[Travis McGee]

An "economic stimulus package, or as Bush put it, "a shot in the arm," is the same as giving a junkie another shot of heroin, instead of painfully getting him off dope.

Yes, it makes the addict feel better for a short while, but it worsens his condition in the long run.

Keynes famously said about this, "In the long run we're all dead." Keynes was a bachelor. This is fine if you don't mind screwing your children and the next generation.

"Bartender, I'll have another stimulus pakij. Put it on my kid's tab."

"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

[trek]

"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 is right of course. And you are seeing the liquidation of the malinvestment right now. Just as we saw the liquidation of the malinvestment in early 2000 from the internut bubble.

The huge right-downs you are seeing in the financial sector represent liquidation of the debt instruments created during the bubble. This is a largely deflationary health restoring process. The excess housing stock also needs to be worked off. This will take time.

And go back and look at the sifting process in the tech sector earlier in the decade. The investments that were economic survived. Those that weren't are gone along with all the capital invested in them.

All this is inevitable and for the good. But it doesn't mean that we are destined for a depression or even a recession. Keep a sharp eye but don't get caught up in the panic.