I have a natural tendency to resist and distrust arguments that I feel are unsupported, uninformed, and motivated by some polarized ideology; we will be surrounded by these sorts of arguments in the weeks and months to come. The stock market crash today, and the failed bailout bill that fueled it will be remembered for a long time to come. While many hardworking people in Washington will no doubt work tirelessly over the next few days to find some common ground and a bipartisan agreement about what to do with our economy, others will recede into their respective corners and scream. The argument that no action is better than improper action is not a sound and logical one. I am not trying to say that I have decided once and for all the fate and state of the American economy as it exists today, and that I, the expert, have seen into the crystal ball and know what is in store for us if we simply filibuster our hearts out, but I will say that I can think of plenty of examples where some action (however misguided) is better than no action. No doubt we will all be masters of burning house analogies after a few more weeks of this financial crisis, but still I think they do have some value. What scares me is the deep menacing hatred that many Americans now brandish for the financial industry elites. Will the war on terror now be replaced by the war on Wall Street? Will we allow ourselves to again dig ourselves into a ditch that we cannot get out of, as it seems we have in Iraq, all because of hotheadedness?
I will admit that I am appalled at the excesses involved in the run up to our current financial crisis. However, I think there are few of us without financial blood on our hands. I don't like the image of a Wall Street Executive basking in the Carribean Sun under his golden parachute any more than you do, but I do believe that I should not allow that image to distract me from the task at hand. As Americans we are all now faced with the potential for one of the worst financial crises in recent history, and we need to separate that problem from our emotional reactions to the greed and lack of integrity that brought us here. If my local firefighter came by my house to ask for donations, and lit my house on fire as he walked away, I would be very angry. No doubt I would chastise him for the irony of his actions in regard to his duties as a fireman, and I would bring legal action against him and wish him ill especially if my family or property was significantly injured by the fire. However, before I go about retaliating I should probably put out the fire because...my house is burning down. Even if he runs away, never to return again, I would still want to put the fire out before chasing him down and exacting my revenge. And what if he has a change of heart and is willing to help me fight the fire before the truck gets there...should I tell him he's only allowed to help if I get to beat him with a bat while he's doing it?
This may seem obscure, but my point here is simple. I do not support a blank check for Paulson, but alsoi I do not suggest a congressional filibuster, or a demand for prohibitative executive paycuts, or any other stubborn stipulation that prevents a passing of some form of economic rescue package. I have tried to read extensively on this issue, and I don't believe anyone who understands the problem is suggesting that we have the option of "waiting it out" right now. I don't advocate scare tactics, and yet the potential for complete finaicial credit freeze scares the hell out of me. I have studied enough microeconomics to know that I have no clue what would happen if the credit blood of our finaicial system dried up, but that it would be much worse than the average American would like to believe. People need to stop framing this issue as an 'us against them' or a 'Wall Street vs Main Street' problem. This has become the financial and political test of our generation, and politicians and advisors alike need to act quickly and effectively to find a common solution. So for anyone out there obsessing over the sins of Wall Street...stop, just stop. This crisis is no longer contained to Wall Street, and we need to address it before it becomes a true crisis on main street.
No comments:
Post a Comment