WHAT GIVES : Surviving the B Team Can financial calamity's cure come from those current leaders?
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/69793/
Does everyone feel better now that Congress rode the rescue Friday ? Yeah, me neither.
What a tumultuous time to be an American. It’s still better than the alternative, but it’s been a pretty bumpy ride lately.
I’ve read a decent number of stories about the bailout of Wall Street and credit lenders, but I won’t begin to assert that I understand all the economic and political forces at work in this disaster. For that matter, a lot of highly educated economists and other experts who do get paid to understand such matters say they’re just as perplexed almost daily at the craziness going on.
It’s a good thing the Congress grafted onto the bailout legislation what will mandate broader mental health coverage in the insurance industry. Everything else about Congress and our economic situation will likely make the demand for such services grow.
In the coming years, though, I suspect we’re all in for a lot of surprises stemming from what Congress approved Friday. There will be revelations of individuals who somehow got rich as a result of measures put in place in the bailout. Somehow, I doubt this quickly drafted legislation provides adequate protection for taxpayers. It may take years to rear its head, but sooner or later, we’ll discover that bailing out this sinking ship just left taxpayers soaked.
Perhaps there was little alternative. Perhaps doing nothing would have fomented a much larger disaster. But one thing’s for sure: The bad judgment and greed-driven practices that led to such instability in our economic system haven’t been overcome. Like an addicted binge gambler whose last-dollar jackpot win averts disaster, these financial institutions and their leaders will for a few moments wipe the sweat from their brows and say “ Man, I’ll never do that again. ” Then, after a little time has passed, the lure of big paydays will draw them back into the dangerous games of risk that encourages a bet-big-to-win-big mentality.
To a great extent, individuals and businesses should be left alone to either succeed or fail on their own judgment and actions. But as we’ve seen through this turbulent episode, those individuals and businesses are not operating in a vacuum. When risky actions are taken to extreme levels, their impact can be spread throughout our nation and world, and people who have no involvement in high finance begin to pay the price through lost jobs or erosion of their buying power when the value of the dollar plummets.
The trick for Congress is to develop a system of interaction that allows people and businesses to succeed beyond their wildest dreams while protecting the nation against catastrophic failure of our economic systems. Are the people we’re electing to Congress up to the task ? Are the people who find it worth their time and energy to run for public office the ones who have the ability to solve such intensely complicated matters ?
I have my doubts.
Most of the people who have the experience and intelligence to devise exceptional public policy, it seems, simply don’t view elective public service as an endeavor worth pursuing. Until public service becomes less about party and self-promotion, I’m afraid the people who could really make a difference will remain reticent to engage in the world of politics.
The question is whether we can survive the policies coming from the B Team.
Greg Harton is executive editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times. His column appears on Sundays.