Friday, October 03, 2008

More Is Less

Well, the massive bailout bill that has been ‘improved’ with massive infusions of pork is now the law of the land (see AP article). The same government that created the conditions that caused the crisis will now print loads of money that it doesn’t have and distribute it pretty much however the imperial Treasury Department sees fit. This will, of course, solve the crisis.

And if you believe that, there’s a bridge I’d like to sell you.

Out of Utah’s five members of Congress, two voted against it (see KSL article). Rep. Rob Bishop (R) of the first congressional district and Rep. Jim Matheson (D) of the second congressional district both voted no. Outgoing Rep. Chris Cannon (R) of the third congressional district enthusiastically supported the bill, as did Sen. Bob Bennett (R). Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) gave some cautionary lip service, but ultimately voted for the bill, as did three quarters of all senators, because, “We’ve got to do something. Doing something is better than doing nothing.” I don’t even let my kids get away with such lame excuses.

Peggy Noonan finds the events of the past couple of weeks both historic and instructive. Questioning the seriousness of the economic condition, Noonan writes, “We have never seen an economic meltdown like this? We've never seen a presidential meltdown like this. George W. Bush's weakness is not all lame-duckship. … After the first bailout failed, Mr. Bush spoke like a man who was a mere commentator, not the leader in a crisis.”

Noonan explains why she thinks this is important:
“We witness here a great political lesson. When you are president, it matters—it really matters—that a majority of the people support and respect you. When you squander that affection, you lose more than mere popularity. You lose the ability to lead when your country is in crisis. This is a terrible loss, and a dangerous one, for the whole world is watching.”
While Noonan’s observations strike a chord, she seems not to appreciate the fact that even as her article went to press, it was quite certain that the bailout bill would succeed the second time around. Pres. Bush, for all his squandering of trust and lame-duckness was able, with only 3½ months remaining in his presidency, to pass the single largest transfer of the private economy to centralized government control in the history of our nation. And he did so with masses of Americans clamoring for it to happen. Marx would be proud.

While Noonan’s assessment of Bush’s weakness seems somewhat myopic, I think Noonan is right on a more significant point. Everything that Pres. Bush has accomplished with the passage of this bill diminishes him in many ways. It diminishes the institution of Congress. It diminishes the free market. And it diminishes each of us as Americans.

With the passage of the bailout, we are less — both individually and as a whole — than we were before. This accomplishment may even trump that of the damage Bill Clinton did to the office of the presidency. It’s kind of grand, in a rather macabre way.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Truly a sad day. Diminished is a good way to put it. I'm feeling pretty depressed at this point myself.

Remind Myself said...

*


Recently an insurance company nearly wind up....


A bank is nearly bankrupt......filing chapter 11 protection.


How it affect you? Did you buy insurance? Did you buy mini note or bonds?



Who fault?


They bailout trouble finance company, but they will not bail out your credit card bills……And the bill out of company is still not enough yet…….You got no choice, and no point pointing finger but you can prevent similar things from happen again……


The top management of the Public listed company ( belong to "public" ) salary should be tied a portion of it to the shares price ( IPO or ave 5 years ).... so when the shares price drop, it don't just penalise the investors, but those who don't take care of the company.....If this rule is pass on, without any need of further regulation, all industries ( as long as it is public listed ) will be self regulated......because the top management will be concern about their own pay check…… And they are still spend big money on hotel stay and luxury function……..

Meanwhile if company was being acquired, there will be a great movement in terms of staff……eventually staff suffer also.

Are you a partisan?

Sign a petition to your favourite president candidate, congress member, House of representative again and ask for their views to not just comment on this, and what regulations they are going to commit and implementation the regulation, I believe should vote for the one who come suggest good implementation and let’s see who back up, which don’t implement after just mentioning in the election campaign.....If you agree on my point, please share with many people as possible.... Finance and Media are the two only industries can shaken politics ( Maybe Hackers can ), please help to highlight also...

Blog
http://remindmyselfinstock.blogspot.com/

Facebook, come and join as a friend and share with your friends…..
Remind.myself@yahoo.com