The goal of sustainable ecology means little without a commitment to sustainable economics. In economics the biggest issue of sustainability ought to be the right-sizing of an economy. An unsustainable economy is one that booms through the provision of debt additions, the health of the capital markets themselves becoming conditioned on the speculative idea of growth. Our unsustainable economy will in a few years produce unsustainable environmental policies, both coalescing to put us in worse circumstances than we find ourselves now.
President Obama has given the nation hope, but is it enough? Indignation remains widespread because Wall Street has failed its public trust and politicians have yet to find ways to counter outrages with real justice. “Heads need to roll,” proclaimed Moneycentral’s Jim Jubak recently, for if we fail to punish wrongdoers we are bound to repeat this disaster (“Why the CEO salary cap is a joke,” Feb. 10).
If the economy is weakening should we do everything in our power to get it moving again? As explained in Rex Nutting’s Feb. 22 article, “No end in sight for recession” an unprecedented amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus is being injected. What is not explained is how this beckons unprecedented inflation, heavier taxation and further weakening of the U.S. dollar.
Who, if anyone, is surprised that Mr. Stanford’s chapter unfolds in Madoff-ite fashion, politics and all? Who, if anyone, does not expect bailouts and partisan subsidies to continue, with justice thrown to the wind as evidenced in the expanding mortgage subsidy affair?
Now we know why no one but the tax-flawed Timothy Geithner would do as the new Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Ronald Orol’s report contains clues supportive of some observers’ contention that Mr. Geithner is under the influence of power hungry elites. Mr. Geithner’s proposal comes with the same directive as Paulson’s 2008 TARP proposal: We have to act without delay or be sucked into a black hole of collapsing banks and unemployment.