Free Market Delusions

It's not surprising, but nonetheless infuriating, to see self-serving columnists flogging capitalist mythology while the economy slowly sinks millions of Americans--and that's before the current meltdown, and all we had was rising income disparity and millions of uninsured Americans going broke because of growing health costs.

Forbes columnists Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein, who are also investment advisers, today try to make the case that history proves that economies inevitably recover from recessions (and even depressions) without government intervention--what they term "catalysts."

After making unsubstantiated claims about the nature of the business cycle and bloodless remarks about corporate efficiency and new "skill sets" learned by labor, they conclude by lauding the invisible (and heretofore unseen and unproven) hand of the market:

As long as human beings attempt to better themselves and improve standards of living, and as long as policymakers don't compound problems, the natural course of growth will return in its magical and mysterious way.

In other words, Trust us, growth will return. Just don't raise our taxes or increase our regulatory requirements, because that would be intolerable.

Never mind that new regulations are shown to stimulate innovation because they force companies to adopt new technologies and processes rather than simply trying to guard their hoard.

Covering War or Glorifying It?

A new piece on CNN correspondent Michael Ware in Men's Journal makes the journalist seem compelling--and there's no doubting his bravery or his commitment to his profession.

The piece, CNN's Prisoner of War, shows how hard it is for Ware to get the war out of his head--or even for Ware to drag himself out of the zone of conflict.

It's easy to sympathize with Ware, and Greg Veis, who wrote this piece, tells us a lot about our foreign policy blunders--including the nugget that we may be essentially giving Iraq over to the Iranians.

But Veis also lets Ware get away with a common conceit, which is that war experience is somehow more valuable or "real" than other types of experience.

“Do you want to get to the nub of life?” Ware asked me. “To strip away the bullshit? Life is so distilled down in war — that’s an obvious statement — but to be able to see it with your own eyes and be able to discover that which lies within yourself, I don’t know, it’s more than life changing.

But the real bullshit is when we let ourselves believe that our experience is the only true and unvarnished one. I've had similar experiences and suffered similar delusions--"man, you don't understand life the way I do because you haven't seen..." name it.

Every experience is a real experience, every life is a real life. Ware might argue that the daily confrontation with death is what makes war real, but we all confront death every day.

What is worth saying is that our lives afford us the opportunity to ignore the fact that we confront death on a daily basis, and that we have committed a great injustice by forcing the Iraqi people to confront death whether they want to or not.

Do Democrats Know They're in the Majority?

It's all well and good for Arlen Spector to rattle his saber and threaten to hold up Eric Holder's confirmation as Attorney General.

And if Republican senators want to block legislation supporting the bail-out of the auto industry, and if they can get away with it, well that's their prerogative.

But what's puzzling me is that the Democrats don't seem to realize that they hold all the power in Washington, D.C.

Let me say that again.

Democrats hold all the power in Washington, D.C.

Now they just have to act like they know it.

I voted for Barack Obama because, among other reasons, I want a change in tone in American politics, and I want someone who can convince Americans that progressive politics is good for them.

But I vote Democratic because I believe in progressive policies. I want Congressional Democrats to push for those policies, and I want them to use their committee chairmanships and other powers to enact those policies and programs.

Republicans know how to work the system so well, they behave like don't have to face the consequences of massive electoral defeats over the past two cycles.

It's time for Democratic lawmakers to show them where they really stand.