Wednesday, September 17, 2008

At Last: The Financial Crisis Solved!

Just when I was losing hope that anyone would be able to solve the financial crisis gripping the nation and the world, I got a boost yesterday while I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. At one point in a discussion titled "The Economy and the Presidential Campaign," one of the show's guests (I wish I could remember which one) said that it was not out of the question that Congress might be called back from its upcoming recess for a special session to deal with the economic crisis.

Hmmm...this would be the Congress that, through its reckless dependence on political orthdoxy and flagrant kowtowing to special interests with deep pockets, got us into this mess in the first place, would it not?

I feel soooooo much better!

I also felt good yesterday when the government finally drew yet another shallow and wavy line in the fiscal sand and elected not to bail out Lehman Brothers. But then the news this morning is that insurance giant AIG has been bailed out to the tune of 85 billion dollars.

I guess we should all feel better now...we can be recklessly irresponsible with our own money (if we have any left) and everyone else's and - as long as we've made the right contributions to the right politicians and parties - we'll never have to worry about losing our financial shirts.

Yeah, right.

Once again, Bilbo's First Rule of Economic Policy applies: "financial institutions" may be too big to fail, but Real People will always be too small to matter.

I think I'm going to move all my money to the First National Bank of Under the Mattress and depend on the old, established firm of Smith and Wesson to insure it, rather than relying on the notable economic acumen of the bloviating, devious fools who drove us to this point.

I can hardly do worse. I won't earn any interest, but then, I won't lose my interest and my savings so Congress can bail out a business more important than I am, either.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

P.S. - do you remember the old Loony Tunes cartoon in which one character kept drawing lines in the sand to taunt another into moving forward...and the last line was at the edge of a cliff? That's how I feel when I open the newspaper every morning.

B.

4 comments:

  1. You won't earn interest but banks don't pay out enough interest that matters. $2200.00 makes less than a dollar a month. Yet if you get a loan...they charge large amounts of interest.

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  2. The sand-drawing cartoon has a grain of truth, no pun intended.

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  3. "AIG has been bailed out to the tune of 85 billion dollars."

    Yeah but you gotta look at the bigger picture. How many 'Iraq days' is that? The AIG thing will mean we'll be bringing the boys home sooner. Right?

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  4. we may not agree on everything, but your post today is spot on. We need gov't to stop getting in the way and stop proping up the economy on mine and your backs. We cant hold out forever!

    Have a great day!

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