Steve Forbes writes that George W. Bush is acting like Jimmy Carter. Both men tethered foreign policy to abstractions: the latter, to "human rights"; the former, to "democracy." But it is not foreign policy, but fiscal policy where Forbes sees the similarity. It's the Bush administration's policy of a weak dollar to stimulate the economy. "Rotten ideas never seem to die.," Forbes writes. "The Fed's notion that it must choose between economic growth and inflation is absolutely false. Experience has repeatedly shown that there is no tradeoff between inflation and a vigorous economy. We can have both excellent growth and a stable currency." The 1980s and '90s prove this. And the 1970s prove that recession and an inflated dollar can go hand in hand.

The whole thing is out of whack. Ag subsidies, the whole ethanol debacle, no new nuclear power plants--whatever the Fed (or any single part of govt) does cannot alleviate these underlying problems. But yes, unfortunately, any part of govt seems to be able to exacerbate them.

Not to be a conspiracy monger, but how is it that business worked just fine and was productive in this country for many decades with little or no government intervention and in the last 20 years or so, there’s been massive government intervention and one government bail out after another?

I’m not sure what that means necessarily, but could it be that government is attempting to put the arm on private business? There does seem to be a push by many in this country to at least socialize and possibly communize our economy.