May 30, 2010: Michael Lewis – author of The Big Short – writes in the New York Times that members of Congress and the Administration are just too dull witted to promulgate an effective set of financial regulations. His message seems to be that we have elected exactly the kind of government that suits Wall Street just fine.

The Washington Post reported that BP brought in workers for the President’s visit to the Gulf Coast and then sent them away afterward.

June 1, 2010: It is rare that second-order effects surface so clearly than in the Tea Party’s approach to the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. You would expect that the party of small government – keep the Federal Government from taking over health care and the like – would oppose any attempts to extend government power – particularly if it meant disenfranchising voters. But as Matt Bai writes in his recent piece – Tea Party’s Push on Senate Election Exposes Limits – sometimes those who start out north end up going south.

Building on that thought, I wonder if the series of calamities which have buffeted the American economy will finally break the love affair with laissez faire capitalism. How much does the prey have to be bled before the vampire is seen as the enemy?

May 29, 2010: Most politicians have no talent for anticipating second order effects. Like modern American executives, they are focused on the near-term, intended results – one the one hand, increased bonuses at virtually any cost to anyone else; on the other, the advancement of a political theology without considering its cost. Instrumental people will always commit such errors in judgment and, until we find an alternative, America will always bear the cost of such a limited vision.

May 28, 2010: Have you noticed, this Administration has a way of turning crisis into political gain. Many Presidents make their reputations by being lucky. Reagan and Roosevelt come to mind. But this President is making a reputation by responding to each crisis by ratcheting a process forward. Just when the climate bill looks dead, the disaster in the gulf. Now energy and climate are back on the table. The opposition has a real problem supporting their sponsors and attacking the President. Just when immigration reform seems dead, the Arizona law. Now immigration reform seems to have legs. The opposition is put in a difficult position because, if the President responds positively to Arizona,t hey are left with arguing over the measure of that response. Just when the Financial Reform package seems headed towards interminable congressional gridlock, the Goldman lawsuit. Congress passes a bill and it is heading for the President’s desk. Again the opposition is as a disadvantage as it is very difficult to take the side of Wall Street against main street – particularly in an election year. This might give rise to a new motto: It is better to be unlucky than good!

May 27, 2010: It is sometimes hard to see how the second order effects of a particular action support the political philosophy of the proponents of that action. In a world where corporations and coalitions of companies and governments wield such enormous power, understanding the implications of this or that – or the intent of the various actors – forging such a connection becomes more difficult each day.

One the surface things seem complex enough – but below the surface the complexity becomes mind-bending. Take, for instance, the recent Arizona law. Promulgated by a group of small government Republicans, the law’s principal intent seems to be to goad the Federal Government into action on comprehensive immigration reform. Fair enough as far as that goes but the result of this goading is to significantly increase the power and prerogatives of that government.

The second level implications of the actions in Arizona directly conflict with the fundamental political philosophy of the proponents. As a direct result of their action, Arizona Republicans will challenge Posse Comitatus (a significant limit on the prerogatives of the Federal Government) and increase that government’s power over them. It is almost as if the Federal Government, in an effort to extend its power, had initiated the Arizona law.

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The behavior of the current administration is clear evidence of how far off the tracks politicians have taken Mr. Madison’s government. A candidate that ran on the slogan ‘change you can believe in’ has morphed into a president that clearly believes in political expediency that trumps the rule of law. Nowhere is that more evident than in the administration’s pronouncements regarding investigation of possible crimes by senior members of the last administration.

The new slogan is ‘look forward not backward’. Translated into language that we can all understand – ‘we politicians will protect any politician’s ability to break the law with impunity – after all, we want the same right – as for the rule of law – well is is more like a guideline – and piss on it anyway.’ Of course, the rule of law does apply to us ordinary mortals – you know, the non-celebrities in the population.

But continue to sleep soundly America. Those who occupy the heady heights – the Olympus that your tax dollars and the mortgage on your childrens’ future continue to pay for – they rest safe above the rule of law.

And what do you have to look forwartd to? One administration after another increasing the protection of all politicians from this pesky rule of law. Their efforts will not cease until all politicians – republican, democrat and independent – are sheltered from the necessity – let us say the inconvenience – of the rule of law.