As we sensed would happen the other day, Rep. Sue Myrick has flipped to pro-bailout. Big surprise.
But note that the credit market “meltdown” is complete propaganda. Again, the primary problem is that bankers and traders to do not trust each other to do business without a government backstop. This all started in the summer of 2007 as the crazy dealings of Countrywide et al were greeted with demands to make trades “in the bank,” ie, behind the wall of federal guarantees.
The Wall St. geniuses really think that if the Treasury would only guarantee all trades of all instruments we could go back to the wheelin’ dealin’ days of lending without regard to risk. Got it? Good. Because this could all come slamming to halt again after the first of next year.
Meanwhile, Taylor Batten. What a calamity of an editorial he printed for the Uptown paper today. It went after Sen. Elizabeth Dole, not exactly the most popular pol in my book. In fact I’ve called Dole one of the worst public servants of the last 50 years, going back to her “blood borders” days in the Reagan Administration.
But the problem for Batten and the editorial board — lately seen lusting after millions in Wachovia endowment money, indifferent to the tainted Golden West source — was that Dole voted against the bailout package that the Senate cooked up. Specifically:
Dole, locked in a close re-election campaign, took a position that’s extreme, and put her in the minority. Dole said she wants “a market-based solution, not a government bailout.”
What exactly does that mean? And how many more chances will there be to do something?
Gee, maybe it means a market-based approach exactly like a Wells Fargo offer for Wachovia 8X that of the FDIC’s bailout. With no taxpayer dollars or exposure. I think that even the Harvard School of Public Policy would admit that is a more Pareto efficient outcome for society. But by all means, lets do something in Congress rather than the right thing.
Wait, that cannot be what Batten means because Dole’s opponent opted to do nothing instead of something. That’s right, state Sen. Kay Hagan refused to take a position on the bailout package before the Senate. Talk about leadership!
Wait again, leadership is the hook to the editorial, “two senators, one leader.” To oppose a slapdash, special interest-driven piece of legislation is not leadership according to the Uptown paper. Doing nothing until the issue is past, Hagan-style, is “no better,” which deftly redefines nothing as a position. And getting swept up in mindless hysteria is strong leadership.
Batten is proving himself not so much an editorialist as a contortionist.
