links for 2008-09-30
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This week, Congress will vote on the largest federal bailout in history—$700 billion in spending authority to purchase the troubled assets of Wall Street’s major investment houses. As a free market economist I unequivocally oppose this legislation because it violates the basic working tenets of free market capitalism and individual responsibility. Equally important to me, it likely violates our Constitution and stands in direct contradiction to the founding principles of our great nation.
Granting the Treasury broad authority to buy troubled assets from private entities poses a significant threat to taxpayers and fundamentally alters the relationship between the private economy and the federal government.
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And, what happens when the next industry fails? Nationalize it? why not, the precedent has been set. -
John McCain is on course to lose the presidential election to Barack Obama. Can he turn it around, and surge to victory?
He has a chance. But only if he overrules those of his aides who are trapped by conventional wisdom, huddled in a defensive crouch and overcome by ideological timidity.
The conventional wisdom is that it was a mistake for McCain to go back to Washington last week to engage in the attempt to craft the financial rescue legislation, and that McCain has to move on to a new topic as quickly as possible. As one McCain adviser told The Washington Post, “you’ve got to get it [the financial crisis] over with and start having a normal campaign.â€
Wrong.
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Wrong is correct. John McCain missed his opportunity and may have already lost the race.