It was just one more announcement, so when I heard that part of the rescue plan money was going to be used to purchase stock in financial institutions, I initially paid little heed to it. For about 10 minutes. Then the realization came: we are talking about nationalizing a portion of our banking industry! In the United States! In our lifetime! In a conservative Republican administration!
Even as little as three weeks ago, if someone hold told me that within one month our government would be moving to nationalize part of our banking industry, I would have said they were crazy to think that could ever happen. And yet, three weeks later, here we are. To me, this idea is somewhat akin to selling the nation's soul to the devil, so it better be worth it.