Rational Passion

Don't just do something!  Stand there!  Actually, that can be good advice at times.  The argument that something must be done and that this is something, so we should do it, is a stupid argument.  The first, and biggest, mistake is the assumption that anyone has to do anything.  Why?  Because of the short-term pain, which will be tremendous, we are told.  Better short-term pain than stupid policy that damages us in the long-run.  And even if we should "do something"--and I don't think we should, as I've said before--not every "something" is as good as every other "something."  I'm glad the bill failed.  Capitalism--particularly mixed-economy, welfare-state, highly-regulated capitalism, which is the only kind that exists in today's world--doesn't always mean that things go up, up, up forever without interruption.  Let the markets work--don't "fix" them.

You can find the suggestions offered by John Allison, CEO of BB&T--one of America's largest and healthiest banks--here.

What happens when the leaders of a country not only decry racism but also declare any dissent from left-liberal orthodoxy racist?  The Nazis make a comeback.  Something similar, but with an American spin, will happen here at some point.  It is particularly likely if the increasingly inevitable Obama Administration is the miserable failure I expect it to be.

There is always the chance--and our political and economic "experts" passionately hope this will happen--that the American people will swallow this nonsense if the stock market falls enough.  Thus far, however:

"A colleague here at the Hoover Institution spoke recently with a senior, and Democratic, member of the California congressional delegation. In the last week, she said, her office had received roughly 15,000 telephone calls, letters, and emails. How many favored the bailout?

"Ten."

Keep it up, America!  Details on how to reach your representatives--something that seems impossible at the moment given the massive anti-bailout response inundating Washington--are here.  I've said that this bailout is ultimately unstoppable.   I still fear that is the case.  We'll see.

UPDATE: There's an interesting discussion in the comments about who's pushing the bailout and who's opposing it and the motivations of supporters and opponents.  Clearly, there are both good and bad reasons to oppose the bailout.  In said comments, noumenalself writes:

"I think (but I may be wrong) that this may be one of the rare cases where the left and the right really can agree at an important concrete level. The left is opposed to the bill because it will bail out *the capitalists*. We're opposed to it because it will *bail out* the capitalists. Merely a difference of emphasis? Truth be told, I'm more inclined to believe left-wing conspiracy theories on topics like this than on anything else. I would not be surprised it a great deal of the scaremongering is being pushed by the very business interests who stand to gain the most from a bailout."

As a former German Communist once said, the problem with capitalism is capitalists; the problem with socialism is socialism.