Why should we care about the crisis on Wall Street?

There are a couple of angles here. One is that the current troubles are beating the heck out of the values of our retirement funds and savings for our kids' education. That's ugly news, but it's not unexpected. Stock prices have been inflated for a long time now, and it was just a matter of time before they started coming down to where they belong.

The other bad side to all of this is that if no one can get a loan from a bank -- for education, for housing, or to run their business -- people are going to start losing their jobs. Except for undertakers, seemingly no one would be immune from unemployment if things got bad enough. If enough folks wind up out of work, the depressing effect on the economy would cascade across many companies and industries. We could all wind up on bread lines together.

Thus, the ability of creditworthy people to take out loans on reasonable terms seems to be a key value, if not the key value, here. But banks are hoarding cash and won't lend it out, even to each other. Witness the announcement by Legacy Emanuel Hospital that it's pulling the plug on a building project that it's already started, because it can't get a loan to finance the construction. What can the government do to get the sources of debt capital to loosen up?

One step that's being discussed is to bolster the federal deposit insurance system. With greater maximum insurance coverage over any account, depositors would presumably be less likely to withdraw savings from banks and use them to buy Treasury bonds. With less of a threat of a run on the banks, the banks might be more willing to lend out cash.

The key word there being "might." Who knows what's motivating the world's "funding sources" these days, other than fear? And unless the object of their fear can be correctly identified, it can't be adequately addressed. Cranking up the maximum bank balance that's insured may help ease the credit crunch a little, but probably not much.

Here's a different idea that we've been mulling over for the last couple of days: If the banks won't stop hoarding cash, it may be time for the government to step in and do the banks' jobs for them. For $700 billion, why doesn't the federal government just start a direct loan program, making loans to worthy homebuyers, students, and businesses?

Of course it would involve a new government bureaucracy; of course the loan criteria would have to be a lot stricter than the laughable "standards" that have prevailed in the lending game in recent years; and of course establishment of such a program would violate the Republican Party's free market catechism. But if these are really such desperate times, then radical action is needed.

Let's not hand Paulson and Bush our kids' future so that they can give it away to the Masters of the Universe. Let's take the credit crunch by the horns, and not filter the solution through the greedy hands that have wrecked the economy. The top bureaucrat running the program could make around $200,000 a year, instead of $20 million.

This happened to me last year, too: For the first few weeks of the season, it's not that hard to pick an underdog to win its pro football game outright, but after that, the prospects get much more muddled. Oddsmakers have a lot more information to work with than they did when the season was in its infancy, and so the calls for us gamblers become tougher.

'Dogs that are playing at home are always intriguing, and this week there are five of them. But on the whole, after last week's dud (Atlanta), I haven't got a clue as to which of these might pull out an upset (underdogs in caps):

10 KANSAS CITY at Carolina
7.5 SEATTLE at NY Giants
6.5 MIAMI vs. San Diego
5 WASHINGTON at Philadelphia
4.5 PITTSBURGH at Jacksonville
3.5 DETROIT vs. Chicago
3.5 HOUSTON vs. Indianapolis
3.5 SAN FRANCISCO vs. New England
3.5 MINNESOTA at New Orleans
3 BALTIMORE vs. Tennessee
3 TAMPA BAY at Denver
1 BUFFALO at Arizona

No lines are available yet for Cincinnati at Dallas or Atlanta at Green Bay (the latter being a good candidate for your Crummy Game of the Week).

So help me out! As usual, all theories are welcome, but remember: The team I pick has to win its game outright. The point spread is relevant only in determining how many points in the season-long contest I win if I'm right. I've now dropped to fourth place, 11 points behind the pacesetter, but with most of the long season still ahead of us.

Last week, a commenter named Geek Squad pronounced the Redskins over Dallas the value pick of the week, and doggone it, that was right on the money. Steve had Cleveland over Cincy, which was also right on. I heard Atlanta from several helpers, but like me, they were all wet.

Let's go, readers -- this is the part of the season when champions are made.

UPDATE, 10/1, 12:46 p.m.: Here's a biggie to add:

17.5 CINCINNATI at Dallas

We heard the 'Couv's congressman, Brian Baird, on the radio this evening. The talk was all about the bailout package, which failed yesterday despite his yes vote. The show's hosts were being super-deferential to the guy -- it sounded as though he was a frequent guest of theirs -- but at one point they asked him a question that wasn't an underhand toss: Why not impose a securities transaction tax as part of the means of paying for the bailout?

A 0.25 percent securities transaction tax would raise $100 billion a year. Many other countries have one.

At that point, Baird went on the defensive. In theory, he supported such a tax as part of the package, but Wall Street opposes it, it would never get through the Senate and the White House, politics is the art of what's do-able, yada yada yada.

No. Congressman Baird, stop shoveling horse manure. It's really simple. No bailout without a securities transaction tax. If it's not in there, you vote no.

Maybe tomorrow.

The stock market's back up 4 or 5 percent today, despite the failure of Congress to hand over the nation's future to Goldman Sachs and the Bush administration's financial wizards. Guess the sky isn't falling after all.

The latest proposal is to increase federal bank deposit insurance, which presumably would help stop the banks from hoarding all their cash. Hey, it's worth a try.

Meanwhile, the Boy Who Cried Wolf keeps telling us that based on his latest intelligence, it's do or die right now. The nation's reaction so far is sort of like the Saudis' reaction when he stomped his foot and cried for oil -- a good laugh.

Twin sisters from Portland make waves on the seedy side of the Big Apple.

From Dumb and Mean to Mean and Dumb.

Today was the first I heard that there's a severe gasoline shortage currently plaguing the southeastern United States, especially around Atlanta. Here in Portlandia, however, we have a different problem: not enough hydrogen filling stations.

The guy who won the staring contest with the Oregon Legislature over the latter's alleged copyright on the state's statutes was written up in this morning's Times.

Or at least, somebody's making great headway in restoring it.

Did the politicization of the Justice Department sink to the level of a crime? How about the cover-up? Looks like we're going to find out.

Gee, political firings and stonewalling. Who's big on that?

He was booked and released on his own recognizance.

She's working hard to get ready.

And funny thing, hours later the world hasn't ended yet.

Check the contents of your coffee filter before drinking the coffee. This is especially true for people in Portland.

This isn't a balanced headline.

Measure 59, yet another attempt to make all federal income taxes deductible on one's Oregon income tax returns, would indeed benefit high-income taxpayers disproportionately. But there's a principle behind it that makes a lot of sense: You can't pay taxes to the state out of the money taken from you by the federal government. Failure to allow full deductibility amounts to a state tax on a federal tax, and at the moment that double tax is being paid only by the relatively rich.

Now, I'm not saying that there wouldn't be serious effects on the state budget if the measure passes without some other source of revenue being identified to replace the lost revenue. But news coverage ought to give the merits of the initiative a fair statement.

Interesting piece in the Trib today about the latest City of Portland bond drama. Now a bunch of adjustable-rate economic development bonds that were used to build up the Portland State University empire are about to go postal, and the city's going to try to refinance them on PSU's behalf. You couldn't pick a worse moment to try to borrow money, I would think, but unless somebody's willing to lend the city and PSU a few tens of millions at, say, 6 or 7 percent, the interest rate is reportedly going to go to 9 percent. Times are so tough now that the insurance company that backed the original bonds, in 2003, is reportedly threatening to invoke a "market disruption" clause that triggers the interest rate jump.

At least these bonds are not the city's responsibility. They're payable solely from money collected from PSU and its affiliated entities.

On a trip to the Oregon Coast over the weekend, my friend and I saw quite a few log trucks rumbling around with full loads. Given the economic doldrums we're currently in, we wondered why there was so much logging activity. Is it that the timber operators, sensing that it's very near the end of Bushtime, are getting as much wood out as they can while the getting is good?

A friend of mine suggested that I use my internet powers to start a baseless rumor, just to see what happens. So here goes: The Large Hadron Collider project is being terminated permanently because in its initial power-up phase, it already began a small black hole that will grow steadily but uncontrollably until it destroys the entire earth.

A big speed trap operation is currently in progress on I-5 in the Terwilliger Curves. As of about an hour ago, three unmarked cars were working northbound and one working southbound. The most traffic enforcement you'll see around Portland in a long while.

When it comes to comedy, nobody beats the City of Portland. They just mailed out hundreds of bumper stickers with the message "I Only Drink Tap Water." You only drink it -- you don't also wash in it? Ewwww.

Has somebody got a used copy of Strunk & White to send to these people?

On and off the silver screen.

Nothing like a long night's sleep to purge one's brain. Last night I dreamed I was inside some sort of military installation from which they were launching missiles. To launch the missiles, a couple of Army generals would grab onto a big lever sticking out of the floor, about five feet tall, and pull it down and back toward them with all their might. To get it to go, they had to pull so hard that they wound up on the floor. But they were pulling away.

Amidst all this, Obama walked by me, headed for a door behind which the actual launching was apparently taking place. These doors were like the doors inside submarines that you used to see in the movies. The handles were big wheels in the middle of the doors that you turned a couple of times around to open.

As he was about to go through one of these, Obama, clad as ever in his politician suit, looked back at me. Or more accurately, he looked right past me. He had a grim and determined look on his face. He was there for something, and he had gotten there a few minutes ahead of everyone else to prepare.

Then I woke up to a gorgeous day.

You ''good values people'' have had the country for eight years, and done an unbelievably s---ty job. Let's find some bad values people and give them a shot, maybe they'll have a better take on it....

McCain said, ''The fundamentals of our economy are strong'' and ''Our economy is at risk.'' One was at 9 a.m., the other was 11 a.m. Our joke was, ''You can be strong and at risk, too. Like, a muscleman who wouldn't wear a condom. What's the worst that could happen?''...

We were in this huge credit crisis, out of money. Then the Fed goes, "We'll give you a trillion dollars," and all of a sudden Wall Street is like, ''I can't believe we got away with it!'' Can you imagine if someone said, ''I shouldn't have bought that sports car because it means I can't have my house,'' and the bank just said, ''All right, you can have your house. And you know what? Keep the car'.' [He throws up his arms joyfully and shouts] ''Yeaaaaah, I get to keep the car! Wait, do I have to give the money back?'' ''No, it doesn't matter.'' ''Yeah, I'm gonna get another car! I'm gonna do the same thing the same way, except twice as f---ed up!''

Just as the Iraq War is a million miles away from many of us, so too the financial crisis. Yesterday the bank in which my kids and I have a fair amount of money failed. My paycheck is supposed to be deposited in there next week. There's no crowd outside the defunct bank -- another bank is buying it. And even if another bank didn't, there is still, at least for the moment, enough money in the federal deposit insurance fund to cover all of us depositors at that particular savings institution.

So it's just another Friday, at least on the surface.

Deep down, though, I'm ready to get clubbed by a baseball bat. This country has lived in an obscene fantasy world these last seven years, and in just a moment the soft, seductive lights of that illusion are going to go out. Some pretty harsh fluorescent lights are about to be turned on in their place.

Tax cuts during wartime -- yeah, that worked.

Palin's unblinking certitude gave way at other times in the interview to a striking imprecision, as when she struggled to respond to Couric's suggestion that the $700-billion bailout might be better funneled through middle-class families instead of Wall Street firms.

"That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in . . ." Palin began, before meandering off in fruitless pursuit of coherence.

But I'll let the governor speak for herself:

" . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh -- it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

You have the right to remain silent -- but not silent and deadly. (Via Volokh.)

They are leading No. 1 USC, 21-7, late in the third quarter.

UPDATE, 9:27 p.m.: They did it!

A friendly reader writes:

Here's a nice story for you...

Yesterday morning, my husband and I were getting into our jeep when a
homeless man had a seizure in our front yard while gathering cans. He
fell hard, and cracked his head open. We called 911, and I stayed with
him as he seized... rolled him onto his side in case he vomited... and
held his hands so he wouldn't hurt himself. The ambulance and fire truck
came in less than 5 minutes, and took the gentleman to the hospital.

That evening, my husband picked me up at the bus stop, as I needed to go
to the store before going home. A couple of hours later, another
homeless gentleman knocked on our door and asked if I had lost my purse.
He held it up to the window, and it was indeed mine. It had fallen out
of the grocery bag beside the jeep. I was so grateful to him for
returning it to me. I gave him what money I had in my purse, along with
3 big bags of cans. I asked him if he wanted more, and he said, "No.
Just know there are honest people out there."

Humanity still exists during these tumultuous times.

Just another lovely day in the free market.

If you live in the Pearl District, the City of Portland will fix your problem, and pay for it out of your property taxes. If you live in a different Portland neighborhood, try these.

The "sale-leaseback" (equity loan) that the City of Portland had been discussing for its "smart" parking meters (which turn out to stay "smart" for only about five years, then become stupid) has apparently been killed.

Pundits all over the world are offering detailed analysis of President Bush's address to the nation yesterday and the emergency meetings he has called for today.

I just noticed yesterday that something's screwed up:

The left and right eyes are different shapes and sometimes pointing in slightly different directions. Is this something new? Is he ever going to let people actually copy his medical records?

UPDATE, 12:54 a.m.: Here is yesterday's canned speech as recorded by Reuters. McCain hangs in there looking o.k. for about a minute and a half, but check out the left eye after that. At 1:35, it's really bugging him. By the end of a full debate, I'd bet it would be completely closed.

UPDATE, 1:19 a.m.: Apparently, this isn't something entirely new. People were noting an eye problem last winter and spring as well.

For those interested in this week's pro football underdog pool, a couple of additions to pick from: Chicago a 3-point dog at home against Philly, and Baltimore a 7-point dog in Pittsburgh. Here's the revised list:

11.5 WASHINGTON at Dallas
10 KANSAS CITY vs. Denver
9 OAKLAND vs. San Diego
8 ST. LOUIS vs. Buffalo
7.5 HOUSTON at Jacksonville
7 BALTIMORE at Pittsburgh
7 ATLANTA at Carolina
6 SAN FRANCISCO at New Orleans
3.5 CLEVELAND at Cincinnati
3 MINNESOTA at Tennessee
3 CHICAGO vs. Philadelphia
2 ARIZONA at NY Jets
1 GREEN BAY at Tampa Bay