Headline Of The Day
Dow Plunges 600 Points to Below 10,000
Wow, good thing we passed that bailout. The market is very pleased!
Category Archives: Credit Crisis
Hopefully, This Is Just The Beginning
Well, it’s been quite a week.
On Monday, the voices of those opposed to further government intervention in the economy scored a surprising victory when the House of Representatives voted the proposal down.
That victory was short-lived, however, because only two days later the Senate, after adding a bunch of pork to the House’s crap sandwich, overwhelmingly passed the bill and told us that we were just too dumb to understand what was necessary. Then today, the Paulson-Bernake Bailout passed the House on the second try thanks to 26 Republicans and 32 Democrats who managed to change their mind in four days, and President Bush signed it into law before the ink had dried on the paper.
It’s pretty easy to be pessmisstic at the outcome, but Leslie Carbone thinks there’s reason to take heart:
For four days, we held Leviathan off. Against an Administration that prizes cronyism over competency and stampedes over dissenters, against the inclination of politicians to slurp up power like chocolate milkshakes, against a Wall-Street lobby that has tons of money to buy pols and ads to proclaim its dire financial straits, we held Leviathan off. Against all the doomsday talk, the cynical appeals to the greed, laziness, and irresponsibility that beset human nature, and the knee-jerk reflex to do something, anything, no matter how bad, we held Leviathan off.
We flooded Congress with calls and emails. We raised free-market objections and alternatives. We called for government to uphold the natural justice that rewards virtue and punishes vice.
If you voiced your opposition to this bail-out to your Senators and Representative, in a blog post or a letter to the editor or a call to a talk-radio show, or in a conversation with a friend or family member, you are part of a historic effort, an effort to throw off the soft tyranny of federal molly-coddling.
Every movement to cast off the yoke of tyranny has started with a small group of dedicated believers who fought their way through tremendous early discouragements.
So is this the beginning of something ? I certainly hope so. It’s certainly a sign that the public doesn’t buy in to the idea that the government exists to solve everyone’s problems. That alone is reason for optimism.
John Shadegg Wobbles On The Bailout Bill
One of most prominent no votes against the Paulson-Bernake bailout bill on Monday came from John Shadegg of Arizona, who is number 5 in the House Republican leadership.
Now, it appears that Shadegg has caved and will vote yes on the bill later today:
Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) signaled Wednesday that changes being discussed for the Wall Street bailout could prompt him to change his vote and support it.
Shadegg, interviewed on Arizona radio station KTAR, said raising the FDIC insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 and suspending the SEC’s mark-to-market accounting rules would likely win his vote. “If they make both of those changes, I’d be inclined to vote for the bill, assuming there have not been any bad things added to it,” he said.
The switch would be a major boost for Republican leaders — Shadegg is a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative wing of the conference that helped sink the bill on Monday when 81 of its 106 members voted against it.
In the interview, Shadegg said he is “highly optimistic” the package will pass on its second try this week.
To say the least, this is disappointing.
Shadegg is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Republican Liberty Caucus, which has come out against the bill, and has, until now, been one of the few members of the House Republican leadership to sound a clear and consistent voice for the free market and individual liberty.
If there’s any chance that Shadegg can be persuaded to stick to his original vote, now is the time to tell him to do it. If you live in his district, or even if you don’t, call his office at (202) 225-3361 and tell him to vote “No” for the Crap Sandwich with Pork bailout.
Quote Of The Day 2 — Nobody Cares What You Think
Yes, Doug already posted one quote of the day, and I’d usually want to push this one off until tomorrow. But this one from Tim Cavanaugh at Reason is just too good.
The topic is the bailout. The implications are far wider:
The bright spot in the bailout argument is that the public—as it does with so much of what the government provides these days—seems to be spurning the offer. But if one pattern has become well established in 2008 economics, it’s that nobody who matters cares what the public wants.
(emphasis added)
That’s the general rule of politics these days, and what everyone in this country seems to be missing. You can call your congressmen, you can vote, you can do whatever you desire. But regardless of what you do, the show will go on. There’s far too much power and money at stake for them to care what you think.
Quote Of The Day
From the Cato Institute’s Daniel Mitchell:
If investors put money into a well-run company, they can increase their wealth. But if they put their money into a poorly run firm, the opposite can happen. In other words, market forces encourage people to make smart decisions so they can prosper. But it is equally important that people bear the consequences when they make wrong choices. Capitalism without bankruptcy (or losses) is like religion without Hell.
