Congress Rejects Wall Street Bailout

U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted against the biggest proposed government intervention in the U.S. economy since the Great Depression of 1929.

Government officials, Treasury chiefs and political leaders from both sides of the political divide thought they had agreed Sunday on the details of a $700 billion rescue plan that would prop up the nation's ailing financial system -- and be supported in the House of Representatives.

As it became apparent the vote was lost, the Dow plunged about 500 points on the day.

Who should take the call?

It’s 3 a.m., a few months into 2009, and the phone in the White House rings. Several big hedge funds are about to fail, says the voice on the line, and there’s likely to be chaos when the market opens. Whom do you trust to take that call?

I’m not being melodramatic. The bailout plan released yesterday is a lot better than the proposal Henry Paulson first put out — sufficiently so to be worth passing. But it’s not what you’d actually call a good plan, and it won’t end the crisis. The odds are that the next president will have to deal with some major financial emergencies.

Read all of Paul Krugman's analysis.

US's National Innovation Deficit

Though Ms. Estrin, the former chief technology officer of Cisco Systems, generally is not an alarmist, she has become more and more concerned about the state of her country and its innovation. Vint Cerf agrees: “There is a remarkable telescoping in of vision and an unwillingness to make long-term bets,” and Robert Compton, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, feels that the United States is losing its innovation edge to China and India.

Read Another Voice Warns of an Innovation Slowdown.