Now we come back to the future not learning the lessons of history. I am very depressed and sad about this. Reagan moved us on a right trajectory because of Carter’s malaise. The days of the free market lasted from malaise until now. This truly is the reestablishment of liberalism and government intervention.

This bailout is the most ridiculous, unjust, and immoral proposal I have seen out of the government since the Iraq war. I really hope they some how delay this thing. Richard Shelby, Jim Bunning, and a few senators don’t seem on board. But I think it will pass through fast, giving us King Henry’s treasury, a massive bailout, a disgusting national debt, inflation, taxation, and corporatism.

People don’t understand. Truly principled people do not support the free market for reasons of “efficiency” or social engineering or stability. Principled people support the marketplace for moral reasons, for natural rights reasons, etc. When natural rights don’t matter, when stability trumps every other consideration, then you have a government which is essentially liberally interventionist on all fronts.

If you don’t support bailouts, then don’t support any bailout. If you support a bailout, there is no sense for you not to support other socialist and welfare state programs. So those who vote for this bill should be called out on what they are – socialists. Socialists for the rich maybe, but socialists nonetheless.

Arghh.

Except that he’s probably using that term in order to lay blame for this fiasco at the feet of progressives (liberals). Progressive Corporatism is simply Liberal Fascism with the aid of a thesaurus.And Liberal Fascism is bunk.

No worries mate, the current crisis has had the effect of bringing forth a batch of our very own philosopher kings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/opinion/23brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

“It would assign nearly unlimited authority to a small coterie of policy makers. It does not rely on any system of checks and balances, but on the wisdom and public spiritedness of those in charge.”

More…

“If you wanted to devise a name for this approach, you might pick the phrase economist Arnold Kling has used: Progressive Corporatism. We’re not entering a phase in which government stands back and lets the chips fall. We’re not entering an era when the government pounds the powerful on behalf of the people. We’re entering an era of the educated establishment, in which government acts to create a stable — and often oligarchic — framework for capitalist endeavor.”

Well, I’m glad Brooks was at least honest enough to just get his cheerleading for an oligarchic rule by our corporate overlords out in the open: Progressive Corporatism is perhaps as apt a description of the governing philosophy of the current administration as any I have heard.