Among children’s books that I had the great fortune of reading and re-reading was “Which Witch Is Which?” Similarities despite differences, differences despite similarities…the trusty “appearance versus reality” theme, if memory serves.
My point is, which Nuts are craziest? The lunatics who are running the asylum…or the OTHER lunatics who are LETTING them? If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, who’s on first?
The people who claim not to have seen “This” coming announce promptly upon its arrival that they are precisely the ones to chart where we go from here. Really? Good old-fashioned horse sense doesn’t get enough credit, it really doesn’t. Here’s something I’ve gleaned in a half-century of life experience: if something doesn’t make sense, it’s usually because something is wrong. Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke overseeing the oh-so-aptly named Rescue makes about as much sense as…well, as breweries advertising at NASCAR events.
I would point out the obvious that “This” is an accumulation of months and years of market activity colored by official and clandestine contrivances…it didn’t happen overnight.
But, somehow, the same people who got us into This Mess…propped up, nay elevated, by the Usual Suspects in Big Media…are further riling up an agitated people by wailing that the record-setting Bailout Bonanza didn’t fix things in the 72-hour turnaround that we think, frankly, is slow even for mini-blinds.
Fixing the mighty American economy, surely there is same-day service…with an express lane?
The answer is No, there is not.
I once heard a guy quote another guy as saying, “If you walk five miles into the woods, you have to walk at least five miles to get out.” Once when I quoted the guy who quoted the guy, a Smart Alec said, “Not if the woods is only six miles wide.” He was so right that I disliked him instantly and wondered why I hadn’t thought of it. But I am right about this: we didn’t walk five miles into a six-mile-wide woods.
The bankers, the executives, the officials and our reckless and counterproductive media need to CHILL. They are like adults who lecture their children about not panicking in an emergency, then push and shove their way over fallen bodies to escape a crowded theater in an earthquake.
America has no street cred and Washington has less. It is not a matter of persuading investors to feel more confident so that we can change and do business rightly, but the other way around. Right Action will inspire Confidence before Confidence will inspire Right Action.
As things stand, investors know that crime pays in America. They don’t want to get ripped off, and you can’t blame them. Imprisoning the Mortgage Fraud kingpins would go a long way to restoring investor confidence, also American morale.
A clean house is much more inviting than a dirty house.