Like all right thinking people in our nation's capital, the Washington Post supports President Bush's bailout. However, its single-minded pursuit of fiscal austerity led it to make an assertion that would be good grounds for defeating the package. The Post told readers that, "when you strip away all the rhetoric, pro and con, TARP amounts to a deliberate but as-yet-unquantifiable reduction in our future wealth -- for the sake of our present stability." Actually, the other proponents of the bill are claiming that the bailout will increase our future wealth. The claim is that the bailout will prevent a sharper downturn, thereby maintaining higher levels of output. This increases national wealth, although it could mean a larger federal debt. It's not clear if the Post differs with other proponents of the bailout, and actually thinks it will lower output or whether it equates the national debt with the country's wealth. In either case, the Post appears to hold a very peculiar view of either the bailout or the economy.
--Dean Baker
