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Part of my belief in conservatism is a belief in merit and human ability. I think more than half the reason the private sector works is because it seeks out and rewards merit, and tends to use hierarchical and functional organizations that rigorously selects for it. Government that responds too much to egalitarian pressures and to sympathy pleas frequently underperforms because it violates those principles.

Well, there are parts of the federal government specifically that manage to operate that way. That have high standards and operate on merit, not pull or partisan ideology as a passport for the mediocre. They tend to be agencies with unforgiving direct responsibilities, and often jobs out of the limelight where smart staffers thrive but grandstanding pols are not welcome. Think of the officer corps, the pentagon, the government science labs for example. Well, to me the Fed is such a place. It is staffed by very smart people who do a conscientious job. Fools do not survive there.

If you want a label for it, call me an elitist conservative, a conservative based on a belief in objective merit. I think a lot of the rich got that way on merit and deserve it, that they organize things around them well and benefit those they interact with. I respect successful businessmen, I respect accomplished professionals in every walk of life, I respect real intellect and objectivity. The banes of those things, to me, are mushy sentiments, unrealistic expectations, whining appeals to pity, and also strident ideologues who think they deserve power just for agreeing to some party program.

The moral underpining of the whole outlook, to me, is graditude. A conservative is not looking to find fault with the men who make the world run (radicals are, tempermentally); he sees what they accomplish, how much it benefits himself and those around him. To me, this is the greatest country in human history, a great beacon of freedom and moral conduct, and of energy, drive, ambition, all of it creating undreamt of wealth and opportunity. I don't go through life foreseeing doom and regard those who do as both hysterical and unjust. They miss their blessings, they ignore those helping to provide them.

To me the Fed is a great working American institution doing an important job pretty darn well. People attacking it at every turn strike me as about as ungrateful as leftists spitting on Marines strike you or me. Americans are very rich and very blessed, and finance is a very big part of what got us here, and the Fed is a big part of that financial system working. I don't want to tear down any of it, I like it.

I, wait for it, wait for it --- I want to *conserve* the Fed...