Promises Vs. Realities

Many Americans still believe that their country is about “truth, justice and the American Way.” But if they took a good look around, they would discover that circumstances are a far cry from what they were (or, at the least, were imagined to be). In fact, some would say that the world’s “sole superpower” is looking more and more like a banana republic every day.

In a post at EconLog, “The Pattern,” Arnold Kling highlights the kinds of failings that define a nation in decline.

Actor	The Promise	The Reality
Financial Executives	Brilliant Risk Management	Catastrophic Losses
Eliot Spitzer	Mr. Clean, Financial Reformer	Celebrity Prosecutions, Real Abuses Untouched, and Not So Clean
Sarbanes-Oxley	Financial Responsibility	Large Costs, No Apparent Benefits
Basel Capital Standards	International Coordination, Sound Banks	Worldwide Banking Collapse
Fannie, Freddie	Stable Mortgage Credit	Fed the Boom, Stuck Taxpayers with the Bust
TARP	Unclog the Financial System	Zombie Banks
Big Fiscal Stimulus	Put the Economy on a Better Path	Wait and See

The pattern is big egos, big money, and big power offering big promises, getting big media play, and making big mistakes (Spitzer’s mistakes were relatively small, to be honest). To me, the fiscal stimulus represents yet another redistribution of power away from ordinary people and toward the elite, when already the imbalance is too high. I am more worried about rot at the top of society than at the bottom.

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