Econ 101

Yesterday I was reading a sort of summary of what was actually contained in the stimulus bill, and commented to D'Wife "I will bet money that doing nothing at all would see the end of the recession sooner than this government meddling."

Today, the CBO backs me up.

There is a somewhat lengthy, but nevertheless, quite good summary of economic theory describing how bankers work with politicians, to their mutual benefit here.

It is therefore no surprise that the loudest advocates for the effective nationalization of the finance industry are to be found on Wall Street; at this point, failing financiers welcome any government actions that will socialize their risks. But such actions that socialize "losses while keeping the profits in private hands" are a hallmark of fascist and neofascist economies. They are just another manifestation of "Horwitz's First Law of Political Economy": "no one hates capitalism more than capitalists."

Meantime, some of our elected officials are showing us that if Al-Quida nukes Wasshington, at least a couple of them will be missed.
John Thune introduced an amendment to scrap the entire stimulus, and replace it with an across the board middle class tax rebate. Ask the average American family—would you prefer Congress spend tens of millions on STD prevention and fish pathways—or sent you a check for $10,286?

I, personally favor a Federal tax amnesty, which would declare a moratorium on the collection of federal taxes until some arbitrary amount had been effectively refunded to the public, say 3 months worth. Note that the collections would kick back in in April, just in time for tax day.