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Newspeak!!!
SCREED ALERT!!! (Not a typo, although 'SCREWED' may be equally appropriate)
Orwell called it 'newspeak' and 'doublethink', and I'm beginning to feel like "1984"'s Winston Smith. MedTechIQ recently revealed a freshly minted OMB instrument entitled A New Era of Responsibility-Renewing America’s Promise. Is anyone really swallowing whole this offensive drivel? Sadly, I know the answer, and it SCARES me! I find myself somewhere between the kid in the fable declaring that the emperor has no clothes, and the guy whose head is about to explode. I pray that I'm not the only member of this social network who feels this way. Like many, I too find the opportunities created by stimulus spending seductive. But can anybody really believe that millions spent on the origins of 'pig scents' (you can’t make this stuff up) truly stimulates the economy, and sets us on the right course? The Bush & Obama administrations have been complicitous in history's most redoubtable & ferocious assault on America's crown jewel … free market capitalism, and the liberties which derive from this system. I recently suffered through viewing NY Congressman Gregory W. Meeks actually declare (with sanctimony) that the only way to get out of debt is to borrow even more [I swear his nose was growing while he spoke]. We are now on the verge of mortgaging the wealth of the next two generations of Americans - wealth that simply does not now, and worse may not ever exist (if the incumbent crowd has its way). Forget any debate between Keynes ‘demand side' pump-primers vs Wanniski ‘supply siders'. This is so much simpler; you don’t need to be a Nobel-laureate economist to realize that far from being ‘change’, this is tantamount to government run-amok in the worst way.
The vox populi (presumably reflecting the electorate) blasts deregulation of Wall Street as cause of the current calamity, and cries to government for solutions ... historically a Faustian bargain. Worse, it ignores the elemental role of public policy in causing the market distortion/artificial inflation of an entire asset class - real estate. In addressing the ersatz right of all to fulfill the American dream of home ownership, government proved that indeed "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". To blame the exploitive use of derivative financial instruments for the current affair is akin to a physician ascribing causation of ill health to a 'productive cough' rather than 'pneumonia'. This rhetoric should not in any way be construed as an apologia/sanctuary for private-sector miscreants. The notion, however, that greed on Wall Street or Main constitutes anything novel is absurd on its face. Free markets have a way of punishing acts of malfeasance; albeit not 100% efficient, they do so far more justly than the likes of government 'self-appointed pedagogues' Paulson, Bernanke, Frank or Dodd, most of whom are up to their eyeballs in blame for this current mess. The seemingly vacated concept of 'moral hazard' is a sound one. I may be naive, but I passionately reject the notion that any private entity is 'too big to fail'. A far better solution is bankruptcy (AKA "it sucks to be you"). Heartless on its face, I know this approach renders casualties (ie unemployed CEO's, workers subject to more realistic labor contracts, and non-creditworthy mortgagees being forced to seek alternate accommodations), but can anyone deny that the evaporation of a nation's wealth qualifies us all for victimhood status. A bad alternative, socialization of risk, is a formula that rewards sinister behavior or poor decision making, by providing immunity against that nettlesome 'detail' called personal accountability. Worse, the very real specter of nationalization of the financial system is a disaster waiting in the wings. Most egregious, government sponsored wealth expropriation is an assault on achievers that corrodes the very essence of American exceptionalism. When Alexis de Tocqueville declared that "America is great because she is good", he didn't have its 'rulers' in mind.
I acknowledge that I'm just a 'dumb former military surgeon', but in the words of Dennis Miller... "that's my story; I'm sticking with it; and of course I could be wrong". For those who find this posting gratuitous, divisive, or overly argumentative: a) I genuinely regret it, but I guess I wasn't looking for dinner invitations; b) I respect opposing views (in the very best sense of a social network); c) I'm feeling better already; and d) you were warned above!!!
PS. After posting this, I came across an absolutely BRILLIANT article from Michael Ledeen who conflates the analysis of de Tocqueville in "Democracy in America" with today's plight. It's a true masterpiece, to be ignored at one's peril!!!
Orwell called it 'newspeak' and 'doublethink', and I'm beginning to feel like "1984"'s Winston Smith. MedTechIQ recently revealed a freshly minted OMB instrument entitled A New Era of Responsibility-Renewing America’s Promise. Is anyone really swallowing whole this offensive drivel? Sadly, I know the answer, and it SCARES me! I find myself somewhere between the kid in the fable declaring that the emperor has no clothes, and the guy whose head is about to explode. I pray that I'm not the only member of this social network who feels this way. Like many, I too find the opportunities created by stimulus spending seductive. But can anybody really believe that millions spent on the origins of 'pig scents' (you can’t make this stuff up) truly stimulates the economy, and sets us on the right course? The Bush & Obama administrations have been complicitous in history's most redoubtable & ferocious assault on America's crown jewel … free market capitalism, and the liberties which derive from this system. I recently suffered through viewing NY Congressman Gregory W. Meeks actually declare (with sanctimony) that the only way to get out of debt is to borrow even more [I swear his nose was growing while he spoke]. We are now on the verge of mortgaging the wealth of the next two generations of Americans - wealth that simply does not now, and worse may not ever exist (if the incumbent crowd has its way). Forget any debate between Keynes ‘demand side' pump-primers vs Wanniski ‘supply siders'. This is so much simpler; you don’t need to be a Nobel-laureate economist to realize that far from being ‘change’, this is tantamount to government run-amok in the worst way.
The vox populi (presumably reflecting the electorate) blasts deregulation of Wall Street as cause of the current calamity, and cries to government for solutions ... historically a Faustian bargain. Worse, it ignores the elemental role of public policy in causing the market distortion/artificial inflation of an entire asset class - real estate. In addressing the ersatz right of all to fulfill the American dream of home ownership, government proved that indeed "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". To blame the exploitive use of derivative financial instruments for the current affair is akin to a physician ascribing causation of ill health to a 'productive cough' rather than 'pneumonia'. This rhetoric should not in any way be construed as an apologia/sanctuary for private-sector miscreants. The notion, however, that greed on Wall Street or Main constitutes anything novel is absurd on its face. Free markets have a way of punishing acts of malfeasance; albeit not 100% efficient, they do so far more justly than the likes of government 'self-appointed pedagogues' Paulson, Bernanke, Frank or Dodd, most of whom are up to their eyeballs in blame for this current mess. The seemingly vacated concept of 'moral hazard' is a sound one. I may be naive, but I passionately reject the notion that any private entity is 'too big to fail'. A far better solution is bankruptcy (AKA "it sucks to be you"). Heartless on its face, I know this approach renders casualties (ie unemployed CEO's, workers subject to more realistic labor contracts, and non-creditworthy mortgagees being forced to seek alternate accommodations), but can anyone deny that the evaporation of a nation's wealth qualifies us all for victimhood status. A bad alternative, socialization of risk, is a formula that rewards sinister behavior or poor decision making, by providing immunity against that nettlesome 'detail' called personal accountability. Worse, the very real specter of nationalization of the financial system is a disaster waiting in the wings. Most egregious, government sponsored wealth expropriation is an assault on achievers that corrodes the very essence of American exceptionalism. When Alexis de Tocqueville declared that "America is great because she is good", he didn't have its 'rulers' in mind.
I acknowledge that I'm just a 'dumb former military surgeon', but in the words of Dennis Miller... "that's my story; I'm sticking with it; and of course I could be wrong". For those who find this posting gratuitous, divisive, or overly argumentative: a) I genuinely regret it, but I guess I wasn't looking for dinner invitations; b) I respect opposing views (in the very best sense of a social network); c) I'm feeling better already; and d) you were warned above!!!
PS. After posting this, I came across an absolutely BRILLIANT article from Michael Ledeen who conflates the analysis of de Tocqueville in "Democracy in America" with today's plight. It's a true masterpiece, to be ignored at one's peril!!!
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