The American Spectator

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(Page 4 of 11)

-- Roger D. McKinney br> Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

It doesn't seem that long ago that the late Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) made the observation that a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Well folks, forget the billion business, we're now about to cross the trillion threshold in a few short years.

As much as I admire and respect George W. Bush, his propensity to believe that unlimited access to the U. S. Treasury as a solution to a calamity -- be it 9/11, Katrina, or the current financial meltdown -- seems almost boundless. As Mr. Hunter aptly points out, such reliance on ever more dollars results in the debauching of our currency and is self defeating in the long run. Our foreign creditors will be the final arbiters on that question.

The present crisis is the culmination of running fast and loose with credit over many years -- aided and abetted by financial alchemy on Wall Street (derivatives anyone?). I thought Alan Greenspan was going to blow the whistle on excessive speculation with his observation of "Irrational Exuberance" when the dot com bubble was forming way back in 1996. But unfortunately he must have been persuaded that we were entering a new "financial paradigm" as he put it. From that point forward, he and his successor have also become aiders and abettors with easy money policies and interest rate manipulation. Greed and speculation have become ever more rampant as billions of ill-gotten gains have been siphoned off on one side of the ledger and millions of individuals, corporations and government entities are overburdened with debt on the other side of the ledger.

p>It seems to me that our government is desperately trying to see that there are as few losers as possible in this entire process. The winners, even some of the fraudsters, can keep their gains, while every effort is being made to bail out the losers. Market discipline has been severely undermined and moral hazard abounds. There's simply no substitute for sound money. I wonder if it's too late for someone like Paul Volcker to come along and straighten out the mess. It won't be pleasant, especially since it seems our society has a low threshold for suffering financial pain. br> -- J. Brick br> Beaver Dam, Arizona /p> p> LET THEM IN, YOU RACIST br> Re: Mark Tooley's Do Immigration Concerns Equal Racism?

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