Being the contrarian . . .

I see the long-term effects of today’s 500+ drop in the DJA and all of the stock markets as being a good thing – – long term, that is.

Short term, lots of people who had nothing to do with the problem are going to get hurt.  That’s bad.  But lots of people who had a hand in engineering the mess in Wall Street got their knuckles rapped hard by reality today.

I heard something on the radio today:  Responsibility Requires Risk.  When you take the risk out of any economic endeavor, you take the responsibility out, too.  Without risk, you can behave irresponsibly and get away with it.  Of course, risk is always there–it’s just that some folks are better at shifting the risk to Somebody Else than other people.  These people tend to be a) very wealthy and b) very corrupt.  Most of them are politicians, including, today, most of the members of Congress.

Think of that the next time you want the Government to come swooping in to solve a “market failure.”

(Still not “politics.”   I didn’t name any candidates.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)