Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: How Democracy Ruined the Bailout

from Wednesday's Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123491508784704057.html

Highlights:

"Never was it a good idea to have a financial crisis in the middle of a presidential election. Involving Congress was a mistake. Letting the technical matter of keeping the banks afloat become a political football was a terrible idea. Letting our willingness to deploy giant sums of taxpayer money become the measure of credibility was a disaster. Letting all this be sold on Capitol Hill amid shrieks about the country collapsing into a Second Great Depression was a confidence killer across the economy, which until that point had held up well."