Question: Was our current economic disaster a miscalfulation by Bushco, a horrible mistake?

One Answer: (from the comments to a post at SadlyNo)

jim said,

September 22, 2008 at 4:47

The good news is they didn’t plan for this.

Dream on. This has been in the works for many years now, likely since well before 2000. I think the worst mistake you could make regarding this crisis is to think that it’s all nothing more than a colossal blunder. You’re ascribing an innocence to these people that just isn’t there … they don’t give a shit whether their target is Chile, Poland or the USA - only that trashing it gets them what they want: more power & more money. It’s working quite well for them so far, isn’t it?

That $700 billion is just the beginning.

For BushCo & their “base” this is payoff time, & I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Bush veto a modified plan simply to accelerate the implosion. The REAL payoff only comes AFTER the mega-crash, when all that capital & real estate is up for grabs, for pennies on the dollar - & when a terrified & desperate populace yearns for a stronger government, human rights be damned. Bush has literally nothing to lose at this point. His reputation is already in the toilet & he’s there to do a job for “the base” - not to be a hero.

This is what disaster capitalism looks like.

as an observer of Washington, and as someone who has worked on the Hill and at the White House, it is simply apparent from this draft that this program will get completely out of control very quickly.

The “get completely out of control” factor isn’t a bug - it’s a feature.

The ugly truth: the Wall Street panic is no accident for BushCo - it’s a vital component of their planning, without which these sorts of extreme conditions (total secrecy, immunity from criminal investigation, ad nauseam) would never have a hope in hell of passing … they likely wanted this to shake out a bit sooner (i.e. farther away from election-day) but c’est la vie, baby - they’ll take it as it comes.