It Was Compulsory

On of my favorite rules of thumb from the world of theoretical physics is, “That which is not expressly forbidden is compulsory.” It’s a simple law of probability which observes that given enough time and degrees of freedom any phenomena that could happen will happen. That axiom also applies to any arena were we humans have constructed our own sets of rules to govern behavior: sports, business, civil society, etc. Be it Barry Bonds taking steroids, the New England Patriots illegally video taping opponents coaching signals, the Chinese fudging the ages of Olympic gymnasts, or financial institutions fudging virtually every number on their ledgers; these things will happen unless the rules are enforced.

In the world of physics, life is easy. The rules are enforced by Mother Nature (or a Spinozean God, if you prefer), and breaking the rules is simply not possible. In human endeavors, however, there must be some fashion of governing body to perform that function. Sports leagues have a commissioner. The Olympics have the IOC. It is the role of government, specifically the Executive Branch, to enforce the laws in the business world and civil society. Unfortunately, as far as the business world is concerned, that enforcement has been nonexistent for about 30 years, and now we are all reaping the harvest associated with such neglect.

Oh yes, we have been lying. We have been lying to ourselves for 30 years. We’ve told ourselves that we could allow business to do whatever it damn well pleases, and it will be just fine if we trust the market to fix everything. We told ourselves that government oversight was the problem, not the solution. We told ourselves that we didn’t have to worry about how much debt we carried; individually or as a nation. They were all lies, and now we are all getting called out on our lies. The only question that remains is whether or not we’ll continue believing our lies long enough to elect as President another liar, John McCain.

Would McCain be that much worse than Obama? You better believe it. McCain’s odds-on choice for Treasury Secretary is Phil Gramm. Gramm and Alan Greenspan have been the two most central players in the deregulation fervor that has landed us in this financial mess. Paul Krugman, a professor of economics at Princeton University who moonlights as an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, told Keith Olbermann on the show Countdown, “…we could manage to have another great depression if we work at it hard enough. I think Phil Gramm might be just the guy to do it.” That’s no lie.