Bailout Hubris: Is Uncle Sam Flying Too Close to the Sun?

North Star Writers Group ^ | September 25, 2008 | Bob Maistros

[Invisigoth]

Exploding energy prices? Yeah, yeah. Cratering home values? So what? Sinking dollar? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Rising unemployment? Big deal. Market crashing? Yawn.

Wanna know what keeps me up at night . . . and should have you popping Valiums, too?

When politicians all have the same thing to say about the economy, that’s what.

To wit . . . match these sound-alike sound bites regarding the current financial crisis with the appropriate solon:

A. “We have to have a 9/11 commission to find out what went wrong and to fix what's going to happen in the future so this never happens again.”

B. “While a bipartisan bailout plan is needed this week, only political reforms will make sure such a crisis never happens again.”

C. “We need to then take a step back and say, why did this happen, we can’t ever let it happen again.”

D. “Has the private market hurt themselves with so much bad paper there may need to be some public intervention, at the very least in a package of very tight regulations, to guarantee it doesn't happen again?”

E. “And once we stabilize the markets, we then have to take actions to make sure this doesn't happen again.”

[Travis McGee]

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

---Ludwig Von Mises

Paulson and Bernanke are choosing #2.

The Wisdom of Ludwig Von Mises (a few more pithy on-target quotes.)

[foutsc]

I’m with you. I find it worrisome when politicians are in agreement...

I understand the gravity of the situation, but I still have this feeling we’re being maumau’d by Wall Street.