Taking all of the new programs and bailouts paid for by “We the People” into account, the following questions become urgent:
 

• Shouldn’t the consumer, after decades of over-consumption, be allowed to digest that over-indebtedness and save, rather than be encouraged to take risk?
  
  
• Shouldn’t companies, no matter what state they reside in, from a political point of view, if run poorly, be allowed to fail or forced to restructure?
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• Should taxpayer money be used to make up for the mishaps at financial institutions worldwide be allowed to wallow in their own mistakes?
  
  
• Shouldn’t free markets be “free”?
  
  
• When did socialism make its way to our shores?
  
  
• How do we choose who's bailed out - and who loses?
  
  
• Shouldn’t we place blame on the politicians, bureaucrats and other “decision makers,” and put skilled people who know how to run businesses in place?
  
  
• Shouldn’t investors, led blindly down the primrose path of “buy and hold, diversify, and don’t open your brokerage statement except once every 10 years” be allowed to follow the Prudent Man Rule?

Again, there are many questions to be asked, many with answers that no one wants to put in print. When will people stand up and scream “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
 
Once the rally in equities and credit ends, we will realize that the patient has only been injected with adrenaline, as opposed to being allowed to recuperate through good old-fashioned bed rest.

Risk-taking in a laissez-faire world should be replaced with risk aversion. Consumers who over-consumed should be allowed to strengthen their balance sheets for the next cycle and increase their savings. Companies that have been kept afloat, bailed out, nationalized, stuck in conservatorship -- that have become part of my national portfolio, whether I like it or not -- should, unless it actually poses systemic risk (which I am not at all in favor of), fail. Period.

Here's what the government has purchased for our national portfolio. Lovely.



After all, where's my bailout?