Paulson

We here in the midwest "like" the guy in the pinstripe and impeccable white shirt with ironed and starched pocket, who flies into our town and is super, super smart, and who sells us complicated derivatives.

We want there to be smarter people running our trusts and investments, even though at some level we hate them.

The tension of running our own money is simply intolerable.

So our trusts say the trustee shall be a national bank with at least $100 million in assets, or the like.

But the longer Paulson speaks during the crisis this week, the more doubt creeps in -- is this just another Republican hack? -- or at least providing a neocon answer?

At bottom he is proposing going away from the mark-to-market method. This buys more time for all and allows the "game" to begin anew.