It is common knowledge that the economy is floundering, that builders and their suppliers are struggling, that mortgage lenders are sinking, and that perhaps as many as 2,000,000 homes will be foreclosed. The most important question is what will the US government do. Will it try to pump up the economy with more debt? Will it save the mortgage bankers by using Fanny and Freddie to buy a $trillion of their defaulted mortgages? Or, will it preserve domestic tranquility by aborting the foreclosures?

I believe that the government cannot avert an economic slowdown. It cannot prevent a recession. And, it probably will cause a depression because our elected representatives will do what they always do, i.e., the bidding of the lobbyists.