E-mail from a friend:

Rich:
I agree with you that House Republicans, especially Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) acted irresponsibly in voting down the rescue plan. Sure, Democrats share in the blame. But Republicans are supposed to be the economic policy grown-ups. Pence and many of his Republican Study Committee colleagues seem more interested in scoring ideological points than preventing an economic collapse. (And by the way, my kids take more teasing at school than Nancy Pelosi dished out to the GOP yesterday. Republican members who had their feelings hurt need to grow up). We saw the true conservative leaders step up for their country yesterday, including Reps. Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and Roy Blunt.
In the wake of the rescue plan’s defeat, about $1.2 trillion in wealth vanished yesterday [Dow’s up a couple of hundred so far today]. As expected, there has been a substantial worsening of credit markets all over the world. Euro Libor and other interbank rates are up this morning. For example, Libor is up to 6.9% from 2.6% yesterday Libor/OIS is at a new record of 248 basis points. But let’s give Pence the benefit of the doubt; perhaps Indiana’s farmers, small business owners, small investors, near-retirees, and home-buyers are an island in the world economy, and immune from the equity sell-off and the credit crunch. Good for him.