A Letter
I’m sending this to Peterson, Specter, and Casey today.
It seems imprudent to rush a bailout bill. There have been no committee hearings, and as far as I have been able to tell, very little data. Forbes reported this week that, “’It’s not based on any particular data point,’ a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. ‘We just wanted to choose a really large number.’” This does not encourage me, nor does it make me tend to accept that a disaster is waiting to happen, and the Great Depression will repeat.
I neither accept nor reject the disaster scenario, because no evidence has been given either way, at least in the media. That a certain person does accept it is not evidence: It’s an appeal to authority, a logical fallacy.
I don’t write to encourage you either to accept or deny the scenario, or vote for or against the bailout. I merely ask that you solicit evidence and weigh it carefully before you vote. A bailout could, after all, be as destructive to the economy as none at all.
Patrick Joubert Conlon:
Those are almost exactly my thoughts about it. In fact I may just copy and paste your letter to Smith, Wyden and De Fazio. :)
September 30, 2008, 11:43 amLarry Sheldon:
Today’s market news as of the last time I looked an hour or two ago really does ask the question:
Why do we need this banker’s beemer bailout bill?
September 30, 2008, 12:10 pm