From Bill Moyers with a hat-tip to commenter Dan Staley on the Huge-Ass City Blog. Here's how smart, reasonable people explain the current financial crisis in the U.S. You don't even have to be that smart to understand it. For those of you still trying to figure out where you stand on a bailout, I hope this helps.

I am utterly opposed to this bailout. Don't get me wrong, I think as a student of American History I have a pretty good idea of what happens in a Depression. As an elitist college graduate, I have a very sound understanding of how sharply curtailing credit in this country will affect individuals and businesses. I fully understand that when the value of my house declines below the amount of money I borrowed to buy or build it, continuing to pay for it makes very little sense. I also "get it" that I and millions of others would stand to lose their work, their livelihood, and even their business that employs yet many others.

But these current problems are STRUCTURAL. That means they are built into the way things are such that the way things are needs to be deconstructed and begun anew. If not, we'll fail to elminate these problems and repeat the 1930's over and again. I am not optomistic. The fact that our utter court fool of president went on the TV last night to suggest that the presidential candidates "come to Washington to work on the crisis" is proof to me that no issue is too important for these schmucks not to politicize.

I mean come the fuck on; how in the world is John McCain in a position to lend anything to "solving" the crisis? Why in the world would the president ask he and Obama to come back to Washington other than to derail the campaign and postpone the debate? McCain spent the past 26 years of his career laying the foundation for this financial event. With McCain tanking and the economic issues to blame, the Republican adminstration is providing their candidate with air cover and it's massive stinky and cynical.

Here's how you start solving this mess: make the banks cover their end by depressing interest rates; after-the-fact taxing of the billions in commissions lenders earned over the past decade, force forfeiture of bonuses and severances paid to managers and executives at these "banks" (sure it's mainly punitive but it will help with American fiscal morale because I think we deserve a fucking pound flesh); and make damn sure that honest people who just wanted to go out and own a home because everything they heard in the media since birth insisted they needed to own a home get to stay in those homes while refinancing the shit-ass mortgages they borrowed to appropriate scales of time and interest.

Then let's start talking about ending credit for the acquisition of items that lose value the moment you drive them off the lot or walk out of the store with them.

Oh my god I need to surf!!! Get me out of this place.