I’m shocked to discover that someone is not being straight forward in this crisis. Paul Krugman has A sneaking suspicion that the “Bailout Boys”, Paulson and Bernacki, do not intend to allow the market to decide the price of the assets, as Warren Buffet assumes, but intend to begin a process of “price discovery”.

I have a gut feeling that the “price” will be “discovered” to be as high as they think they can get away with before Congress takes away the “credit card”.

I guess this is why they didn’t announce the plan described by Mr. Buffet, which would have been reasoned and in accord with many of the basic principles of the market. I must assume when it comes to their friends, Karl Marx trumps Adam Smith.

According to the BBC: Bernanke demands bail-out action

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve has urged politicians to “act quickly” to support the proposed $700bn (£378bn) bail-out of the financial markets.

The US economy risked “very serious consequences” if measures were not taken, Ben Bernanke added.

Mr Bernanke said Congress must “address the grave threats to financial stability” which were being faced.

On Marketwatch we learn that Buffett says risk of financial meltdown has declined.
Update: Mea culpa, they have had so many “meltdowns” I should have checked. This was the Spring Meltdown.

Reuters tells us that in the bond market TREASURIES-Yields rise after Buffet’s investment in Goldman.

So while the Chairman of the Fed and the Secretary of the Treasury are demanding $700 billion with no strings attached immediately, Warren Buffet invests $5 billion in preferred stock at Goldman Sachs and Wall Street calms down. The difference is that people trust and believe Warren Buffet.

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From CNN: House Democrats will allow offshore drilling ban to expire. The Republicans would have talked mean to them if they didn’t allow drilling.

Also from CNN, Biden, Obama helped keep ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ alive

DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.

And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.

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