Department of Cognitive Dissonance

November 13, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Bush Administration, Economic issues 

In today’s Wall Street Journal, under the headline “Bush Defends American Capitalism Ahead of G-20 Summit,” John D. McKinnon gives a preview of President Bush’s upcoming speech: 

“Ultimately, the best evidence for free market capitalism is its performance compared to other economic systems,” he will say. “Free markets allowed Japan — an island nation with few natural resources — to recover from war and grow into the world’s second-largest economy. Free markets allowed South Korea to make itself one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world. Free markets turned small areas like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan into global economic players. And today, the success of the world’s largest economies comes from their embrace of free markets.”

In today’s Forbes.com, under the headline “Washington’s $5 Trillion Tab,” Elizabeth Moyer writes:

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.

The estimate includes many of the various solutions cooked up by Paulson and his counterparts Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and Sheila Bair at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as the credit crisis continues to plague banks and the broader markets.

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