The Week

From the New York Times, January 7, p. 44: “One state staff man, drinking beer at the Jack Tar Hotel in Lansing last night, said … ‘A head of steam is building up, and I expect him [Romney] to take the wild leap into his own inner psyche. . . .’ ” Come now. Beer?

Some years ago we remarked that the foreign aid program was in trouble, and we based our prophecy on the fact that there was a high turnover rate in the top spot. The same can be said today about the nation’s economy, on the evidence of the turnover of chawmen of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Heller, Ackley, now Okun—plus ca change . . . the policies of the past will be continued. Indeed, the State of the Union message last Wednesday night confirms that the policies of the past 36 years remain in force. Accelerating government intervention in the private concerns of the people, continuing federal deficits on an enormous scale, persistent refusal on the part of our leaders to face up to economic realities, blind pride in the topsy-turvy priority system of electioneering welfarists, unquestioning faith in the ability of government to solve people’s problems by taking money from them—such is the outlook. These policies have led to a global distrust in the value of the U.S. dollar, and the President’s pitiable reliance on more of the same cannot but aggravate that distrust. Yes, he did ask the Congress to remove the gold “cover” for Federal Reserve Notes—a pleonastic gesture, since the gold set aside for “cover” was available for foreign settlements anyway, at a small internal penalty charge. But that is nothing more than a debtor’s promise to hock his furniture to pay old bills, while he continues to run in the red. We’re in trouble, we’re getting in deeper, and sooner or later somebody is going to blow the whistle on us.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

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From the New York Times, January 7, p. 44: “One state staff man, drinking beer at the Jack Tar Hotel in Lansing last night, said … ‘A head of steam is building up, and I expect him [Romney] to take the wild leap into his own inner psyche. . . .’ ” Come now. Beer?

Some years ago we remarked that the foreign aid program was in trouble, and we based our prophecy on the fact that there was a high turnover rate in the top spot. The same can be said today about the nation’s economy, on the evidence of the turnover of chawmen of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Heller, Ackley, now Okun—plus ca change . . . the policies of the past will be continued. Indeed, the State of the Union message last Wednesday night confirms that the policies of the past 36 years remain in force. Accelerating government intervention in the private concerns of the people, continuing federal deficits on an enormous scale, persistent refusal on the part of our leaders to face up to economic realities, blind pride in the topsy-turvy priority system of electioneering welfarists, unquestioning faith in the ability of government to solve people’s problems by taking money from them—such is the outlook. These policies have led to a global distrust in the value of the U.S. dollar, and the President’s pitiable reliance on more of the same cannot but aggravate that distrust. Yes, he did ask the Congress to remove the gold “cover” for Federal Reserve Notes—a pleonastic gesture, since the gold set aside for “cover” was available for foreign settlements anyway, at a small internal penalty charge. But that is nothing more than a debtor’s promise to hock his furniture to pay old bills, while he continues to run in the red. We’re in trouble, we’re getting in deeper, and sooner or later somebody is going to blow the whistle on us.