I have sometimes bristled at the arguments presented by Geroge Will, and his dig at Obama seems particularly unneeccessary in his piece, nevertheless, I find myself very sympathetic to his arguments today. A must read in these troubled times.
The most important part of the piece is the linkage between economic regulation, executive power, and the clueless nature of the legislature. As economic regulation grows, it strengthens the hand of the executive. It does this for two reasons. First, the bureaucracy is primarily, though not solely, under the thumb of the Executive branch. Secondly, and more importantly, because when bureacratizers are asked to use economic rationality to regulate means-ends calculations, it is desirable that the ends are as clear as possible, and the branch that can define the ends most clearly is the Executive since the executive speaks with one voice. The bilout represents a triumph of the executive over de-centered economic rationality – economic decisions whose ends are freely chosen by the individuals who choose them based on the incentive structures they find around them – which portends the destabiliztion of the commercial republic on both of its axes. The constitutional arrangment of our society that free commerce creates and the arrangement of separating and balancing powers between the institutions of government may find themselves altered so substantially by this “recovery” process, that they will be too far gone to recognize on the other side.
Posted by stevenmaloney 
