A is for Arthur, B is for Bear

Only nobody bailed Arthur Andersen out.(weren't they ALSO "too big to fail?") Jim Rogers(above) says that if Bear Stearns had declared bankruptcy, some of the top level people would have had to give back their bonuses, which were apparently paid out fairly recently, by the way...)

Meanwhile we have polls on every little thing, but I haven't seen anything on whether people think the Bear Stearns bailout represents a corrupt government. Of course asking the question that way is probably verboten, so it should be something like "do you think the Bear Stearns bailout was fair?", so it would pass muster with a kindergarden teacher polling her charges. But not even that-- instead we get this:

"Americans confident in 2009 turnaround":

A national CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 60% of respondents think economic conditions in the United States will be "good" next year, as opposed to the 75% who think the economic situation is "poor" now.

"Most people realize that the economy has cycles of ups and downs," said Wachovia economist Sam Bullard. "Fortunately, the last two recessions were some of the shortest on record, so in 2009 we should be pulling up out of this."

What does this mean? Does it mean that 60 percent of Americans(or 60 percent of CNN/Orc poll respondents, at any rate) are:

a.plucky optimists,

b.rugged individualists who don't need the government to help them out, or

c. just buttf**kingly stupid?

A note: I wrote this post some time back, so perhaps it is not so timely, but I just saved it meaning to flesh it out. But I have nothing else to post for a few days so I'm putting this up. Regard it, if you must, like day old bread, or revel in its timelessness, if you can detect any.