The Banality of Bailouts, Special-Interests, and Political Corruption
30th October 2012
Todd Zywiki takes on Neil Barofsky, naive bureaucrat.
Yet throughout his tome, Barofsky repeatedly remains shocked to find politics at the heart of the TARP process. Even at the end he seems to believe that such programs can and should be insulated from political pressure—all that is necessary is to put people like him in charge and allow them to do what is right. But, of course, this dream of eliminating politics from government decision-making and the allure of putting unaccountable do-gooders in charge of the government are the same warmed-over naive platitudes that are so responsible for the soaring growth of government and special-interest rent-seeking since the Progressive Era first foisted the model on America at the beginning of the twentieth-century: appoint more wise and incorruptible people like me and everything will be fine. If only it were so easy.