A modest political axiom
March 29, 2008
A pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to analyzing proposed ideas: when the government rolls out a plan to give X wide new power, it’s a bad idea, regardless of the plan or the identity of X. Plans like this come about because the people in charge don’t know what to do; they don’t have a real solution; and they believe that if you can give someone or something enough “power”, they’ll find a magic pony.
It’s the strategy of the drug czar, the health care czar, the terrorism czar, and David Petraeus, and irrespective of what the details are, the Federal Reserve czar is not going to succeed any more than the rest of them.
Plus, when I read about “in effect allowing [the Fed] to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system”, I get a vaguely creepy feeling, notwithstanding the fact that the language literally has no meaning.
Buried at the heart of this kind of thinking is a contempt for participatory democracy. The back and forth of a legislature is messy, and it’s often hard to do something. Instead of realizing that it’s hard to do things because 300 million people have a lot of different ideas and opinions and needs, the czar brigade sees public opinion as an obstacle to be overcome. It makes me think we could use a president with a background in community organizing and an understanding of how to build a majoritarian consensus.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Hey Ben for once I agree with you. I think the last thing we need right now is the Fed or the Government in any way getting involved int he Economy. That is part of the reason we are in the situationwe are right now. They just need to stay out of it and let the market correct itself. if they did that the problem would fix itself alot quicker. I know many people made mistakes well In my opionion they are adults and need to live with their mistakes and quit looking to the government to come to the rescue.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Jason, the eggs have already been broken. The S and L bailout had already told these creeps that they would walk away with the money. Remember, billions and billions of dollars were stolen or not accounted for and the recovery was not jack squat. That was what true bipartisanship is about.
We are in it. It needs to be killed fast and mercilessly and we do not have one person that I would trust to do that. I weep for my country.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
What iritates me is that all they people are saying oh it’s terrible all these people are losing there homes when they aren’t really losing anything. no one want’s to hold the poeple who bought house they shouldn’t of responsible for their mistakes when the same people that are complaining about the banks are the ones that told them to give these risky loans in the first place.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I know I’m in trouble when I’m agreeing with Jason
Basically the idea of “new power” freaks me out. As if the old power wasn’t any good.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Hey I’m not all bad I am more of a Libertarian than Conservative I just belive in a strong national defense and finishing what we start.