OK so everybody and their brother was "the first and only to call for deflation". Sounds like Monday morning quarterbacking to me. And I'm very sorry, but falling prices because of backlogged inventory is no mystery. Also, several predicted that toxic garbage on the balance sheets would inhibit lending. But is anyone suggesting they PREDICTED the bankers would hoard a massive bailout and freeze lending rather that unfreeze liquidity?

The urgency of the TARP was that it had to be passed BEFORE the data, showing that bank reserves were already rising steeply, became publicly available. Had that data been available, the opposition would have had a lot bigger guns.

As soon as the data was available, we noted it right here on Freedom's Phoenix and, at least, asked the question whether TARP funds would be used any differently than the Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility funds.