Mmmm.... That's Good Kool-Aid

Got a good bit of feedback from a reader. The upshot was that, yes, market forces would be valuable in restoring prosperity, but government is the public's only protection against "greed," AND until the economy rights itself, "they have to do something." Barkeep, another double shot of Progressive Kool-Aid, if you please.

When the debate is framed that way, the Progressives have already won. The question isn't if there should be government initiatives; it's how many. You can't see me now, but I'm punching myself in the forehead and it really hurts. If I have an overarching theme in this blog exercise, it's that government control in the economy is always bad. I won't ascribe evil intent to the Progressives, but their failures litter the globe. Voters willing to surrender any more cash or freedoms to that cabal of nitwits don't seem to know that repeating an action, and expecting different outcomes, is a definition of insanity.

Government, a corrupt pillager in its own right, has shown no capacity to protect us from...pretty much anything. In fact, they've had quite the opposite effect. Take real estate. Beginning with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, bureaucrats by the thousands star-gazed while the real estate bubble swelled. Fannie and Freddie spent the 80's and 90's perfecting the scam. In the 2000's, the head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, pocketed many millions in bonuses from "profits," all the while funneling gigantic campaign contributions to the likes of Barny Frank and Chris Dodd. So far, the taxpayer has eaten $150 billion in losses on Fannie, and we're not done yet. Gee, I wonder how a cesspool like Fannie escaped effective oversight for so long?

After the 2008 collapse, and the evil Wall Street bankers were paraded in front of the cameras for Frank and Dodd's show trials, where was Raines? Not even a subpoena. He was free to tend to his part ownership in the new exchange that will trade carbon credits. Should Cap & Tax ever pass, he could turn his catastrophic stewardship of Fannie Mae into a personal fortune approaching a billion dollars. And that, my dears (as Fagan called his team of pickpockets), is how they protect us from "greed."

For those who still believe government "has to do something," my only question is, "What's your favorite Kool-Aid flavor?"