Looking into the mechanics of the credit crisis, I came across this gem:

• Bad news for the bailout (Forbes)

(Hat tip: Below the Beltway)

[S]ome of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

You have got to be fucking kidding me.  Some of the biggest federal economic fucking-around since the New Deal is based on an arbitrarily chosen figure.  No-one’s sure if it’s enough money to do what Dubya wants, or if it’s overkill — it’s just “really large”.