On the Bailout Flip Flop...Remember Those Who Warned Us

Remember the anti-bailout petition signed by 200 economists? Here was point 2 of their 3 points of opposition:

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

Now, maybe this flip flop is for the better (though it is not clear to me), but you can't say that this was unforeseeable or that Congress was duped. In all likelihood, they wanted the ambiguity so that they could lack any accountability on the matter, much like the Iraq War vote.