Steve Forbes and Newt Gingerich were both good actually. Forbes talked about the devalued dollar and briefly touched on something Newt mentioned. Newt talked about changes to an accounting method called, Mark-to-Market as something that could be done with a stroke of a pen by Christopher Cox (SEC Chairman). A change in this accounting method would help value (securities??) and bring liquidity to companies that need it. It seemed like an easy way to help the markets without a bailout, which could take place immediately.
Newt also mentioned an appearance of impropriety with Henry Paulson (former CEO of Goldman Sachs) bailing out AIG with $85 Billion, while Goldman Sachs held a 20% share in AIG. Current CEO of Goldman was in attendance at the private meetings where this took place, along with Paulson. About the same time, Lehman was allowed to fail.
FF