Jay,
<<<Behind Door #1: Borrow and spend
Behind Door #2: Tax and spend
Behind Door #3: ... [EDIT: oops, there is no Door #3]
The journey's end is inevitable, and the destination we know, as CB concurred, that a fraud can only end in one way.>>>
The only thing wrong with your conclusion is the assumption you start out with.
#1 - there is no fraud - at least at the fed level. AG is clean as a whistle. Snow at Treasury may not be as pure as the driven stuff, but is basically okay - although too weak to stand up for his own principles. Paul O'Neil was more pincipled.
There is nothing wrong with borrowing, taxing, and spending - as long as you are doing it wisely.
Okay, I give you some points for the fact that the execution is lousy. However, given our form of government, nothing is going to be perfect and things are not going to hell.
The wise guys (er, I mean the wise men) in Beijing, have certain advantages. They could say, 100,000 of you move left and 100,000 over there move right - and they will do it.
But, we can't do that. We are not going to give anyone that kind of authority. There may be some good reasons why we don't give anybody that kind of authority.
Behind door #3 is a long winding road - we are inexocrably marching down that road - to a brave new world. It will be better. I guarantee it. But I'm not saying how long it's going to take. |
