House rejects bailout; Dow plummets

UPDATE 2:45 P.M.

Bad news for Wall Street and pretender to the U.S. throne Henry Paulson: The House just rejected the Bush regime's bailout scheme.

As the votes were being tallied in this bid for the largest package of corporate welfare ever tendered to rich people, Wall Street saw the doom train thundering down the track, and the Dow tumbled 600 points before recovering, as of shortly after 2 p.m. EDT, to only a 400-point drop.

You can call that minor recovery to a less-bad plunge good news, if you want. But do so at your own peril.

Actually, there's no good news for Wall Streeters, although there may be another vote on a revised bill later today. Kevin G. Hall reports on the McClatchy wire, in "Bailout bill fails on first House vote; what next is unclear," that the Dow actually fell by as much as 705 points before rallying slightly.