Voodoo

Economics rules the roost. The New York Times opines here Mr. Paulson’s Client that Treasury Secretary Paulson is going to "...get the banks lending freely again". I have to ask Mr. Paulson: who do you expect the banks to lend to - other than themselves? The consumer is tapped out. The consumer has no collateral left to borrow against. The consumer is even getting his credit card limit reduced for goshsakes! When the banks pass up a chance to charge usurious rates, it shows pretty clearly that the Financial Wizards Of Wall Street understand that the loans they make aren't very likely to get repaid. Besides, with the government shovelling money at them with both hands, why should they exert any effort to look for another source of wealth? As for the economists contribution, the prevalence of the words "Confidence" - the stock in trade of the con man, and "Faith", the stock in trade of the Priest - it kind of gives the lie to the idea of "The Science Of Economics". Face it, its All Voodoo Economics.
Oh: a wink and a nod to Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Prize winner for the above-mentioned Science of Economics (AKA the Dismal Science). He's the only economist I know of offhand who can rise above his spreadsheets and charts, and make mention of the human aspects of economic activity. To wit: (my concept of the whole thing), there's not much reason for the creation of Goods & Services except to enable people to enjoy Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. For the most part, though, people just screw up the economist's charts and equations. Reduce the beauty of the system to a shambles by not acting like the economist's Fully Specified Predictive Model.
Tough!