$700 billion will give you something

“If you spend $700 billion you going to get something for it,” said Dean Baker co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC, at a discussion on "Dissecting the Package-How Will the Markets and the Economy Respond?” at the National Press Club. The panelist discussion focused on the economic consequences of the bailout bill and what it will mean to America’s future budget.

Martin Baily, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, highlighted the fact that the current lack of credit availability is affecting business and households as well. “ The collapse of house prices has lead to a collapse in construction,” Baily said.

Baker was optimistic about the current economic situation, saying America will get through the immediate crisis even if it’s not going to be easy. “... At the end of the day the Fed and Treasury have enough duck-tape to keep things going,” Baker said. He rejected the possibility of the current crisis ending up being another Great Depression, as a “long-headed”. “We are not going to have the Great Depression, that would take a lot of really bad policies over a long period of time,” Baker said. The correct way, the efficient way to do a bailout would have been direct injection of capital,”.

CODE PINK: Shame on McCain, Shame on Obama

As the Senate is about to vote on the bailout bill intended to relieve the current economic crisis on Wall Street, Code Pink protesters gathered today on the hill to rally against the bill. “Taxpayers revolt” was the theme of the rally, which included both women and men protesting against the bailout bill that the House choose not pass. Now the Code Pink ladies hope that the Senate will follow the House’s example and not pass the bill. “It’s time for the Senate to hear the voice of the people,” Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink and leader of the protest group.

The Code Pink rally started off outside Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) office in the Russell Senate Office Building, making statements to the media that the bailout bill should not be passed in Congress before entering the Senator’s office and demonstrating by lying on the floor shouting “BAILOUT? OVER MY DEAD BODY!”

After leaving the Russell Senate Office Building the rally continued at the Hart Senate Office Building were the Code Pink protesters wanted to find out whether Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) would support or reject the bill. After a similar demonstration outside Obama’s office, the protesters announced to the media that the Democratic presidential nominee will most likely vote “yes” to the bill. “If he votes for this bill he’s betraying the America people,” Benjamin said.