Lots of bailout news today, which is never a very good sign. Mark Thoma rounds up the opinions on it here and I’m still digesting, but my sense is that, as Krugman says it’s “a lousy deal for the taxpayers, no accountability for management, and just to make things perfect, quite possibly inadequate, so that Citi will be back for more.” Atrios in his inimitable way calls it simply a “sh*t sandwich.”

It’s really remarkable the way everything is coming together. While Citi goes to the government hat in hand, we have a long “Reckoning” article in the Times about how Citi got to where it is, pinning at least some of the blame on one Bob Rubin, who pushed to take on more risk and more leverage in pursuit of higher profits. And then we have this article about how — surprise! — most, if not all of Barack Obama’s economic team are Rubin acolytes.

You got to tip your hat to Rubin. The guy’s like the Ahmed Chalabi of economic policy.