Posted by
dballred on Saturday, February 21, 2009 10:41:11 PM
While I was moving back into my rebuilt home, I ran across one of my grand-uncle’s books. It was a copy of The Causes of the Panic of 1893, published in 1907. It was a dry read with tons of statistics, and blamed the railroads for setting off the panic, but it concluded one of the main causes was fear. Decades later, President Franklin Roosevelt correctly noted the “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I’m sure every major economic disaster started with some stimulus that might have been a hiccup if widespread panic did not ensue.
This latest panic is, in a dollar sense, the worst economic disaster in US history. The toll to the human situation does not compare to other financial collapses, so we should be thankful we will pull out of this despite Congressional meddling—unless they give us a Hungary-style hyperinflation or tax the lives out of us.
It is the President’s Constitutional job to calm the public when a sense of panic takes over. It’s part of “ensuring domestic tranquility.” Until this particular President took office, such was the case even when the picture was not very rosy. Former President Bush told us the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Roosevelt reassured America with his Fireside Chats even though his policies arguably extended the Great Depression, so why is President Obama still talking gloom and doom?
The answer is obvious and some in the press are finally beginning to get it. “Spread the wealth around” Obama is a Marxist and he is dead-set on destroying the last major bastion of capitalism in the world. He is purposely trying to drive Wall Street into the dirt so there will be a groundswell of panicked individuals who will take him up on his offer to buy out private retirement accounts at “peak 2008 prices” and calls for the government to take over the banks and the instruments of productivity.
So what can we do to pull ourselves out of this mess? We can all help as individuals. Al Gore likes to say that about his scam cause, Global Warming, and it certainly works here. Ignore the liars, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, about the state of the economy. Bush had it right: the fundamentals of the economy are sound. Enjoy your life and spend money. That’s really all it takes.