It's Cool, We Got It

In his latest, David Warsh unknowingly (which is usually how good points are made) makes another example of how America constructs its points.

The ninth decision – the opportunity on which Obama and the 111^th Congress took a pass – was the chance to tackle the massive concentration and dysfunctionality of the US financial industry that emerged from the crisis of 2008.

Instead of using the short period between his election and inauguration to draw up blueprints for a restructuring of the banking industry, including its deeply-troubled government-sponsored mortgage markets, Obama and his economic team simply ratified the emergency policies of the autumn of 2008 – policies that made US financial institutions bigger, fewer, more dominant and probably less stable than before.

While I agree with David, the point that he is unknowingly making is how these decisions past muster in this country. Simply, any politician can now (rather, "and has") go on television and say simply this: "This idea is so bad that even our crazy left-wing president won't do it."

It's a tactic so simple that if Machiavelli were to be reanimated now, he would find himself outmoded and utterly useless. You see Mac, we don't need you anymore because in reality, we want the horse shit you were lying about.