Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Terrifying Headline of the Day: Politicians and Business -- Plus a Rant!

Oh, what fresh hell is this? Here's the headline: "Obama, the Nation's CEO."

So you're telling me that a fellow with no business experience and really not too much attachment to the private sector and the idea of free enterprise/trade/markets is attempting to dictate terms to American business. At the same time that a ravenous pack of bureaucrats, functionaries, and career politicians with leftist inclinations (and tax-cheating ways) are busy demonizing American business and performing moral-hypocrisy theater on AIG bonuses while deliberately and publicly persecuting that tiny group of unpopular individuals. The AIG theater isn't even the point; it was a distraction from the far bigger debacle of the gargantuan budget that will bankrupt us all.

Do the current folks in DC understand even the most rudimentary principles of economics and business? Hey, sure, having the government strong-arm business is a great way to make people want to invest and do business! Floating the idea of punitive taxation (and that even against particular groups of people) is a fantastic way to increase confidence overall! How is all this not (a) completely counterproductive, and (b) looking like a big nasty power grab? Do people actually think that command economies really work? Next thing you know, some genius is going to propose price-fixing or some other hopeless garbage like that. Hey, let's try decreeing prosperity into existence, why don't we!

Government meddling in business is a terrible idea. I'm not even talking about how it's an unconscionable expansion of government and its overreach (that's a libertarian rant for another day). I'm just saying that it doesn't look like these people know what they're doing. As a friend of mine observed, "Every time Tim Geithner opens his mouth, the Dow drops." And it's not just Tiny Tim there. It's everybody in DC, including the president.

No wonder the Dow is plummeting along with confidence overall. Maybe it's time to flee to New Zealand. Yes, New Zealand. Oh, HOPECHANGE!

Add the heedless spend-a-palooza practices hurtling from DC, and I feel like every other exhausted, appalled taxpayer who cannot believe this is actually happening. I'm tired. Aren't you?

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