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Bernanke endorsed the concept of a short-term economic stimulus package, but he cautioned that the money must be spent correctly: "You'd hope that [consumers] would spend it on things that are domestically produced so that the spending power doesn't go elsewhere."

Just what would you have us spend it on? The truth is that consumers spend most of their money on foreign imports, and any stimulus package probably would be stimulating foreign economies rather than our own. Imports, for example, account for 92 percent of our non-athletic footwear, 92 percent of audio video equipment, 89 percent of our luggage and 73 percent of power tools.

The stimulus is just feel-good politics, it can have little direct effect on the financial impact of falling asset values triggered by the distorted real estate market. They can only hope it has an irrational psychological effect on the markets.

Liberals and conservatives agree on free trade in principle, and then liberals cripple American business with suffocating regulations and liabilities regarding environmental, labor, tax, tort exposure, etc. The liberals' solution is NOT to do things to help make American businesses more competitive, but rather they fantasize about making foreign governments place the same shackles on foreign businesses. It's no wonder we have little to sell the world other than ownership of our businesses and our debt obligations.