Bill Of Goods Comes Due

So now it seems the vaunted $700 billion bailout that the Fed's Ben "Trust Me" Bernacke and Treasury Secretary Henry "Trust Me?" Paulson pushed so hard for turns out to be like a three-card monte game after all. Paulson flipped his flop last week and said the bailout money WON'T be used to buy crappy mortgages from banks. Instead, it now seems like the real scheme is to funnel a huge chunk of the fundage into banks in exchange for partial ownership stakes. If you'll remember, this alternative was a "possibility" when the plan was first touted. Now it's the main stem of the deal. Just as I'd said a little over a month ago, it looks like Uncle Sam is gunning to pull together a central bank, to be made up of the bits and pieces of the banking interests it intends to comandeer. America's forefathers didn't want a central bank (most of 'em, anyway) but the country's baby mamas apparently do. Good going, lawmakers! Way to keep your eye on the red queen...