Bailout Held Up By House Republicans

Apparently, the House Republicans are holding up bailout talks. According to Politico (via Hilzoy), "some House Republicans are saying privately that they'd rather "let the markets crash" than sign on to a massive bailout." While it's understandable that there are concerns about giving this much money for something that may or may not work, to say that a market crash is preferable to a government bailout IS pretty irresponsible. While I'm certainly not qualified to speculate what exactly would happen if the markets crashed, I can say that, historically, market crashes are not a good thing for an economy. And given how globalized economies have become in the last half century, a complete failure of the markets in the world's largest economy would have dire consequences for the world at large. That Republican Congressmen would rather let the markets crash displays either ignorance for America's place in the global economy or utter contempt for Americans and for the rest of the world.