by sniglet » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:13 pm
Legality aside, I agree that a bail out is counter-productive, and ultimately only makes matters worse. However, I don't know how useful petitions, or any form of protest, will be. When faced with disaster our leaders will do anything and everything they can think of to avoid it. Back in the '30s FDR stacked the supreme court with extra appointees just to get his unconstitutional agenda through. Worse, history loves him for it, revering him as one of the great Presidents of all time!
It is truly amazing how protests against government interference have almost vanished from public discourse now that we are faced with chaos in the financial system. Those on both the left and right are calling for government intervention. Bill Gross, Ben Stein, and many other conservatives are actually begging the government to start buying toxic securities. Numerous democrats are floating a series of proposals to nationalize bad mortgages. The only debate seems to be around how much new regulation needs to go along with the bail-outs.