Socialists Rejoice!

Or at least, that would be the case any of us true proponents of socialism actually believed for one second in the reaction some in the market are taking to the actions of the government over the past few weeks, culminating in todays actions to ban short-selling, nationalize private debt. Even Nouriel Roubini is getting in on the action.

These reactions are forgivable, indeed understandable given the sheer lack of precedence for the recent turn of events. But there are a few things that people fail to take into consideration. When it's stated that taxpayers just loaned AIG two-hundred and some odd dollars, it is often neglected that the taxpayers have loaned Blackwater and Halliburton hundreds more to fund a war that many of us never supported in the first place.

That's the pain of have to pay for a democratic government. Otherwise it would be called anarchy. Rarely are decisions 100% unanimous, but when presented with choices in crises, the best one can do is to pick the lesser of two evils. I applaud Bernanke and Paulson for doing what was necessary to avoid a full-blown run on the market, which likely would have happened had the greed of the naked shorting hedge funds persisted. Their mistake, as was the mistake of the rest of our public servants, was in ignoring the problems in the financial system until the reached a critical mass.

Another issue that is utterly neglected in any commentary that I have read is that the Fed and Treasury largely function as independent institutions, the house that gives us the chips, redeems their value, and throws us out if we become too rowdy and intoxicated. That is how they were designed and envisioned, and that is the role they are fulfilling today.

Unless there is some far-reaching scheme to nationalize the whole of the American financial industry, I would be willing to bet that slowly but surely, portions of Fannie, Freddie, and AIG will all be returned to continue their business, albeit with much more scrutiny from the oversight agencies. With even staunch free-market advocates backing the need for oversight, let's hope this is the case.

And someone please either fire Christopher Cox or lend him a pair of iron balls. He's a puppet of the Bushies. Need I say more