Breakdown City

Washington, D.C., is breakdown city. There are the fiscal breakdowns of unaffordable Obamacare with two new entitlements, and an unaffordable $862 billion stimulus plan that has had little or no economic impact. There's the economic breakdown of a spread-the-wealth tax attack on investors and successful earners. There's the loan breakdown of a full-scale government assault on the banks, including a $90 billion bank tax. And there's an inflation breakdown as more doves are being appointed to an already too-ultra-easy Federal Reserve.

These are all anti-growth policies. Yes, the economy is in the throes of a V-shaped recovery. I've been saying that for months now. But is this recovery a temporary false dawn, or can we be confident it has legs? Will Washington's deficit-spending and debt-monetization policies be reversed, or is the soaring gold price a true negative signal for the future?

And is the prosperity path really in our future? Or are we going down the welfare-state road of Old Europe?

Will we grow, or will we stagnate?

The markets got whacked this week as more government agencies whacked the banks. The G-men have launched a full-scale bank assault. And for what? Do they really want us to go back to using Indian wampum, or do they want a healthy and recovering banking system to provide credit to the economy? Bail out the banks, then criminalize them, then throw them in jail? Huh?

It's breakdown city. Nothing good can come of it.