How much is a dollar worth if ...

As I write this (January 31, 2010), the media are reporting that the special inspector general at the Treasury Department, Neil Barofsky, who has been assigned to monitor the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP, aka The Bank Bailout), has today warned Congress that the problems within the financial system that created the market collapse are worse now than before the TARP began.

Part of the reason for the alarm is the fact that the government has been borrowing to prop up the housing market, and, with the collusion of the Federal Reserve, has been holding interest rates at artificially low levels. A point will soon be reached at which the borrowing will have to cease, since the foreign lenders will realize that the risk levels have risen, and the subsidization will end. This will initiate another collapse in housing prices.

I have a question : How much is a dollar worth if it doesn't cost anything to borrow it?

We can see that government intervention in the marketplace is rapidly leading the United States to bankruptcy. Rather than trying to expand spending, Congress needs to concentrate on how to best avoid foreclosure by the nation's creditors.

If anyone thinks that the Chinese government (our major creditor) will simply roll over and forgive our debt, they need to study the tactics of the Tongs. The future of our country looks bleak, not because the people lack the willingness to work and pay their debts, but because the Congress has used the nation's credit card and gone over the limit.

The spending on bailouts, foreign aid, and domestic programs must stop.