Market Correction

The man who never cheats on his wife because no other woman will have him is not particularly principled - but he proudly fancies himself that way. So the first bimbo he sniffs who'll do him the honor will prompt him to "abandon his principles" with as much alacrity as a hungry dog will attack a ham. Such are the principles of our "leaders."
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17 December 2008

Editor, The Washington Examiner

Dear Editor:

George Bush is the complete politician: he believes all that his in-house press and party operatives say about him, and he pours whatever meaning is politically expedient into every word that he uses. This fact is made clear by his statement that he "abandoned free market principles to save the free market system" ("Bush: 'I've Abandoned Free Market Principles To Save The Free Market System'," December 17).

First, one cannot abandon something that one never possessed - and this President, from his steel tariffs to his prescription-drug program to his No Child Left Behind foolishness, at no time gave the slightest indication that he supports free markets as a matter of principle.

Second, principles by their nature are things you stick with during trying times. Because no case has been established that today's troubles are caused by free markets, or that Mr. Bush's hyperactivity of late will "save" markets," his "abandonment" of his alleged principles simply reflects the fact that he never possessed them to begin with.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University