CT Blue

When I arrived home today I grabbed the front section of the New York Times, one of several that had been delivered while we were gone. I had already read part of the Times Reader edition this morning, so I quickly realized I was reading yesterday’s paper, and I was struck by how quickly the financial meltdown is proceeding, and how unpredictable it has become.

First, as an aside however, I must say I got a kick out of the headline in the Times’ Paper Edition, which I didn’t see on-line yesterday: Wall Street in Worst Loss since ’01 Despite Reassurances by Bush. I suppose it’s considered good form to credit the titular President with some sort of influence, but does anyone really think that people on Wall Street ever credited Bush with any actual knowledge about economic issues? Willingness to serve their interests, yes. Expertise or even good amateur instincts, no. In any event, who are you going to believe, your eyes, or a village idiot who says this:

Appearing briefly in the morning before reporters in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush characterized the recent events as short-term market adjustments that would have a limited effect on an otherwise sound economy.

“I know Americans are concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets,” Mr. Bush said at a ceremony to welcome the president of Ghana.

He added: “In the short run, adjustments in the financial markets can be painful — both for the people concerned about their investments, and for the employees of the affected firms. In the long run, I’m confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient, and can deal with these adjustments.”

As John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we’re all dead.” And many of us may indeed be dead before the repercussions of eight years of madness have played themselves out. In any event, it’s not hard to see why the market, not to mention the treasury secretary, took little comfort from the presidential bromides.

But, to go on to my main point. While perusing Tuesday’s Times I read Joe Nocera’s article, On Wall Street as on Main Street, a Problem of Denial. The article is excellent, and Nocera is a good writer, but the situation is so chaotic that he can’t be blamed for getting a big one wrong. He stated that the government had decided, see Lehman situation, that it was no longer willing to bail out financial institutions. By this morning, of course, that statement was inoperative, since the government did, in fact, ride to the rescue of A.I.G. Washington Mutual will be the next big player to collapse, and who knows if we taxpayers are going to be paying for its mistakes as well.

We are headed toward a financial meltdown of a sort unprecedented in my lifetime, a fitting good-bye present from the worst president in American history, a man who has a pattern of leaving monumental messes behind him for other people to clean up. He ruined several companies in Texas and now has ruined the entire United States of America. One question remains. Is Bush our latter day Herbert Hoover, or does he play the role of Calvin Coolidge, to McCain’s Hoover?