Saturday, September 20, 2008

Bubbles Bursting in Mid-Air

Well, the economic scene was fascinating and scary this week. Seems like we came close to a complete melt-down. Nothing like a little socialism injected into our society that cannot do a lot of good. Heard a commentator say (and I don't know if this is pretty close to the truth) that its a good thing we have Paulson as president these days. Where is Mr. Bush anyway?

I had the feeling earlier that the McCain/Palin bubble is bursting too. Could have just been a good week for Obama on the stump (but maybe we've turned a corner)? Seems like it was a lot of things--(1) blatant flip-flopping on "I'm a deregulator/I'll clean up Wall Street and go after those fat cats" (2) press calling Mr. McCain to account for his misleading ads (MSNBC not shy about using the "l" word) (3) even a lot of conservative commentators (Brooks, Will, even the inane Krauthammer, as I understand) flipping out about Ms. Palin not being ready for prime time. And I'm sure other things.

What do you think, folks? Should the government be bailing out financial institutions? I don't know that they had any choice. But when will we figure out that what we like, expect and think works in this country is regulated capitalism?

2 comments:

Martha Endicott said...

The truth is that there are so many greedy, power hungry human beings that we are unable to run a government that properly provides for the welfare of the masses without careful regulation. History has proven this over and over again, but unfortunately it seems as if we cannot learn from past mistakes. Too bad, isn't it?

Barb Adams said...

I don't know if the US govt. (meaning, of course, you and me and all the other taxpayers) should or should not have bailed out these folks. There will unforeseen consequences of this bailout. So we'll find out whether it turns out to have been a good thing or not. It seems like the only thing the acting co-presidents Paulson and Bernanke could think to do.


A DO NOT MISS TODAY: Gretchen Morganson's column in the business section of the NY Times.