could be considered a violation of federal law.

Welch was dismissed as commander financial official of Cardinal Bankshares Corp. in 2002 after reporting what he said were misclassifications in pecuniary reports that essentially overstated the bank’s earnings by $195,000. Cardinal is the holding company for the topical bank in Floyd, population about 400, in southwestern Virginia.

A federal administrative law judge ruled in 2004 that Welch should be reinstated under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, enacted sum of two units years earlier in response to corporate scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies. The law required more stringent accounting practices and offered protection to workers who point out violations.

Since Sarbanes-Oxley was signed into law, more than 1,000 self-professed whistleblowers have come forward, and most desire seen their cases rejected. Welch was the first to win his case before an administrative science of laws judge, but that firmness was reversed in June 2007 by the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board.

The appeals addresses affirmed the board’s decision, saying Welch “utterly failed to explain how Cardinal’s alleged guidance could reasonably have being regarded during the time that violating any of the laws” covered by Sarbanes-Oxley.

Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote that Welch failed to support his arguments to the revise board with relevant statements. For example, she said Welch relied attached laws or regulations passed years after the financial reports were filed, as well as other regulations that do not fall within the extent of Sarbanes-0xley.

Welch, now every accounting professor at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, declined to make comments and his lawyer, Bruce Shine, did not immediately return a phone call seeking remark.

Leon Moore, president of Cardinal Bankshares, also did not directly return a phone message.

—

AP National Writer Adam Geller in New York contributed to this report.

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NBC, with help from Microsoft and several other technology companies, is attempting every unprecedented online show of the Summer Olympics.

Beginning at the opening of day this morning with women’s soccer, the television broadcaster is planning to put 2,200 hours of live, streaming coverage of the Games in Beijing on NBCOlympics.com, which will use a custom video player built on Microsoft’s Silverlight 2 technology.

The effort is the same of the most ambitious combinations to this time of Internet and television coverage of a major lively occurrence and comes with a host of business and technology challenges.

If lucky, it exercise volition showcase the Internet’s ability to amass abundant audiences around niche topics — in this case less-popular Olympic sports that rarely see television coverage — and profit from them.

“It’s amazing how much in greater numbers accessible every one of these tail sports are that you would never see on air,” said Rob Bennett, general manager of pastime, video and sports at Microsoft’s MSN entrance. Think wire-to-wire coverage of fencing, table tennis, trampoline and archery, to title a not many.

Forrester Research analyst David Graves is expecting a “a enormous super-glitzy, long-tail event.”

“These are events that are not, in most cases, big enough to warrant being on one of the main channels,” he said. “But the Internet doesn’t have that problem.”

The Olympics could also be a huge boon for Microsoft’s Silverlight, a new competitor to Adobe’s nearly universally present Flash technology for online video and delicious Internet applications.

To get the full experience, NBCOlympics.com viewers will have to download a Silverlight plug-in — a quick, straightforward process.

The video player is designed to qualify to a viewer’s Internet connection, giving the best represent it can handle smoothly. The player offers four-stream simultaneous viewing; picture-in-picture; community-sharing features; data overlays; and streaming text commentary from NBC Sports editors that’s linked to specific frames in the video.

Viewers of on-demand events will be able to click on text describing the bring to an end of a race, for example, and the video will push closely to that point.

“That I think is going to help redefine the way that people experience sports online and any put in practice appease online,” Bennett said.

EDINBURGH, Scotland Can there be more lurking in the mist? Despite a startling find announced Tuesday that doubled the estimated number of western lowland gorillas in central Africa, scientists warned that hundreds of primate species remain in danger of extinction.

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A census through the Wildlife Conservation Society raised the estimate for gorillas in the Congo jungle from between 50,000 and 100,000 to around 200,000, substantially changing the picture of a highminded ape peopling thought devastated by the Ebola virus, hunting and deforestation.

While the news was well received, scientists gathered at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh warned against celebrating in addition soon.

“If verified, the discovery of these new populations of gorilla are hugely significant towards our work as conservationists, but we be necessitated to not be distracted from the very real and present jeopardy these gorillas are in from man and Ebola,” said John Oates, emeritus professor of primatology at Hunter College in New York.

Oates said that while the news was good for the iconic great apes made famous by means of Dian Fossey in “Gorillas in the Mist,” many lesser known primates are in deepening peril.

A report released Tuesday by the International Union against Conservation of Nature and other groups warned that nearly half of the world’s 634 species and subspecies of primates are threatened with extinction due to human sprightliness.

The figures were particularly hideous in Asia, where more than 70 percent of primates were on the union’s “Red List” of vulnerable or endangered sort.

“There is a hazard that we concentrate on the to a greater degree famous form,” Oates said. “What over the other class that we’ve identified as in danger? There are so many that are on the brink of extinction.”

Among them is the highland gibbon, which counts just 19 known individuals. The review warned it exercise volition be tough battle to save that Asian archbishop from extinction.

Simon Stuart, with Conservation International, what one. if data for the review, said primate populations are shrinking in Asia due to chase. and habitat destruction - more linked to the booming biofuel assiduity.

“In Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo the big riddle is destruction of forests to make way for palm oil and biofuels. Ironically, with biofuels, something that is nominally associated with helping the environment can have harmful unintentional consequences,” Stuart said.

Scientists moving in the region described an ascending struggle to obviate endangered animals.

They may seem faithless to prudent taxpayers who ducked the housing frenzy, but lessons from the Depression show why federal rescues are necessary

by dint of. Chris Farrell

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Congress and the White House moved with surprising despatch (uniform by Washington legislative time, of course) last month to pass a bill aimed at bailing out the U.S. protection and mortgage markets. Like everything legislation these days, the 694-page bill contains a grab bag of initiatives, but the most important elements put the full faith and faith of the treaty government behind pledge giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) while creating a program designed to help hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure on their homes.

The legislation, signed by President Bush without ceasing July 31, is but the latest in a series of initiatives by the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Congress to stem the rising stream of foreclosures and shore up the beleaguered banking assiduousness. No one really knows that which all this effort will require to be paid taxpayers. But there’s no doubt taxpayers are on the hook if the housing market continues to impair.

Is that fair? Why should folks who didn’t get caught up in the absolute estate frenzy of the 2000s hire in spite of the financial mistakes of those that did? Many people didn’t stretch their finances to buy as big a house since potential or clothe in several "sure-fire" properties. They didn’t take out interest-only mortgages, option ARMs, or apply for so-called liar loans. They were prudent with their money, perhaps continuing to rent while their friends bought homes or maybe staying in their smallish abode because the mortgage payments were affordable. Now they’re on the hook for bailing out Wall Street, bankers, and irresponsible borrowers. That’s not fair, is it?

No, it isn’t.

It isn’t favorable that the taxpayer is on the hook to redemption Fannie and Freddie while top executives of the mortgage giants keep their multimillion-dollar-a-year jobs. There’s something wrong in a world in what place quondam master executives like Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch (MER) and Charles Prince of Citigroup (C) lose billions of dollars of shareholder currency and helped create the believe crunch, yet they reaped so much on the distance out that they’ll never have to worry well-nigh paying a health-care bill or prop up late at night fretting with respect to finding work.

That declared, none of this step the bailout is a mistake. "My own see is that the world isn’t fair," says Zvi Bodie, science professor at Boston University. "But would it be equitable to put the economy into a deep recession or depression? I don’t think so."

There’s the obstacle. If the monetary and financial authorities are right in their judgment that the risk of an economic souse of frightening proportions is real, hereafter the Herculean actions they’re taking are fair to all of us. What’s more, if innovation is the core dynamic in a investor economy, the engine of improvement and higher living standards, then there will be booms and busts, especially during periods of rapid technological change. It’s in the world of matter of the four-footed creature. Like it or not, limiting the downside damage when the boom goes bust is a critical part of the monetary authorities job.

Take the searing experience of the Great Depression. The 1920s was an era of remarkable technological and organizational innovation. Eventually, as happens in a capitalist system, the boom went bust. Yet the downturn morphed into the Great Depression, every economic calamity of momentous proportions. What happened? The Fed didn’t do its piece of work, according to Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960.

In essence, the authors argued that the Great Depression stemmed from a decline in the money supply. The public lost confidence in banks. Depositors wanted their money back. The money supply contracted. Bank deposits weren’t being used to expand credit and economic activity but to meet the the people’s panicked emergency in spite of cash. Incomes fell, economic briskness plummeted, more banks went out of business, in addition the Fed refused to break the cycle of fear by acting as lender of last resort.

"[T]he experience was a tragic testimonial to the importance of monetary forces," write Friedman and Schwartz. "The drastic decline in the quantity of money during those years, and the occurrence of a banking panic of unprecedented severity, were not the not to be escaped consequences of other economic changes."

They did not reflect the non-appearance of army on the part of the Federal Reserve System to prevent them, according to the authors. "Throughout the contraction, the System had large powers to divide short the tragic process of monetary deflation and banking collapse. Had it used those powers effectively in at the eleventh hour 1930 or level in at the opening of day to mid-1931… Such action would have eased the severity of the contraction and surpassingly likely would have brought it to an end at a much earlier date."

Scholars still debate the cause of the Great Depression, and the monetary exposition is solely one of several accounts. The U.S. good housewifery in 2008—with a 5.7% unemployment rate and economy expanding at a 1.9% average annual price—is remote from Depression-era statistics. Later on in that place will be a sorting out of whether the monetary and fiscal authorities exercised sound judgment or panicked, and what regulatory reforms are needed now that the Fed and Treasury are backing Wall Street and the mortgage market.

Meanwhile, it’s safe to judge the Fed is still shaped by its mistakes of eight decades since. History rewards the bold—not the timid —when the financial order is threatened with collapse. And that may not have being fair, boundary it’s necessary.

Oh, as as antidote to those who were prudent with their money? There will be plenty of opportunities to bribe homes at a substantial discount. That’s fair play, no?