I second Yuval’s point. Regarding the bailout/government takeover bill, the political class in DC appears to be out of its gourd.

Kevin Hassett of AEI has just written a must-read commentary on the Wall Street mess for Bloomberg (via the Web Briefing). It’s an excellent response to the past week or so of preposterous analysis in the media that blames the mortgage crisis on the free market, despite its origins in the massive government manipulation of the mortgage market. Hassett explains:

Enough cards on this table have been turned over that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.
Fannie and Freddie did this by becoming a key enabler of the mortgage crisis. They fueled Wall Street’s efforts to securitize subprime loans by becoming the primary customer of all AAA-rated subprime-mortgage pools. In addition, they held an enormous portfolio of mortgages themselves.
In the times that Fannie and Freddie couldn’t make the market, they became the market. Over the years, it added up to an enormous obligation. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than $388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments. Their large presence created an environment within which even mortgage-backed securities assembled by others could find a ready home.
The problem was that the trillions of dollars in play were only low-risk investments if real estate prices continued to rise. Once they began to fall, the entire house of cards came down with them.

Efforts to rein in the government-backed mortgage companies faltered in 2005. That is most unfortunate. Washington has now taken over both monstrosities, and it would be most fortunate if they were eventually to be whittled down and sold off. As for this week’s mania, I find myself hoping that Nancy Pelosi, Mike Pence, Ron Paul — somebody — will, in George Jetson’s words, “Stop this crazy thing!”