The economy is doomed! DOOMED!

Dan Eggen writes in the WaPo today that W. is playing a " largely peripheral" role when it comes to sorting out this whole financial mess.

So far, so good.

See when W. says things like, "it's important not to over correct -- because when you over correct, you end up in the ditch," he kind of lets on that he knows about as much about the economy as he does about waging war, never a good thing when you're trying to convince the country not to panic.

The thing is, he and his fellow "conservatives" are of the long held belief that the government should take a hands -off approach to the markets -- let that invisible hand do its magic -- except, that is, when those very same "conservatives" drive the economy into a ditch, through their unbelievable greed and stupidity. Then they want the tax payer to foot the bill to clean up their mess every time. (Like W. had the Saudis pull him out of his business disasters.)

They just keep driving us into the ditch, over and over, and there are no consequences, for them, at least.

This is where the "we're all doomed" part comes in. . .

Eggen writes: "Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economic adviser to the McCain campaign, said Bush is appropriately allowing Bernanke, Paulson and other financial experts to take the lead in crafting the government's market strategies. 'If any president does their job right, the key is you set the policy agenda and you put in place the right people to carry that agenda out,' Holtz-Eakin said. 'You have the entire regulatory apparatus, and you populate it with people who share your philosophy.'"

Yeah, that CEO approach worked so well with Rummy and Wolfy in Iraq. And Brownie did a hecka'va job in New Orleans, too. The problem is, when your philosophy is based solely on the principle that regulation is always bad, then populating the entire regulatory apparatus with your hand-chosen people doesn't really do much towards doing anything.

As long as this bunch in is power, they're going to be content to just sit back and make sure their people are taken care of and while Rome burns below them they'll be laughing all the way to the bank (if its still there).

What these dummies don't realize is that they're now crushing the very people whose shoulders they've been standing on. When no one has a job anymore and no one is buying big screen TVs and burning up a lot of gasoline on those big summer vacations, then they're going to wake up to the fact that they're screwed, too. By then, naturally, it'll be too late, just like the 1930's.