Concerning the Present Difficulties
Some commenters have asked for my views. I'm reluctant to go into much detail, since financial institutions aren't something I have any expertise in. But I did come across a comment on the present situation that I wrote, and posted, almost a year and a half ago:
Someone had asked another Usenet poster:
"How do you feel about the line, "I want you to vote for me, because I support smaller government"?
I replied:
1. It gives me very little information about what he will do if elected.
2. But it does mean that, since he is pretending to be one of us, we will get blamed for what he does, even if it has nothing to do with the views we support.
That's why, on the whole, I thought it would be better if Bush had lost the most recent election--not that his opponent would have been any better but that at least we wouldn't have gotten blamed for what he did.