Loaves and Fishes

Remember the bible story about the loaves and fishes? Jesus preached all day and the folks got hungry. Sort of reminds me of a Lyle Lovett song.

Church

Essentially the story boils down to a miracle involving a couple of fishes and some bread feeding a throng without any shortage. Until now we thought it was miraculous. Now, we’ve got it actually occurring before our very eyes. I speak of the magic of the federal mortgage bailout. This time around, we’ve got a lot bigger crowd. Jesus never gathered 300 million seeking a freebie. It takes the US government to do that.

Remember last month? Immediate action was required. Congress moved quickly with a $700 billion bailout for the sub-prime mortgage shysters. It was really $850B before it got out of the butcher shop, but that’s chump change when it comes to miracles. The miracle seemed to be that the knuckle draggers of Capitol Hill could act within less than six months. Hardly! The miracle has taken a bit longer to unfold but the scope is much broader.

What are we getting for that pie? Well, here’s how it’s evolving:

Go Back to Bed, We're with AIG

Our Unions Are Hungry for Lousy Cars

We're Number Two

Don't Leave Home Without Some

Collie Fornia Too

See how that works? You create a large pool of magic money. No one associates it with taxpayers or real people working. It simply is a miracle. It is so huge that average people can’t even begin to comprehend its magnitude. Then you start doling it out. The line to get some grows. Everyone is justified because that’s “fair,” isn’t it? If you save one company why can’t you save my pet interest? We want to live in a risk free society with reward only and no penalties for failure. That’s justice, isn’t it? Somewhere along the way there are going to be a lot of individuals whose mortgages get bought up and their debts forgiven. Gotta love it!

Now we’ve got Treasury Secretary Paulson with a checkbook and really very little regulatory oversight. He begins distributing loaves and fishes. You can rest assured that everyone will get fed and the pie will always have another slice for the next hungry mouth. Paulson’s no piker. This ain’t light lunch. This is a full blown banquet.

Remember Everett Dirksen? Maybe you’ve got to be really old like me and possibly you’ve got to come from Illinois. He’s US Senator who had the great deep voice so suited to brilliant oratory and whose most memorable pronouncement seems to have been, “A billion here, a billion there…pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

And you thought God was the only one who could work miracles!