Well, there you have it. Paulson got his 700 big ones (to start) but Congress is going to make him ask again for some of it (like they’ll say no). Executive compensation cuts? Well, deduction caps and no new golden parachutes for the biggest beggars. Equity? Well, warrants, and Paulson gets to say how many, what price, etc. Majority stakes only in some circumstances. Boy, Congress really fought this thing once it learned how its constituents felt.

Futures traders are just beside themselves (with apathy):

Source: Bloomberg

So, where do we go from here? As I have been saying, we still have a crash to take care of. Maybe it starts this week, maybe next week, maybe December, but a year from now the buy and hold crowd will be lucky if the Dow is closer to 10,000 than 5,000. This bill won’t do a thing to stimulate lending. We are just turning Japanese, without the exports or savings.

As a short, I won’t look this gift horse in the mouth. Paulson bought his buddies time to unload the remainder their personal securities, but the bailout also adds a few girders to bolster counterparties on the losing side of a crash. My biggest fear these days is that so many securities dealers could go broke at once that the Options Clearing Corporation can’t make up for bankrupt put sellers. That is my version of TEOTWAWKI.

So, are there no libertarians in financial crises? I railed against this thing, but the bankers make the rules in this new zero-sum game, or rather negative-sum game (wealth is going to money heaven). For those who stay in, it is every trader for himself.

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Here’s a pdf of the full draft of the bill at it stands tonight.