March 28, 2008 4:28PM

The Reality Check That Bounced

By Elizabeth MacDonald

Oliver Stone is doing a movie about George W. Bush.

That bit of news was a fitting end to a kaleidescopic week straight off the fiction shelves.

Before I get to the week that was, I want to thank all of you who weighed in about my blog about listening to presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul. I am so deeply appreciative and grateful for all of your comments, I read them all and I am impressed with and admire your knowledge and passion.

I came here to Fox Business, the sister network to Fox News, just last October, and Fox Business gave me the honor of starting this blog this year. One thing rings through all of your responses–you deeply love this country and you are deeply worried. I hear you. Again, I thank you.

Please be aware that I am a flawed individual who is aware of my many limitations (on an hourly basis), please tell me when I am off the rails. I will do my level best. Know that I listen to everybody. I try to think things through, as I get an allergic skin reaction to knee-jerk, autopilot thinking.

I would like to see Dr. Paul debate all of the presidential candidates, not just John McCain (should Dr. Paul run as a third party candidate?). Though I may not agree with everything he says, I also don’t agree with what the other candidates say as well. Dr. Paul deserves a fair hearing, this country ought to hear what he has to say, especially about monetary and fiscal policy.

Here’s a recap of the week’s headspinning highlights: the Treasury Department plans to propose Monday that the Federal Reserve should get more oversight authority of all of the players in the financial markets, letting the central bank examine the books of any financial institution, not just banks; planned Congressional hearings into the Federal Reserve’s historic rescue of Bear Stearns and its handouts to investment banks, which it doesn’t regulate; the overleveraged, underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now needing to raise a total of $20b more via dilutive stock offerings, a whopping two-thirds of their market caps; more scary talk about bank write-downs; talk of the dollar plunging toward the Zimbabwe currency; and oil veering toward $120.

But just as thinking that Oliver Stone’s movies are historically accurate is like thinking that the movies “Gone With the Windâ€