The Wall Street Journal-20080122-Look Busy- Quick- Do Something- Anything-
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Look Busy: Quick, Do Something, Anything!
In the "The State of the Stimulus Debate" (op-ed, Jan. 16) Lawrence Lindsey's last sentence states, "While deregulation and tax simplification are not currently in vogue, ultimately they represent the best type of economic stimulus -- by allowing the people who actually create the jobs and wealth of this country to get about their business."
"Allowing the People"? Since when does government allow anything? If we accept this notion then, we are the servants and have lost our sovereignty. Politicians and their bureaucracies allowing the economy to function is at the heart of our country's existing problems. "We The People" own this nation, not the servant class in Washington.
Deregulation, tax simplification and drastically, permanently reducing the size of government is the stimulus needed. Not the discredited nostrums of the left.
Robert Morgan Emerson
Anacortes, Wash.
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Lawrence B. Lindsey suggests that the federal government act immediately to increase sources of consumer credit by permitting "manufacturers and retailers to open their own financial institutions, through which they could borrow and lend money" to consumers. Far from relieving the current economic mess we are in, his plan is a recipe for disaster.
The current debacle in our financial markets results in part from too much and too easy consumer credit, not too little. Many consumers have little or no home equity left and thus, little hope of refinancing their way out. These folks need immediate relief, but not in the form of more credit at rates they cannot afford so they can buy more things. They need cash as well as credit and tax relief.
Moreover, our economy needs a stronger, more enduring base than U.S. consumer spending if we expect to remain a vital international economic power. This will require, among other things, rebuilt infrastructure, further support for technology, especially in the form of improved education, and a refocus on hard engineering, as distinguished from financial engineering.
This country would be a lot better off if many of today's investment bankers, takeover artists, hedgies and the like would turn their attention and immense talents toward the long-term economic future and away from relatively short-term deals and fees from marketing financial gadgets, formulas, theories and products that, in many cases, even they do not understand.
James T. Coffman
Bethesda, Md.
