Monday, February 23, 2009

An Excellent Observation on the Financial Bailout

Great comment from Mark Steyn on the Hugh Hewitt show last Thursday:
" ... what the government has been trying to do since October has been to re-inflate a credit bubble, to say that people should be able to get spectacular returns on mediocre assets as a permanent feature of life. And that is simply unsustainable. And my objection to what started back in mid-September is that no matter how much you pump into it, you cannot re-inflate a credit bubble, and you shouldn’t try. And that is something that if necessary, people have to take a bit of temporary pain ... "
Steyn is exactly right. We should be trying to ensure a soft landing on a reasonable bottom (i.e., preventing the crashing through a reasonable bottom into a worse situation), we should not be trying to reinflate a balloon with a huge gash in its side. That money is lost, and worse, takes with it more.

UPDATE: Another great comment by Steyn, where he calls the press "eunuchs to the PC sultans". That one's going to leave a mark (pun intended).

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