Quote of the day

From the top:

"This is an essential short-term measure to assure the viability of America's banking system," President Bush said in comments outside the White House. "These measures are not intended to take over the free market, but to preserve it."

Yes, and Social Security was never supposed to be an identification system, and the 1913 Income Tax Act was only supposed to affect the top 5 percent of income earners, and all those 1930's-era 'emergency measures' still on the books were supposed to be temporary authorities.

There are no "short-term" increases in government power. It's both a racket and a ratchet, moving in only one direction. Why is it necessary right now to 'preserve' the free market? Because all the government interventions at the behest of various interests have so convoluted the economy the chickens are coming home to roost. This latest series of measures by Uncle Sam should make it clear just how little of a free market we have. Guess it's another case of having to destroy the village to save it.