I just read a comment from a House Republican who helped to defeat the bailout. It said that passing the bailout would represent “a coffin on top of Ronald Reagan’s coffin.” In one statement, this guy made it clear what his camp’s priorities represent – ideology over the welfare of the public.

I’m having a tough time with the free-market guys, believing that they are serious. It was, after all, the free expression of the marketplace that enabled the creative types to engineer the downfall of our system. The fact is, total freedom in the vast economic system in which we live represents not liberty, but license.

Now, at a time when some form of assistance and central oversight is clearly necessary, the House stood up for… nothing. Let ‘er rip. Que sera sera. Whatever will be will most certainly be.

And now? I’m just scared. I’ve never been a gloom-and-doom sort, but in this one bold move we have been given a peek under the flap of the tent. And what is there is… nothing. Nobody is running the show. We are in free fall. But Ronald Reagan can sleep well.

That’s something to somebody, I guess. I hope, whoever they are, they feel good about it. Because I sure don’t. Do you?

If there’s one thing the Street hates, it’s uncertainty. Like most of my neurotic friends, its mood swings inappropriately high on the slightest whiff of good news, and zooms to depressing depths at the merest suspicion of impending bad karma. Given the paucity of the former and the plethora of the latter, it’s been a crazy ride lately, with trips to the moon closely followed by extended visits to the sewage system that runs beneath corporate capitalism on an all-to regular basis.

Like Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke, I would like to do whatever I can to help restore confidence and solidity to the marketplace. In support of that effort, I hereby offer a few thoughts on what, even at this challenging juncture, is not in any sort of doubt:

• An individual in danger of losing his or her mortgage will be worse off, in the end, than the majority of executives working in the institution holding that mortgage;
• While investment banks may change their stripes, investment bankers will not;
• The bailout will most dramatically benefit those who created the crisis in the first place;
• The new levels of oversight and regulation that are implemented will have the greatest impact on those firms which require it least;
• All the excesses and depredations foisted upon our poor economy will be back very soon, because it’s simply too boring to do business or make obscene amounts of money by playing things straight;
• An extremely small number of highly fungible executives will be punished for their actions; they will later emerge from prison to become philanthropists;
• An entire graduating class of pundits, senior managers, hedge fund speculators and debunked risk-management geniuses will be jettisoned from the body of the system; they will appear almost immediately in the financial media playing the part of experts who can explain whys, wherefores and potential future courses of action;
• Wall Street will survive;
• Main Street will suffer;
• The rich will probably have to wait a while to get richer;
• The poor need suffer under no such limitation to achieve their customary status.

When the Soviet Union fell, all the Eastern European countries had to reconstitute their governments. Former communist bureaucrats had to scramble, since the whole philosophical and operating infrastructure under which they had professionally and personally prospered had been yanked away. Today there are entirely new institutions governing those nations, and in many cases the same bureaucrats who prospered under the old regime are still running the game from new offices, with new titles, new letterhead, new committees to chair. I have no doubt as we transition our economy to a new more equity-based model, the former scions of the now-discredited system will once again rise to the apex of power under a brand new flag.

It’s not only cream that rises to the top.

I want to thank all you guys for a terrific day yesterday. As one of you pointed out, I got up on the wrong side of the bed and felt the end of the world was at hand. Some of you agreed with me. Others didn’t. Still others were very jolly about the whole thing and WELCOMED the end of the world. I like that attitude. A special hats-off shout-out to the fellow who commented to a prior post and nominated Dracula as one of his favorite saints. Fangs very much.

But seriously, today is another day and the sun is bright and shining in the newly-minted sky. Actually, it’s raining here in New York and quite chilly, but you know what I mean. You can’t live your life in full awareness of Armageddon every day, right? Interest rates are coming down! Hedge funds and their managers are getting knocked around like whack-a-moles at a carnival. The truffles just came in to my favorite expense account restaurant. Life is good.

Maybe best of all is how America is snapping to, joining the rest of the world in its vital, highly-competitive, can-do, anything-goes spirit on the global playing field. In that vein, I would like to offer the first annual Mr. Cool Poisoned Toothpaste Award for Competitive Global Business Ethics to the banks and other lending institutions who are now foreclosing on the homes of defaulting debtors.

They win this soon-to-be coveted prize not so much for the foreclosures themselves, but for all the extra fees they are piling onto the future occupants of Chapter 11 who committed themselves to ARMs and are now falling down on their promise to pay the piper now that the piper has raised the interest rate on their mortgage.

In an article headlined “Borrowers Face Dubious Charges In Foreclosures” the fearsome Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times writes:

“The amounts can be significant. Late fees accounted for 11.5 percent of servicing revenues in 2006 at Ocwen Financial, a big servicing company. At Countrywide, $285 million came from late fees last year, up 20 percent from 2005. Late fees accounted for 7.5 percent of Countrywide’s servicing revenue last year. But these are not the only charges borrowers face. Others include $145 in something called “demand fees,” $137 in overnight delivery fees, fax fees of $50 and payoff statement charges of $60. Property inspection fees can be levied every month or so, and fees can be imposed every two months to cover assessments of a home’s worth.”

There’s much more. I highly recommend a thorough read of this one. It makes you feel that this great nation of ours can compete with anybody on the world stage, at least in certain things.

So buck up, everybody! There is no fate but what we make, right? And we’re making it every day. Have a good one.