From The Founder's Desk
columnist: Walt Thiessen

Topic: Monetary Policy
Refinancing American Mortgages — The Bailout Begins

---

The new bill passed into law by Congress and signed yesterday by President Bush demonstrates conclusively that the government are unwilling to face the reality that is staring us all down.

---

by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

We knew it was coming, and we knew it would be bad. We were not disappointed. The Bailout, as it is now known, officially became the law of the land today, and it is a living tribute to the inability of government to learn from its own mistakes and to continue to make them bigger and more damaging than ever before. I expect that the elections of 2008 will follow up with a living tribute of their own to the unwillingness of the American voter to hold that government accountable for its actions.

The U.S. Treasury has been granted a virtually blank check to buy up as many Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares with taxpayers dollars as the Treasury secretary wants to buy with money we don't have. The new law has also allocated $300 Billion to bailout home buyers who foolishly bought homes with mortgages they couldn't afford, once again with money we don't have. I'm sure those mortgage holders will be grateful, but the rest of us should be appalled.

"Ignore the fact," Congress has effectively declared, "that we're the ones who created the crisis in the first place over the decades when we created the Federal Reserve System and the various affordable housing bills and laws over the years."

"Ignore the fact," concurs President Bush, "that I have presided over the biggest expansion of money and the largest budgetary deficits in the nation's history."

Instead, both Congress and the President insist on pointing to the mortgage industry as being the cause of all our woes. Their solution: bail it out. The logic here is painful to consider, but we must consider it.

In essence, their solution says that everyone was duped by unscrupulous mortgage lenders who sold sub-prime mortgages to people who couldn't otherwise afford to buy property, while deliberately ignoring the fact that it was Congress who has mandated all along that such loans should be made. It also says that the Federal Reserve system is actually our friend, not our mortal and financial enemy who made the entire debacle possible with their loose money policies.

And because the mortgage brokers are really to blame, so the fairy tale goes, we must license them nationally, because state licensing obviously isn't enough. Instead, it must be national licensing examiners who know much more than their state counterparts about oversight who will protect naive Americans from their own folly.

It also pretends that Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve System have played no role in the crisis, and that the taxpayer will not be asked to foot the bill to clean up the mess.

Poppycock. There's no other way to say it without being rude and crude. It's all poppycock.

What's worse is that Americans are buying it all. They're lapping it up, as their political saviors step in to fill the breach. They have learned nothing.

Those of us who know: liberty advocates, Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, all who understand, need to do a much better job of getting the truth out there. We must make it clear that the George Bushes, John McCains, Barrack Obamas, and Nancy Pelosies of our government are not our saviors, but rather are con men and women, robbing us blind while our attention is diverted elsewhere by their smoke-and-mirrors game. Or to put it in the late Harry Browne's words, "Government breaks your legs and then hands you a crutch and says, 'See? Without us you couldn't walk!'"

Did you like this article?
If you did, Thumb It!
8 thumbs so far

©2008 Walt Thiessen, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Walt Thiessen only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Walt Thiessen is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

Report violation by Walt Thiessen of Nolan Chart LLC's terms of use policy.