TARP has made things worse, not better:

To the extent that huge, interconnected, “too big to fail” institutions contributed to the crisis, those institutions are now even larger, in part because of the substantial subsidies provided by TARP and other bailout programs.

To the extent that institutions were previously incentivized to take reckless risks through a “heads, I win; tails, the Government will bail me out” mentality, the market is more convinced than ever that the Government will step in as necessary to save systemically significant institutions.

Yes, those who don't learn from history are indeed doomed to repeat it.

Indeed.

Posted by: fairwhether at 10:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Probably the best summation of the president's reaction to the Massachusetts Miracle that I've read:

What Obama's refusal to hear Tuesday's "wake-up call" from Massachusetts shows is that his chief concern is not listening to what the public says. It is not even remaining in office. Rather, his behavior in the wake of the Brown victory shows that Obama's top concern is enacting his radical political agenda. He is an ideologue first and a party leader second.

Read the whole thing (Carolyn Glick is always worth reading).

Posted by: fairwhether at 11:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This just about sums up my thoughts on President Bush of the past eight years:

America Betrayed President Bush

...Americans betrayed the president. Yeah ...that's what I've thought too.

Posted by: fairwhether at 11:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...really hasn't been. Savings, that is.

Spengler asks if America is a failed state.

..."We have been borrowing in order to consume; we need now to save in order to invest. We need to shift the tax burden, moving it away from savings and investment and toward consumption. We should replace individual and corporate income taxes with consumption-based taxes."

Americans need to be told that they will need to invest before they can consume, and that the cure will take years rather than months to take effect. It's not a happy message, and no one in politics is willing to deliver it - if indeed anyone in politics understands it.

Years? The boomers don't have years than, do they?

Congress and the banks (the latter whether through Congressional coercion, collusion, or simple greed ...it don't matter) ruined the real estate market, and thereby the "savings" that many boomers were anticipating as their retirement nest-egg.

Fire.Them.All.

Posted by: fairwhether at 12:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Heh. We won, Mr. President.

UPDATE:

Posted by: fairwhether at 01:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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