Topic: Politics
Please, Bail Out! An Open Letter to Governor Rick Perry of Texasby Rick Fisk
(libertarian)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Dear Governor Perry,
Today, the media informed us Texans of your "tough talk" on the issue of economic bailouts. Apparently, the people of Texas were supposed to be impressed by your leadership. You demanded that Republicans and Democrats in Washington put aside their differences and spend 700 billion dollars of the taxpayer's money, much of which will come from the citizens of your own state.
Perhaps you won't have to worry about that because you are wealthy enough to be immune to the effects of this ill-advised bailout scheme. Perhaps the bankers who finance your political aspirations will be impressed and donate to your eventual (failed) Presidential campaign.
I am writing this letter to let you know that I am not impressed. As a citizen of the great state of Texas, I am disgusted at your clear lack of leadership, evidenced by your blind support of the obvious looting of our treasury. I think it is a grand irony that the very man you claimed wasn't a Texan at the Texas Straw Poll last year, is now seen by the media as an expert, nay, a genius in economics. To many of us Texans, Ron Paul is the one shining light on a hill that would be better excavated than celebrated. You, on the other hand, are a johnny-come-lately to this debate (such as it is) and you've come to weigh in on the side of the criminals. Make no mistake, these people with whom you side are criminals and we Texans know it.
Whether you are motivated by fear, greed, power or by false information, you are dead wrong on this issue.
One does not have to be an economist to understand that the dismal rate of savings in this country is a dangerous thing. For decades, the Federal government's regulatory and monetary policy has been punishing savers by setting low interest rates while preventing true competition amongst banks with homogeneous and smothering regulations. If an individual could raise enough capital to enter into the banking industry, they would soon be driven out of business were they to apply sound fiscal policies and encourage savings. Their competitors are not required to pay significant interest on savings because the Central Bank (Federal Reserve), with no governmental or citizen oversight, can set the rate to whatever it wishes, while providing commercial banks with all the electrons representing money for which they could ever wish.
The current players are the beneficiaries of a government protection racket. Contrary to current fashion in punditry and politics, the problem with banking in this country is not too little regulation but too much. Like steel, shipping, textiles and a number of other industries in this country which have been such "beneficiaries" and are now just memories of their former selves, the banking sector is in its death throes. Rather than actually solve our banking crisis, the government seeks to provide more protection. The result will be an even greater crisis.
In a true free-market system, capital is made available for investment through savings. Savings that we ordinary people accumulate through hard work. It is not made available by the wave of some magic wand and printed. At least, not legitimately. When you think about it, the arbitrarily low interest rates set by the fed - causing savings to dwindle - and the government's insistence on cracking open credit to those least able to repay their loans was a clear and obvious recipe for disaster.
For normal people, that is. There is a class of people, and apparently you can count yourself among them, who believe that economic health and prosperity is prescribed by Dr. Uncle Sam. These same people believe that money grows on trees. And who's to argue with them? (Technically it grows in cotton fields, but this is a minor and inconsequential point)
When Congress passes a gargantuan appropriations bill, and it is then signed by that staunch free-market advocate who claims he is from Texas but is really a Yankee from Connecticut, some GAO flunky sends a loan request to the Federal Reserve, which in turn requests that the Treasury print up as much funds as are needed. Oh there's the obligatory "loan" sans any credit check - and at this point its a wonder the Federal Government could keep a decent credit rating. But then again, when your banker is the Federal Reserve, and was created by you, who cares about credit ratings? It's a symbiotic and parasitic relationship that the Federal Reserve and Congress share. Unfortunately, the host for this cancerous parasite is the American taxpayer.
This grotesque display of fiscal blood-sucking is the example that many in this country have used as their guide in life. In the mid 90's when the credit expansion really started occurring in earnest, I can remember "experts" counseling their audience to eschew old -fashioned business tactics, and just surrender to the credit craze. "Finance everything!", was the advice, and "become rich with other people's money."
That wasn't the lesson I was taught by my grandparents and parents, who were real Texans by the way. I was taught that you earned your keep. You worked, you saved and you owed no one. You raised your family, gave at your church and helped in the community in the best way that you could. I was raised to believe that charity was a voluntary act and that I was not owed a living. Today, that sort of advice has gone out the window. Today, we get to hear from the likes of you that if our representatives in Congress don't ignore our concerns and pass a bill without delay or debate, then our financial livelihoods are out the window (the little people, not you privileged folks whose careers are financed by the recipients of this bailout).
Son, that plane won't fly.
My advice, and this would apply to any politician who advocates for this rotten, stinking idea, if you can call the blatant raping of this country's productive life-force an idea, is that you resign immediately. Do not wait another second. Bail out! Now. You are not fit for the office you occupy. Oh, and please, don't return.
I promise to work my damnedest to see that you are never entrusted with any public office forthwith, including dog-catcher for which you are under-qualified. I will be an advocate for any candidate opposing those who voted or pleaded for a bailout of any kind. In my district, that is Lamar Smith, a Republican. I'll write in a candidate before I vote for anyone who even looks with cloying eyes at that bailout bill.
P.S. Please tell your friends in the banking industry this: they haven't seen "toxic assets" 'til they've seen their balance sheets after a government bailout. Who do you think will be investing in Goldman Sachs or anyone else accepting the proceeds of such a bailout?
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The views expressed in this
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