The Federal government has a fever…and the only prescription is more bailouts! Any Saturday Night Live fan will recognize this classic…

With the auto bailout temporarily shelved (only to re-emerge in a few weeks), we now hear of a massive bailout of Citigroup. I’m generally a pretty upbeat guy, but it’s getting hard to not be depressed when looking at all of this news. On to the best bailout content of the last week…

• Total bailout tab: $7.4 TRILLION. May I suggest changing the national debt calculator in New York City to a bailout calculator? The numbers aren’t all that far apart these days.
• The news of the day is the dead-of-night, $306 billion bailout of Citigroup, covered ably by Mark Thoma of Economist’s View.
• CEI’s John Berlau has a great post about Obama’s choice for Treasury, Timothy Geithner.
• Arnold Kling has some interesting, and sobering, thoughts about the need for contraction in the banking sector.
• The indispensable Andy Roth of the Club for Growth points us to Brian Wesbury’s excellent commentary on the harm of mark-to-market accounting.
• Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek, on Paulson kicking the can down the road.
• NTU’s own Demian Brady brings us a report of a Dutch firm looking to buy in to an American thrift so they can get a slice of bailout pie.
• Let’s break up this long list of links with some cartoon hilarity, courtesy of Cato@Liberty…



• Dan Mitchell from Cato@Liberty brings us a San Francisco chronicle article that asks whether it’s smart to keep paying your mortgage.
• Ed Morrissey, at HotAir, calling FHA the new Fannie. And that’s not a compliment.
• Francis Cianfrocca at RedState, with a thoroughly depressing commentary on deflation fears.
• And here is Francis on what he calls “extraordinary doings” in bond markets.
• Russell Roberts again, noting how slow “quick” action is in gov-speak.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution points out how we actually ARE going to buy troubled assets after all. So much for consistency!

As with last week, I’m carving out a dedicated section for the work of BailoutSleuth, a terrific website that fills us in on the nitty-gritty details of who’s getting money, and how much…

• Eight more banks in on the bailout.
• Just two days later, ten more banks.
• And a $1.4 trillion FDIC “safety net.”
• Now nearly 100 banks total.
• And finally, a call for more sleuthing from the grassroots.

And you’ll also be treated to an auto bailout-specific section. Let’s kick it off with Saturday Night Live’s hilarious take on the issue…

• Brian Faughan at RedState alerts of the not-hilarious possibility of a trade war resulting from an auto bailout.
• And here’s Brian picking up on my theme from last week, that the product mix/lack of “green cars” is a myth.
• Will Wilkinson gives us some truly incredible, underreported numbers about Big 3 capital destruction.
• Alan Reynolds at Cato@Liberty asks an interesting question: what constitutes an American car?
• NTU’s own Jeff Dircksen brings us some cartoon hilarity.
• AllahPundit from HotAir brings us Mitt Romney, son of former Michigan Governor and American Motors exec George Romney, and his article opposing the bailout.
• Rob Bluey, posting at RedState, with numbers that were the talk of the town last week. Turns out Big 3 compensation is 52% more than Toyota. Ouch.