Time: The most effective warnings are like the most effective TV ads: easily understood, specific, frequently repeated, personal, accurate, and targeted. Paulson and his grim reapers managed only to repeat themselves frequently. They were not easily understood, partly because the problem is so complex. They did not personalize or target their warnings. And, as they themselves admitted, they did not know if their warnings were necessarily accurate, due to the novelty and unpredictability of the crisis.
But their biggest mistake was a lack of specificity. They never clearly told the American people what might happen if Congress did not act. "If you want people to support an action," says Dennis Mileti, an expert on risk communications who has studied hundreds of disasters of the more conventional kind at the University of Colorado, Boulder, "you need to link the action to cutting people's losses. And that link isn't in place."
Here is what administration and Congressional leaders must do if they want to convince the public to get behind the next iteration of a plan — assuming, of course, they come up with a plan worth backing: read the rest.
Why I support the bailout: Because some people are near retirement and they need more money from their IRAs and 401Ks. Stock values have plunged to where they were when Bush took office. But what if the bailout happens and stocks don't go up? There are too many unexplored ifs.
