"The rescue is being sold as a must-have emergency measure
by an administration with a controversial record when it comes
to asking Congress for special authority in time of duress."
***
Mr. Paulson has argued that the powers he seeks are necessary
to chase away the wolf howling at the door: a potentially swift
shredding of the American financial system. That would be catastrophic
for everyone, he argues, not only banks, but also ordinary Americans
who depend on their finances to buy homes and cars, and to pay
for college.
Some are suspicious of Mr. Paulson’s characterizations,
finding in his warnings and demands for extraordinary powers
a parallel with the way the Bush administration gained authority
for the war in Iraq. Then, the White House suggested that mushroom
clouds could accompany Congress’s failure to act. This
time, it is financial Armageddon supposedly on the doorstep.
“This is scare tactics to try to do something that’s
in the private but not the public interest,” said Allan
Meltzer, a former economic adviser to President Reagan, and
an expert on monetary policy at the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School
of Business. “It’s terrible.”
Does this signal a sea change in the elite's approval of the use of
the shock doctrine? Or is this just a temporary aberration or political
posturing?
