I just read an interesting article on the current $700 billion bailout package recently approved by the Senate and on its way to the House. The article, entitled, “Economists Raise Concerns About Bailout Plan,” by John R. Lott Jr., indicates that “Interviews with a dozen prominent academic economists, Obama supporters as well as McCain supporters, found little support for the bailout bill.”
Lott concludes his article as follows: “Economists might be known for disagreeing with each other, but there is surprising agreement regarding the bailout and the causes for the current financial problems. There was no support for the broad bailout being discussed in Washington, and the economists believed that the same outcome could be achieved at much lower cost to the taxpayers.”
Now if this is true, somebody please tell me what the heck is going on. Shouldn’t our country’s top economists be central in writing any legislation required to clean up this mess? If we had a bird flu epidemic, wouldn’t we want doctors and epidemiologists telling us what to do rather than a bunch of politicians? If NASA has an emergency in space, does it consult Congress on how to resolve the issue?
If our top economists are warning against the bailout package, why is nobody listening to them?
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