Hugh: As I watch the news this AM, I get the feeling that the DEAL won't get done this week and maybe not the next either. It seems that the political parties are digging their heels in and each has a special cause they want covered too. Top that with a statement by George S on ABC this morning that the McCain and Obama will have a lot to say on thumbs up or down. What is your take on that? I think this could play out for 2or 3 weeks and still not have it right.

John Pierpont Morgan, founder of the "hemi-eponymous" (new word and mine to patent!!!  ) is credited with saving the US financial system twice in his life.  I don't have a source for the following, but I recall hearing it on a TV documentary 10+ years ago: his estate was worth $20 million (many billions in today's dollars) and Rockefeller commented that he didn't know that Morgan was so poor.

Morgan was a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist, but, IMHO, he was also a patriot and stepped up when need to put patriotism before profit.  We need someone with credibility but without ties to the fiscal elites who created this mess and the political elites who provided the kindling to step up and take charge.

The US system is modeled, in great detail, on the system of government of the Roman Republic; in that system, in times of crisis, they invested great power in an elder statesman (sorry ladies) and gave that person great power to solve the problem.  That person was given six-months and the title of dictator--the word doesn't have the connotations that it does today.   Paulson's instincts are right: get someone of impeccable credentials who says that he or she will not seek personal gain--and who means it--who will work to solve the system and is unencumbered by the petty party political exigencies that are necessary in day-to-day government but that are inaprorpriate in a crisis.  I am not saying no oversight; I am not thinking of a lack of oversight; I do think that freedom of action without intrusive scrutiny is needed.  We need at 21st Century JP Morgan and, so far, I haven't seen that person testify!

We have the potential to be in real trouble.  Last Wednesday night, the global credit markets--the circulatory system of the private-market system--was within a few hours of seizing up.  We were very close to a meltdown similar to the Great Depression of 1929  I don't want to be alarmist, but I think government has a very critical role to play in the next few days.  I think we're facing a choice between a major, deep, multi-quarter recession and anemic growth for the next 18 months.