OMAHA CALLING

Uncle Warren took pen in hand today and wrote the New York Times. He's worried that "excessive monetary emissions threaten the health of our economy." He praises the actions taken last year to rescue the financial system with a gusher of federal money playing "an essential role in the rescue." So far, so good. Mr. Buffet continues by stating that, "enormous doses of monetary medicine continue to be administered," and warns that the threat of this action might be as ominous as the financial crisis itself.

Quoting the entire piece might be useful as Mr. Buffet makes some excellent points, but none, perhaps, as the quotation from Lord Keynes, every politician's favorite economist who laid out what he describes as a road map in order to avoid hard choices. "By a continuing process of inflation," Lord Keynes wrote, "governments can confiscate, secretly and and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens..."

One of course wonders where Mr. Buffet was when he threw his considerable weight of opinion behind The Leader in the past election when it was as clear as a thunderstorm in Nebraska that the economic policies proclaimed by The Leader had a real good shot at creating the sort of economic situation about which he now warns. That is not to say that the road to economic perdition did not begin back in the Bush administration just that Mr. Buffet seemed to ignore all the warning signs that there was to be no U-turn in some of the follies of the past. One wonders why might be but most revealing is the penultimate paragraph of the piece. "Our immediate problem is to get our country back on its feet," writes Mr. Buffett,..." and whatever it takes still makes sense."

No dummy, "whatever it takes," makes no sense at all for despite your vast wealth you seem not to understand that it will not be the expenditure of trilions by the Federal and State Governments that will get the country back on its feet; it has NEVER been thus. There is a toll booth at the end of this road and it will exact a mighty cost. Mr. Buffett's fear that we may not be able to finance the prolificacy of this administration will come true at some point and as he rightfully points out, the signs are already there as has been written in this blog. I just get a bit tired of these elucidations of the obvious from those who take no responsibility for the change in direction of American political and economic culture to which they surely contributed. Sorry for the rant but it made me feel good.

In the next couple of weeks we will be wandering around the country visiting children, grandchildren, going to christenings, birthdays and weddings. It should be great fun but the writing will be spotty at best. Stick with me. I'll do my best. Stay well out there and enjoy the remainder of the summer.