Today’s front page of the Wall Street Journal offers a perfect example of the idiom "fiddling while Rome burns." At the top of the page, there’s an article about the run on IndyMac bank in Burbank, accompanied by a picture of worried customers trying to withdraw their money. Let your eyes drift down the page and you’ll see another article about California—-a front page story about Senator Jack Scott’s proposed ban on foil balloons. So let’s recap: California is experiencing a horrible fire season, and our national and state financial system is in dire straits, but our lawmakers are busy stopping teenagers from singing the national anthem in the capitol rotunda and trying to ban metallic balloons. Oh, and as Jon wrote about today, our legislators still haven’t passed a state budget. What exactly are we paying these people to do for us?
