Friday, March 20, 2009

The Game That Never Ends

Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of
fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United
States is cracking jokes on late-night comedy shows, his energy
minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury
secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising
concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S.
Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and
bankers.

As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and
Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be
declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets
are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook
gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many
minds: Is this the end of America?
We see the system up close, law-making that is riddled with
slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.