McCain’s economic plan: Bush doctrine in sheep’s clothing?
McCain's plan to fix the economy revolves around the creation of a new agency he's dubbed the Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust (or MFI). His description of the mission and methods of the MFI sound kind of familiar, though... From the NYTimes:
Mr. McCain said that the new entity he proposed Thursday — the Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust — would differ from similar agencies in the past because it would not wait for financial institutions to become insolvent before offering help.
"This trust will work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and fix them before they become insolvent,'' he said in a hastily arranged speech here this morning to a chamber of commerce. "The M.F.I. is an early intervention program to help financial institutions avoid bankruptcy, expensive bailouts and damage to their customers. This will get the Treasury and other financial regulatory authorities in a proactive position instead of reacting in a crisis mode to one situation after another.''
So if I understand correctly, this plan would allow the government to "intervene" in situations they've "identified" as potentially problematic, and "fix" them before we have a chance of finding out one way or the other.
Can anyone say "Bush Doctrine"?
This basic idea -- "get them before they even attempt to get us" -- has worked out so well in the military implementation... why not try it out on the economy? And hey, they even fit together -- the MFI can identify wars that are sucking $10b/month out of the economy and "fix" those, too! Man, John McCain is an economic genius, I tell you.