In time, capitalism + free market will self-correct without intervention.
Paulson is trying to same his cronies.
While true, the only unknowns are how long it will take and how painful it will be.
Possibly. Or it is entirely possible that a downturn could change the fundamentals and lead to a situation where the market never actually self-corrects. Or at least self-corrects to where it was prior to the downturn. There is also the question of, assuming the market will self-correct, how long of a time period that could be. If the market would take too long to self-correct what are the chances that a mass of people push for a "solution" that could be much worse than what is being done currently?