Pop quiz: what happened a year ago today?

Here’s a hint:

The House put the kibosh on the first rendition of The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 — Former Treasury Sec’y Hank Paulson’s three-page request for a $700 billion blank check for his buddies on Wall Street.

“Investors” threw a tantrum, crashing the Dow 777 points — its biggest point loss in history. Approximately $1.2 trillion in Wall Street shareholder value was wiped out, also a record. This day a year ago, the real market pain began. The S&P fell about 20% over the next two weeks.

The House eventually passed a package — aimed at cleaning up “toxic assets” on big Wall Street balance sheets, but also rife with pork barrel spending. A year later… the stock market has recovered, Congress has spent plenty o’

A plea to lawmakers…give liquidation a chance!

U.S. stockowners got a break yesterday…the Dow rose 236 points. News reports tell us that investors were listening to Ben Bernanke. He’s speaking to Congress…intending to boost investor confidence. But we can’t find anything in Bernanke’s remarks that would give us much confidence.

In fact, consumer confidence is at a record low. And investors couldn’t have taken much comfort from the Fed chief. Bernanke said the economy would start to grow again in 2010…and then, only if the banking system is stabilized. Of course, Bernanke is talking nonsense. He doesn’t know when the economy will begin to grow in earnest again, and if it does begin to grow it won’t be because the banking system is stabilized. You can stabilize a comatose person. You can stabilize a battlefield. You can stabilize a ladder. But stabilizing a crummy bank won’t help the economy grow. For that