Or, perhaps I should say, “financial crisis in a nuthouse.”
Here is the basic reason why you should be urging your congressman to vote to keep Congress out of any financial rescue operation. The perpetrators of this crisis are brazen, and they are also in Congress. And in this last week, I have seen them, standing behind microphones, looking more indignant than anybody. They are no doubt eager to start holding hearings. I won’t mention any names at this point, but they rhyme with Frank, Schumer, and Dodd.
And because a large number of people just want the pain to go away, taking the easy way out, they will go with the one who prophesies smooth things. There will always be market for the prophet of smooth things. So don’t look for a day of reckoning for the real culprits any time soon.
Liberals in Congress forced lending institutions, for the sake of more egalitarian outcomes, to begin lending money to people who were a bad credit risk. Remember all that subprime lending? If you only loan to people who are a good credit risk, then you disproportionately exclude loans to inner city blacks — you racist, you. And, as it turns out, the Black Caucus in Congress has the House Democrats over a barrel.
Republicans in Congress tried to head off the coming debacle numerous times, but were prevented — largely by those indignant looking men eager to become the official Investigators of This Outrage. But there is plenty of blame for the Republicans as well. The Democrats are economically illiterate and many of them honestly believe that they can vote in free chocolate milk for everybody — but the Republicans knew what was going to come down as a result of all this, and tried (halfheartedly) to stop it. We have video footage of them trying to stop it, not that it matters. What they didn’t do — because Bush had led the Republicans to embrace the grand lie that “compassion” can be measured by a lack of fiscal responsibility — is pitch a fit that could not be ignored. They didn’t do that. They belatedly did well this last week in blocking the bailout, but let’s see how they do with round two.
Nietzsche’s ressentiment is everywhere. Envy is a rot that runs deep in all the timbers of our cultural house. What Republicans have been calling compassion, thanks to Bush, is nothing but sympathy for the rot. It is time to show a little concern for the house.