Following up on my last post about Libertarians, at least the Wall Street Journal has weighed in on the financial meltdown on Wall Street.
Let me say up front, I like the Wall Street Journal. I subscribe and find it some of the best business reporting out there.
But man, their opinion pages just don’t know when to leave well enough alone.
In an editorial today, they lay out the case that we shouldn’t panic (yet), that (maybe) it was the Federal Reserve’s policy of easy credit in recent years that led to the real estate bubble, and that we should have a Resolution Trust Corporation created to try to deflate this mess.
But they they drop this graph in – out of nowhere, in my opinion:
What the economy really needs is a big pro-growth tax cut, the kind that will restore confidence and risk-taking. This is an opportunity for both candidates, but especially for Mr. McCain. Instead of focusing on an extension of the Bush tax cuts, the Arizonan should offer his own tax cut to revive capital markets and prevent a recession. Democrats will claim he’s helping “the rich,” but our guess is that every American who owns a 401(k) will figure he’s one of those “rich.”
It’s the same old “tax cuts will solve everything” approach. Sheesh.
When times are good – tax cuts. When times are bad – tax cuts. When we’re not at war – tax cuts. When we do go to war, like in Iraq, tax cuts.
And now is known that a tax cut would necessarily be “pro-growth?” Maybe if everyone is in such dire shape, they’ll just use it to shore up their own personal finances, instead of investing.
And tax cuts restoring confidence? In what? The current financial meltdown didn’t occur because of income taxes. They say so themselves.
Risk-taking? Isn’t the problem? That there’s been too much risk created and hidden?
I know I shouldn’t expect any different from the WSJ, but enough already.
Bill Poorman 