Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Nothing More than a Slush Fund

In addition to the secretive manner in which the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money has been spent by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, we now have the possibility that the "vision thing"-challenged Bush Administration will use TARP for other bailouts, such as providing cash to the Big Three car makers.

Can anyone doubt now that TARP is -- and always was given its loose wording and its even looser execution -- nothing more than a political slush fund? And an expensive one at that. Future generations will paying one of the most expensive bills ever for one to two years worth of political gain for Washington politicians.

To break that "gain" down even further, this political slush fund allows the Democrats to derive marvelous benefits at low to no political cost, thanks to the Stupid Party.

Congressional Democrats vote for the auto bailout, but it gets killed in the Senate. Enter the eager to please President Bush, who has already accepted his abuse for the bank failures, very much the fault of Congressional Democrats. Now he stupidly pays the political cost with the rest of America for bailing out Detroit. We're sure the UAW will vote Republican next time around, right? (Michigan Representative Thaddeus McCotter, a Republican, after his fierce attacks on TARP, continues to disappoint with his rationalizations of using TARP or other bailouts to save Detroit.)

And then there is the persistently lucky Barack Obama, who is handed this expensive slush fund at no political cost to him as he takes office.

Didn't the cheerleaders in the financial press, such as the editors of the Wall Street Journal, see any of this coming? The lesson here: the business of America's government is not business. It is national defense, in the strict sense. The rest is subject to endless permutation, manipulation and stupidity.

The Wall Street Journal is Shocked at Bad Behavior

Today, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board is shocked, shocked to learn that businesses are lining up at the trough to get some of Henry Paulson's bank bailout plan money. A plan that the Wall Street Journal endorsed.

These are the risks of hurried government solutions to poorly defined problems. And the Wall Street Journal editorial board certainly should have known it would happen.

More to come, I fear. Much more.

The Wall Street Journal Destroys Its Hard Won Credibility

For years I have read and applauded the Wall Street Journal's editorial page for warning of the dangers inherent in Fannie and Freddie, and the looming crisis. Events have proven their analysis of a politicized market for mortgages correct.

How ironic, and sad then, that these same editors should now double down their hard won credibility on Henry Paulson's massive attempt to re-politicize the marketplace for mortgages. We're not talking a modified Paulson plan. We're talking first ballot Paulson.

By all other responsible reporting in the free-market media, we know that a) every official in Washington is saying privately this "emergency measure" is a piece of garbage legislation, and b) they have no idea if it will work.

But hey, the Journal reasons, we need to "calm" the markets.

The "markets" are made up of moral agents; people, who now want to be bailed out for their recklessness. Whether or not it was encouraged by the government, that is the bottom line. If they can't "calm" themselves, perhaps they should find other lines of work.

The Journal, in my mind at least, has destroyed all of the credibility it has created over the years when it warned against Fannie and Freddie -- so badly is it now in the tank for, one can only reason, one of their own, Henry Paulson.

PATHETIC.