The Government Is Contributing to the Panic

It's time to let markets do their messy work.

Despite all the hard work and good intentions on the part of our public officials, when economists and historians look back on the current financial crisis they are likely to conclude that government intervention prolonged and deepened it. In particular, officials at the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Treasury Department are to blame for publicly losing confidence in the very economic system they are supposed to protect.

Governmental manipulation of the markets shows a lack of trust in the markets. The idea of printing fiat money to buy overvalued assets from imprudent speculators in the now defunct real estate market will not benefit anyone but the imprudent speculators.