So the the federal government, already $9 trillion in debt with $53 trillion of unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities is going to, in one fell swoop, move in and take $500 billion to $1 trillion of bad debt off of Wall Street balance sheets? How, by selling more debt to China? Dubai? I’m sick to my stomach.
Free markets move on mistakes and successes. They are shaped by good decisions and bad decisions. Markets move on consequences. Markets learn from consequences. What the federal government did today is say this to all of us:
1. Greed and corrupt behavior is going to be rewarded;
2. Congressionally mandated loose lending practices are going to be rewarded;
3. CEO’s that made hundreds of millions of dollars and drove venerable institutions into the ground are going to be rewarded;
4. Taxpayers are going to pay for it all in order to "save" the system. We should be furious.
What are we saving? Greed, corruption, stupidity, government malfeasance and ineptitude? Absence of oversight? Is that worth saving?
Today is one of the darkest days in American history. Up to $1 trillion in bad debt was magically wiped off of Wall Street balance sheets. Market discipline? Who cares? Consequences for bad behavior? None. We’ve just ensured that it will happen again.
Everyone connected with this scandal, where illegal behavior can be proved, should be prosecuted. Leaders of agencies with oversight responsibility should resign, and SEC Chairman Chris Cox, instead of doing the President’s bidding on this idiotic rescue plan, should resign as well. It is the only honorable path.
Congressional Republicans cannot be associated with this action. It is indefensible.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am
THIS is why the Republicans lost Congress in ’06 and why they’ll get their butts kicked in November.
Let’s face facts. Bush is not a conservative, but he has dragged conservatism through the mud until is has become tarnished beyond belief.
Republicans won’t be able to make a comeback until Bush is out of office AND we are willing to condemn his big government ways. Even then, it’ll take a whole lot to rebuild a brand that took decades to convince people to support BEFORE it was ever tarnished.