Seats of Erudition

Pundits are dissecting the financial crisis and the responses likely to mitigate it. Many of the ideas they propound are useless. In the run-up to the Iraq war, many military experts were advancing the notion of a bloodbath in Baghdad. There would be a siege comparable to Stalingrad and thousands of US casualities. Thankfully, in the event, losses were light. In fact, less American troops have died in the occupation of two countries than the beacons of brilliance thought would fall taking Baghdad. Economists are no more capable of predicting the future than anyone else. Government over-reach, criminality in the mortgage industry, and a profound lack of personal responsibility by many borrowers have exacerbated the downturn. Not everyone needs to own a house. There is no shame in renting, and contrary to the Obama campaign, those foreclosed upon are not in most cases immediately homeless, with taxpayers already providing Title 8 and Section 22 housing subsidies. Even in hard times, the path to wealth remains working hard, delaying gratification, and hoping the government does not get in the way.