So how does one make rational decisions? Answer: imperfect always , but past experience with sleazy used car salesmen, or to go down a notch, politicians who push hurry-up legislation they haven't read and frantically screaming fear while they do it, often turn out to be the road with two bears on it.

I must admit that I view these particular politicians as seeming not to mind heading into the very same danger area that their friends the Russian bear took!

Or simply put in the words of Rhamn Emmanual -a crisis is too good of a thing to waste.

We took the wrong road. Gird your loins, turn around and fight the damned bear!

Marxism ....
is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a critical analysis of capitalism and a theory of social change. The powerful and innovative methods of analysis introduced by Marx have been very influential in a broad range of disciplines. In the 21st century, Marxist approaches have a theoretical presence in the Western academic fields of anthropology,[1] media studies,[2] theater, history, sociological theory, education, economics,[3] literary criticism, aesthetics, and philosophy.[4]

(I did not say "capitalism" above because in the traditional definition is also about concentrations of power ... but in the traditional form it also no longer exists. We have been a post-capitalist society since the 1920's. The older Galbraith (whatever you think of his politics) correctly observed that we moved to a managerial capitalism which is not at all the same thing.)

To look at the best path going forward we have to get back to the basic idea that we believe in democratic market economies, and try to balance those two ideas rationally (and non-ideologically).

I think that all along we have had a Washington/Wall Street industrial complex, particularly with regard to housing finance.

Arnold is singing my tune. Quite literally, I've made this comment here a number of times. It isn't Wall Street taking over Washington or just Washington taking over Wall Street. I think there has been a symbiotic relationship that is perverse in its very nature that has been going on for a very long time. Paulson, Geithner, Rubin, Emanuel, Bentsen, Brady, etc. all came from financial sector backgrounds or have had links there. They move back and forth between government and finance with tremendous ease, and I'm sure they aren't the only ones. The whole thing is rather incestuous.

This confuses cause with effect.

Government via its representatives wants more power, always. So it looks for opportunities to grab more power. Sometimes is creates them out of whole cloth (e.g. drug war). Other times such opportunities fall right in their lap (e.g. the financial crisis). You can see this intent clearly in the writings and comments of people like Rahm Emanuel.

Basically, you never let a good crisis go to waste. The "great leaders" (whom I'd argue are always bad men) are the one's who see the possibilities a crisis presents and seizes them.

In this way, Arnold is right. It is also the same conclusion arrived at by Robert Higgs. Partisanship is only a side issue, IMO. After all, each side will increase their power knowing full well that in a few years the other side might be taking control and enjoying that power. Partisan issues doesn't really seem to prevent the growth of government, at best it might slow it down at times.

Glenn Reynolds also has the same failure of basic logic & common sense:

what will do the most to increase the concentration of power?

Ummm... the fact that the banking industry got pretty much everything it could possibly have wanted out of the initial program (the recent bonus dustup only happened after the general public started learning just how generous we've already been) seems like de facto evidence that the power Glenn seems so frightened of was already concentrated there and is just being abused where the public can see it now...

[typed with my pinky]

Democrats and Republicans in office both want more power. This crisis is giving them the ability to consolidate and increase power like never before. Firing a CEO? Forcing banks to take more TARP money? Owning an insurance company? These are drastic departures from the traditional role of government and are going on while other, less intrusive solutions are ignored.

Reasonable minds can disagree but I think history will prove this to be a power grab to move us toward European type socialism. Welfare state, higher regulations, some central planning. You have to have concentrated power to move us that direction.