Monday Bailout Roundup: FAIL edition!

Last week was dominated by news of the failure of the $14 billion auto bailout in the Senate. Or as I like to call it, the auto FAILout. Speaking of FAIL, here's a video of all 2,215 pages of the UAW-Big 3 contracts...

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HT: Marginal Revolution.

Given the focus on the auto bailout last week, I suppose it's time for another section dedicated to auto bailout-related links...

• The taxpayer watchdog groups were hard at work trying to put the brakes on the plan. Here's our Vote Alert in opposition from the National Taxpayers Union, and the efforts of our friends from Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, and the American Conservative Union.
• Some analysis of the Senate vote.
• A hilarious "bailout application." My favorite, when asked about the consequences to the economy of not getting a bailout, the answers are: Dire, Catastrophic, Apocalyptic, and Frogs and Fish will rain from the sky and it will be the end of America as we know it.
• Lansing mayor vs. Peter Schiff on auto bailouts. Take a guess who comes out looking more rational.
• Tyler Cowen drops some game theory knowledge regarding worldwide auto capacity.
• The sage words of Don Boudreaux on an auto bailout and productive capacity.
• Even Joseph Stiglitz, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, says they should go through Chapter 11. Because, you know, THIS IS EXACTLY WHY BANKRUPTCY WAS CREATED and everything.
• Megan McArdle hits the nail on the head about the unions and wage demands.

Now, on to the best bailout blogging content from last week...

• Larry Hunter, who you've read here before, writes about bailout ownership.
• Another tally puts the total bailout cost at $7.5 trillion.
• This $8.5 trillion estimate says it's worth more than the cost of all U.S. wars, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan, and the NASA space program combined.
• Good news! Our highly efficient and perfectly-managed federal government has its greatest share of our economy since World War II.
• More good news! The Federal Reserve is still refusing to disclose collateral details.
• Even more good news! AIG didn't tell us about $10 billion more in bad loans that are going belly up.
• Turns out that mortgage modifications don't work that well. At all.
• Here's more on why loan modification is a terrible idea.
• Brian Wesbury, one of my favorites, advocates cutting taxes rather than hiking spending.
• Along those lines, here's some research that indicates that simply closing our eyes and "spending real hard" isn't likely to be terribly effective.
• Arnold Kling testifies before the House and gives some very rational analysis of the current crisis.
• Here, he writes of an alternative history on securities ratings that might have saved all of us a lot of pain.

The good folks at BailoutSleuth have continued to soldier on, divulging the details of who's receiving bailout aid...

• Here, they give a hat tip to NTU and our coalition partners on the transparency letter we sent last week.
• Five more banks, another quarter of a billion dollars.
• Coverage of the Congressional TARP Oversight Panel.
• And another billion.
• Some numerical perspective on the auto bailout.
• Another measly $133 million.
• Coverage of two bank failures.