Dan and I just finished watching live video of the house vote on the bailout package. My stomach was literally in knots watching the seconds tick away and the vote tally change. The video was turning our connection to molasses so I quit it before the last vote was cast, but seeing the nay votes so far in the lead made me want to cry tears of joy. I am so proud of the citizens right now--because this was a citizen-led decision, make no mistake. The public outcry was so huge that representatives couldn't help but listen if they valued their seat in Congress. I know when I told my reps how I felt I made a point of saying I considered this a reelection issue and that I'd track how they voted, though Dan pointed out they don't always track who voted how. Which I didn't know, and which I think is bloody stupid. But I hope people see how raising your voice and making your opinion known can actually make a difference.
Dan's watching C-Span online (I can't because they don't support Quicktime--thanks a lot guys!) and they're saying people can change their vote and there's some arm-twisting going on right now to try to get people to flip their decision. That makes me sick. It's bad enough to think that there are reps who don't care what their constituents want (or what all the experts say is the right thing to do) but to then try to force their decision on others and try to get them to forsake their own conscience!? Talk about making my blood boil.
Anyway, it's not going to matter, but I want to say thank you to all the reps who voted the way their constituents wanted. That's their job, and they did it well. Chances are this package is going to be re-packaged and pushed on the people again, so the fight isn't done, but hopefully people will continue to be vigilant. Check out downsizeDC.org to get updates about what's happening so you know when to harass your Congresspeople.
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There is no doubt that there are hard times in store for us (though not likely as hard as Bush and others would like us to believe), but it will be a lot worse in the long run if we keep creating money out of thin air, and spending this worthless fiat money.
That said, this will get spun by the administration. People will be told that Capitalism is responsible for any setback or perceived failures in the economy. The media will, for the most part, side with the administration, seeing as how the majority of the media is owned by the CFR anyways, and people will believe whatever a box tells them so long as it has a small CNN or Foxnews logo in the bottom corner.
Fortunately, you can still get some semblance of truth from people like Dobbs and Beck and Cavuto from time to time, so that's a good thing.
10-Second Economics: Capitalism must purge the bad entities in order to then reestablish the good times. Downturns in the economy and some failures are accounted for in Capitalism. Socialism, which claims to "save" Capitalism from failing, actually does nothing more than blocking the process while spinning the truth and ultimately putting more and more control in the hands of the government.
We are all accustomed to voting for the "best of the worst," right? Well, here ya go. Some bad now is better than a lot of bad later.
Good insight. It seems to me it's quite a bit like tough love. I would imagine as a leader (government or otherwise) it is hard to watch the economy in rough patches and not act to "fix" it.
Herbert Hoover is a perfect example. He knew that nonintervention was the best policy. But as things failed to recover and he watched his approval rating plummet he was pressured to act. Since recovery can take longer than we might like, things did not turn around before the next election. His opponents seized upon his apparent "failure" claiming he did too little too late. As we know, despite (or because of, I would say) FDR's "New Deal" policies, things got much worse.
If only Hoover had the courage of his convictions (and also been re-elected) we might never have heard the term Great Depression.
I know I am preaching to the choir here. Thanks for letting me get that out...
So I may have been wrong about Hoover. I have been reading Amity Shlaes' book "The Forgotten Man" and the way she tells the story, Hoover was big into interfering with the markets, even before being elected President.
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