Bailout. Again.

Sunday the Fed cut it's interest rates down to near 0%.  They are buying Treasury bonds at a furious pace, and taking other steps to hand out money to banks and financial institutions. 

I don't quibble with these short term actions.  At a certain point when past decisions are threatening chaos, they have to address the chaos.   But the fed has become the enabler in chief for stupid economic policies.  

For nearly 40 years Republican tax and regulatory policies have favored speculation over production.  They use debt to pay government bills so they can cut taxes on the wealthy so our National debt has nearly tripled.  The result has been grossly excessive speculation fueled by cheap debt that is all but guaranteed by the Fed.  So rich folk sell assets back and forth for ever higher and higher prices even as worker incomes stagnated and our consumption base has been shrinking.  

It stems from the warped view of the world Republicans promote where business is the highest human value and all other considerations give way to supporting business.   When Republicans promoting that view have controlled the country we regularly plunge into recessions or depressions because Republicans believe folks pursuing their own greedy ambitions can do no wrong. 

In a free market people that don't have to bear losses for bad decisions don't learn to make better decisions.  Everytime there is an economic wobble in the last couple decades the fed steps in, so investors become complacent about sensible risk taking.  They take risks and rely on the Fed to bail them out.  What happened in 2008 and what is now happening is the Fed's constant interference in the market lets problems balloon out of control.  

The Fed would likely say their hands are tied - they can only aim at the targets Congress sets for them - maybe true but the fact they have never really complained about what is going on suggests they were pretty clueless - effectively they see no problem with an economy built on debt fueled speculation.

It is looking more and more like the Democrats may sweep up the Presidency and both houses of Congress this November.  Will they do any better?   Or, as with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, just continue with a slightly more moderate version of Reaganomics?