“Many creative writers keep journals; the sociologist’s need for systematic reflection demands it.” -C. Wright Mills

The following quote from Bush in a CNN interview brings to mind Agamben’s state of exception:

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system,” Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision “to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse.”

In order to preserve the state, the state must be suspended and raw force take control. That’s my summary of Agamben, though it is of course much more complex. Agamben suggests that economic crisis can lead to the same result as a crisis of security (i.e., war), implying that the $700b bailout was created as a state of exception, bypassing ordinary oversight. The quote also implies that Bush assumes that a free market system is capable of stable operation. But at least he won’t be in office when the next crisis strikes.