Now What?

Chadwick Matlin notes that the bailout bill is only the beginning, and the path from here is uncharted.

The man in control of it all is Henry Paulson-the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and the new symbol of American capitalism. Despite two weeks of back-and-forth on the bill, Paulson is nearly as short on bailout details as he was when we began this process. Part of this is necessity.....and part of it is prudent policy.......There's a nagging thought, though, that Paulson himself doesn't yet know what he's going to do. The bill itself doesn't provide any help.

For now, all of this leaves us, the American public, scraping for some answers. Referring to that elementary series of questions we learned in grade school-who, what, where, when, why, and how-the only one that's been explicitly answered is why.

The answer to the others so far? Nobody knows for sure.