Posted on 05/06/2013 1:38:00 PM PDT by jazusamo
If you are driving along and suddenly see a big red rubber ball come bouncing out into the street, you might want to put your foot on the brake pedal, because a small child may well come running out into the street after it.
We all understand that an inexperienced young child who has his mind fixed on one thing may ignore other things that are too dangerous to be ignored. Unfortunately, too much of what is said and done in politics is based on the same tunnel vision pursuit of some "good thing," in utter disregard of the repercussions.
For years, home ownership was a big "good thing" among both liberal Democrats like Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, on the one hand, and moderate Republicans like President George W. Bush on the other hand.
Raising the rate of home ownership was the big red bouncing ball that they pursued out into the street, in utter disregard of the dangers.
A political myth has been created that no one warned of those dangers. But among the many who did warn were yours truly in 2005, Fortune and Barron's magazines in 2004 and Britain's The Economist magazine in 2003. Warnings specifically about the dangerous roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were made by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in 2005 and by Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow in 2003.
Many, if not most, of the children who go running out into the street in pursuit of their bouncing ball may have been warned against this by their parents. But neither small children nor politicians always heed warnings.
Politicians are of course more articulate than small children, so the pols are able to not only disregard warnings but ridicule them...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
What makes Sowell think that the warnings weren’t believed? The bankers and their cronies managed to steal $4 Trillion from the working class; it all worked out wonderful for them!
“The same mindset has prevailed internationally. Trying to make Middle East countries more “democratic” is the bipartisan bouncing ball of American foreign policy. Some of these countries existed thousands of years before there was a United States — and, in all that time, they never came close to being democratic.
Maybe democracy has prerequisites that do not exist in all places at all times. And maybe pursuing it in utter disregard of the repercussions — which we have already begun to see in Libya and Egypt — is one of the most dangerous pursuits of a bouncing ball.”
Arab Democracy - one man - one vote - one time. I hope Egypt enjoyed their one vote for the Muslim Brotherhood - they will never again have a vote of any consequence other than with a gun.
Thanks for the ping to another great column by the great Thomas Sowell
That's really a special case of a more general and more important myth which says that the economic effects of government policies are hard to predict. In reality, they're generally easy to predict. The biggest obstacle in many cases is a reluctance to believe that an esteemed leftist leader would articulate a policy whose effects are obviously going to be the opposite of what he claims. If one accepts as a postulate that the esteemed leader wouldn't lie about such a thing, then the "failure" of the policy cannot be predictable.
Yes. Its called Western Civilization --- the very thing the Left is trying with all its might to destroy.
I tend to go with the “Grinding Down America” theory that the dogs in congress
knew exactly what would happen.
They’d have to be complete morons not to know that lending money to people
who don’t pay their bills, on a massive scale, would be a complete debacle.
It would create a collapse during which their crony-capitalist buddies could clean
our clocks.
Full disclosure, Hubby and I got a liars’ loan, but we paid our bills on time and in full, so they failed in our case.
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