Praise for the bailout was premature

I made a rookie mistake yesterday, proving once again why I shouldn’t have dropped out of journalism school in pursuit of my dream that someday someone would invent the Internet so I could get up very early in the morning before going to my day job and write on a variety of subjects for essentially ...

I made a rookie mistake yesterday, proving once again why I shouldn't have dropped out of journalism school in pursuit of my dream that someday someone would invent the Internet so I could get up very early in the morning before going to my day job and write on a variety of subjects for essentially no money at all. 

I made a rookie mistake yesterday, proving once again why I shouldn’t have dropped out of journalism school in pursuit of my dream that someday someone would invent the Internet so I could get up very early in the morning before going to my day job and write on a variety of subjects for essentially no money at all. 

I wrote a post that was positive about the Treasury’s financial bailout package based on stories that appeared about the package in various reputable (if unprofitable and only barely still publishing) newspapers. 

What I read sounded pretty good to me although admittedly a bit vague and preliminary. As it turns out, what I read was vague and preliminary because the plan is vague and preliminary. Not quite even a plan. It looks like it might be headed in the right direction, but they took it out of the oven and served it too soon. What do you call that? Half-baked. 

The response from Wall Street, legislators, and the punditocracy was to be expected. Severe indigestion. So, while I made a mistake with premature praise — the Treasury and the White House made an even bigger rookie error and I feel pretty lousy about both. (Although needless to say I am much more concerned about my own embarrassment than I am about the fate of the entire global economy and the imminent doom that the President of the United States has repeatedly stated we will face if we get this wrong.)

David Rothkopf is visiting professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His latest book is The Great Questions of Tomorrow. He has been a longtime contributor to Foreign Policy and was CEO and editor of the FP Group from 2012 to May 2017. Twitter: @djrothkopf

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