National Economy: What happened to high risk - high reward?

I must say that I am a little frightened and a lot outraged by the current financial situation. First off, I am vehemently opposed to the bailout plan as proposed by the Administration. Between the various wars that we are waging and at least $700 billion it seems unlikely that the next Administration will be able to accomplish anything other than cleaning up this mess. There will be no money for tax cuts or for new programs. This level of debt hampers those programs that I would like to see enacted by the next administration. I encourage everyone to write your congressperons and the President to express your opinion on this topic, either pro or con. The interests of the nation will be best served at a time like this if more of us voice our opinions and concerns.

In my letter, I encouraged all parties to take a measured approach that draws from the wealth of expertise and intelligence that we have in this country. While a timely solution may be required, I don't think that rushing this is a good idea. This is a time to call on the country's best and brightest to develop a reasoned and measured plan. These people know how to work under pressure and compromise.

Also, I am not impressed with any $700 billion plan that can be written on three pages of paper. Grant proposals for $3ook/year are often detailed 30-50 page documents with hundreds of references justifying the proposed work. The Large Hadron Collider is estimated to cost around $3 billion and I am sure that proposal came in several volumes.

Paul Krugman (economist, Princeton faculty, columnist) has had some interesting analysis on this topic.