Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of the highly respected business magazine FORBES, was interviewed on CNBC this evening. He was very clear that the bailout plan (which was voted down by the House of Representatives today) is the best course of action for the economy.

Forbes said “Not since 1933 have we been as close to the abyss as we are now.”

He likened our economy to a patient in cardiac arest.  It is time to save the patient. Forbes said if congress doesn’t act soon, “millions of jobs will be lost”.

UPDATE – MARCH 4:  The deal with Citigroup may be off and the FDIC may be out of the deal.  That’s better for taxpayers and probably better for Wachovia stock holders.  Wachovia stock is up. Jim Cramer on his CNBC show, Mad Money, accused the FDIC of over-reaching in the Citigroup-Wachovia deal.

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Jim Cramer, author and host of CNBC’s popular television show MAD MONEY, is clearly unhappy about the failure of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the bailout plan proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Heny Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

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If your U.S. Representative voted no today on the $700 billion bailout plan, call then and tell them to reconsider. WHY? Read my next post. If your U.S. Representative voted yes, call them up and thank them.

When the U.S. House of Representatives failed to approve the $700B bailout today, it failed the American people. It means some U.S. Representatives voted out of fear to keep their jobs at the upcoming elections rather than do what is best for the country. Some of the best and brightest minds in the country encouraged the passage of the bailout plan, but the House didn’t do that.

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Scroll down in the frame to read the article.

MOTLEY FOOL sent out this email today:

WaMu (Washington Mutual) has been in trouble. WaMu stock has dropped 87% this year. The federal government has been trying to locate a buyer for WaMu. It was announced tonight that JPMorgan Chase will acquire WaMu’s deposaits and assests. The federal government will take over the rest. WaMu stock is probably worthless.

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It won’t surprise you to know that the employees of large investment firms have contributed large amounts of money to the political coffers of members of Congress over the years, including McCain and Obama.

While Obama and McCain are trying to out do each other today in their supposedly “non-partisan” efforts to save our economy from the ravages of Wall Street greed, it’s helpful to put things in perspective in terms of where their donations come from.

This chart is from an article in the Wall Street Journal.

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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (left) and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

I was able to catch parts of the hearing yesterday (September 24) when U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Joint Economic Committee. It was painful. It is obvious Bernanke knows what he is talking about. I hear Paulson was just as impressive.

It was painfully obvious that many members of the committee don’t know what they are talking about. Some of them didn’t look too bad as they read prepared statements that were designed to please their constituents back home (probably written by some staffer. But when they got into questions and answers with Bernanke, their ignorance became obvious.

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Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet, the “Oracle of Omaha”, has a well deserved reputation as a remarkable investor and prescient observer of Wall Street. Yesterday in an interview on CNBC he expressed his strong support for the proposed $700 billion bailout to save the U.S. economy. In Buffet’s view the bailout essential to keep us away from an economic “precipice”.  “There is no plan B.”

I believe Warren Buffet. He knows what he is talking about. If Buffet says Congress needs to adopt the bailout and soon, then that’s what Congress needs to do. In his view, Congress needs to take action in days. Buffet said three weeks is too long. Other financial experts would like to see Congress act before the markets open this coming Monday morning.

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