(The vote was at 1:30 pm Eastern time.)

Addendum on credibility: We were repeatedly told that various bad things would happen if the bailout bill was not passed by a certain date, usually tomorrow or next Monday. The banking system would collapse. ATMs would stop working. Firms would stop be able to meet payroll. None of those things ever happened. One of the promised bad things was the collapse of the Asian stock market which woke up a week ago on Monday, saw that no bill was yet passed and survived. The house turned down the bill later in the day; the Asian market survived again. Today...Monday October 6, after the bill passed...the headline is "Asian markets plunge on crisis fears."