theblindtibetan's  Instablog

The wise and the wizened are looking at every little data point these days. A fractional improvement in housing is heralded as a clear augur of better times a coming. A whisper about increased production is rolled out as proof positive of a nascent resurgence.

It has come to the point where tweets from twits have replaced the ponderous circumlocution of a Greenspan, and given Greenspan's tragic legacy, this may not even be a downgrade. 

But there is a  terrible hollowness at the core here .A deafening silence and it has to do with moral will.

In the spirit of Thomas Paine, let me make a few observations:

1. It's wrong to give people who do bad things huge sums of money you are holding in trust from the people who have been doing the right thing.

2.It makes no sense to take counsel on how to fix things that have gone terribly wrong from the very same people who caused the problem.

3. It makes no sense for government to be meddling in the free market. Socialize banks or stay out of them. Socialize the auto industry or stay out of it. Socialize medicine or stay out of it. Don't wobble. Don't waffle. Don't obfuscate. Even the bar stool cognoscenti, half in their gourd, can see through such pandering.

We are not in need of a financial stimulus at this perilous moment in time. We are in need of a moral backbone.

Sometimes the cure is more poison. Obama is trying to reign in predatory credit card lending with his new bill. But it won't come into effect (if passed) until mid 2010.

Meanwhile...I read in USA Today

Credit card issuers "may be tempted to hit card holders with an additional wave of interest rate increases before the law takes effect," says Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America.

Of course they will. The coming year is going to be unGodly ugly as banks use their soon to be forfeited rate hike leverage to maximum effect and hordes of beaten-down borrowers default under the burden.