Senate set to vote on Bailout/Rescue

Items of Interest:

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Intrade Bailout contract:

update CNNMoney.com:

Senate passes bailout — Plan to buy $700B in troubled assets wins OK. Backers hope add-ons will yield more yes-votes in House.

The Senate on Wednesday night passed a sweeping and controversial financial bailout similar in key ways to one rejected by the House just two days earlier.

The measure was passed by a vote of 74 to 25 after more than three hours of floor debate in the Senate. Presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and John McCain, R-Arizona, voted in favor.

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Reuters:

Senate sets vote on financial bailout — The Senate agreed to vote on Wednesday night on a $700 billion financial rescue package that will include a sharp increase in the amount of bank deposits insured by the FDIC, but also includes a package of tax breaks the House of Representatives has rejected.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid received unanimous consent from the Senate on Tuesday to schedule the vote on the revised package the White House says is needed to avoid a broad economic downturn.

NY Times:

Senate to Vote Today on the Bailout Plan — Top lawmakers said the Senate proposal, worked out after a day of behind the scenes maneuvering, would include tax breaks for businesses and alternative energy and higher government insurance for bank deposits.

It has been determined, in our judgment, this is the best thing to move forward, said Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader, in announcing the surprise move.

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CNNMoney:

U.S. auto sales plunge — Sales sharply lower across industry as automakers, experts say credit squeeze, customer worries led to sharp drops in sales.

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Thomas Friedman / NY Times:

Rescue the Rescue — I was channel surfing on Monday, following the stock markets nearly 800-point collapse, when a commentator on CNBC caught my attention. He was being asked to give advice to viewers as to what were the best positions to be in to ride out the market storm. Without missing a beat, he [Jeff Macke ] answered: Cash and fetal.

Im in both because I know an unprecedented moment when I see one. Ive been frightened for my country only a few times in my life: In 1962, when, even as a boy of 9, I followed the tension of the Cuban missile crisis; in 1963, with the assassination of J.F.K.; on Sept. 11, 2001; and on Monday, when the House Republicans brought down the bipartisan rescue package.

But this moment is the scariest of all for me because the previous three were all driven by real or potential attacks on the U.S. system by outsiders. This time, we are doing it to ourselves. This time, its our own failure to regulate our own financial system and to legislate the proper remedy that is doing us in.