Key Point

Written By D.

I was reading a brochure from TD Wealth Management this morning. There was a section called “Six key points to remember about the Credit Crisis.”

Key point number three was interesting (my emphasis added);

“Credit crises generally run their course over a period of two years or when governments do not let their economies purge themselves of their excesses, in which case the crisis can drag on for years. Japan was the best example of this and their credit crisis lasted the full decade of the 1990’s.”

Is the financial world trying to tell us all something?

Seems to me they are and the message is real clear, it is time for government to spend less, not more.

Right now we are being told that a few Democrats are opposed to some of the items in the Pres-Elect’s “economic recovery plan.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEx3tiPJhZQLVqjNmHR_oP6FZMuwD95JI2G81

They are mostly just splitting spending hairs arguing about amounts and how to spend it. If you argue over whether to put the billions here or there, I’d say you are missing the point.

Although, to their credit, Senators Conrad and Gregg both say they are “against using the economic recovery plan for permanent spending increases.” But that probably won’t stop the permanent spending increases, unless they are the toss away part of the "show" to make it appear they are fiscally responsible.

These disagreements are always more about show than go. It may even be aimed at baiting the Republicans into arguing about the merits of parts of the plan, rather than the merits of having a plan at all ... once Republicans take the bait, Democrats give in on something they didn’t care about anyway, claim they compromised and then Republicans and Democrats congratulate themselves for reaching the compromise … and the Democrats get the cover they want in the form of bipartisan support. Hey, Republicans fall for that Liberal trick all the time, that’s part of the reason we are in this mess and in the minority.

I stopped believing that Liberals were capable of any fiscal responsibility long ago. I am also beginning to doubt the will of Republicans to fight the good fight against government excesses.
What would get my attention is if they opposed the plan altogether. In that same AP article, Rep. John Boehner, the House GOP Leader said,” We can’t buy prosperity with more and more government spending.” And my reply is; don’t just talk the Republican talk, walk the Republican walk.

My father once told me, “Be careful of any plan that has the broad support of both parties, it usually means you are about to be “expletive deleted.”” (I won’t use his colorful terminology here)

Folks, right now it doesn’t look like the excesses are going to be purged, so I guess we can expect the crisis to drag on for years.