UberBailout UberBacklash

It's looking like lawmakers on both sides have a serious problem with the UberBailout.

As the U.S. government takes stronger measures to stabilize financial markets, some former Federal Reserve officials, lawmakers and Wall Street executives are saying too much has already been done.

``Every time they intervene, they do more harm than good,'' said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital in Darien, Connecticut, a brokerage that manages $1 billion. Critics of the rescues agree that government actions, such as those that prevented the failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc., can't postpone the inevitable worsening of housing and financial markets.

They say the bailouts by the Fed and Treasury also encourage future reckless risk-taking by investors. ``If we don't stop now, there will be no end,'' said Gerald O'Driscoll, a former vice president of the Dallas Fed and now a scholar at the Cato Institute in Washington. He joins Vince Reinhart, former director of the Fed's monetary affairs division, and Marvin Goodfriend, a former official at the Richmond Fed in questioning the market interventions.

They're getting support from Republican lawmakers, who are stepping up their efforts to put a halt to further rescues. Yesterday a group of 100 lawmakers released a letter asking Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to ``refrain from conducting any additional government-financed bailouts for large financial firms.''

Could it be that fiscally conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats could stop this?