Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Too big to fail?

We have all now been thoroughly introduced to the "too big to fail" argument. AIG can't fail, Goldman Sachs has to be bailed out, who will save Merrill Lynch? you know the drill. It was the primary rationale that the political class gave us for massive bailouts and we continue to bail out bad business models. Everyone was rattled to the bone with statements like "If you think it is bad now, you don't want to see how bad it could get!"

So the answer of course is to keep spending, throw money at everything, and see what sticks. While we can disagree with whether the bailouts should have happened or not, we surely aren't in disagreement that there is no such thing as a cut back in government, right? When did government ever contract? Answer...never. Washington is the only place where cuts in the rate of growth are considered reductions.

So let me ask you a question...is government ever too big to fail? Answer...never.

All this spending is under the disguise of economic stimulus but what do you think will happen when the "stimulus" funding ends? Will we cut back? You already know the answer. The argument will be that program x or program y is too big to fail. After all, look at all the people that will be hurt if we cancel or cut something. It will be argued that government is too big to fail.

And unfortunately many will buy into the argument.

So the only answer will be even higher taxes and even more rationing. It is a re-run movie folks and it has been played over and over again. So I repeat from my January blog..."we are so screwed."

Read it again here...go on you know you want to...