Opinion |

Op-Ed: 100 days of failure for a new president

By Jonathan Zappala

Posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009, 6:16 am

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President Obama was elected running on the promise he was going to be the one to come up with a plan to fix the economy. Almost 100 days into his presidency, all he has done of substance is pass more stimulus plans and bailouts. The only good news has been a rise in home sales, which lead to the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching 8,000 points recently. This has happened too early for any of the measures in the stimulus bill to take effect. It is also unlikely that throwing money at banks got people to buy houses. The most likely reason for the rise in home sales was that the free market was allowed to correct itself.

Home prices finally reached their bottom dollar value, a price determined by the market. It can all be explained by simple supply and demand. Many homes were built, the housing bubble burst and finally the price went down enough to move the supply of homes in a market where there is a low demand because of the recession.

The market corrected itself, which led to a boost in consumer confidence shown by a surge in the markets.

Regulation was supposed to be the answer to the recession – at least that is what the elected politicians told us. They told us the markets would not fix themselves and that banks needed to be regulated because they got us into this mess.

The fact is, this mess was caused by regulation beginning in the ’90s when Congress told banks they had to give out more loans so everyone could own a home. Then – just as the banks expected – these people became unable to pay their loans when times got tough. All because of government interference.

Winston Churchill said, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” He meant taxing the rich and spending their money in the way the government sees fit is futile and will not produce any results. Yet Obama, who says he is a “citizen of the world,” would not agree with this famous statement.

Another one of the solutions to America’s problems Obama has proposed is to tax the wealthy more and give more taxpayer money to the poor. The government should focus on making a favorable situation that promotes a strong economy while letting the markets run their course, instead of regulating the markets and taxing the productivity of those who run America’s businesses.

The favorable situation should be limited to the laws that keep customers from being cheated by predatory companies who try to take advantage of them. The best solution, and one that has been proven to work before, will happen on its own. American ingenuity working in the capitalist system will cause the markets to fix themselves.

The best solution – the one our politicians are not considering – is to let the businesses that survive make the decisions on how to right the course we’re on, rather than politicians. After all, politicians are paid the same whether they succeed or fail at running our country.

Jonathan Zappala is a junior psychology student.