Government consistently works to undermine trust in other institutions in order to build its power. That is calculated to increase anxiety, and dependency on the state. It is a sort of reverse confidence trick. The ordinary con-man creates a false relationship of trust, and lets you believe he has something you actually want. The key political trick is, to create false suspicion in order to make you seek a “safety” you never really needed.
Now governments that have spent a decade or more telling the public to be very, very afraid, that it is helpless and needs more powerful government to save it, are very ill-adapted to deal with a loss of confidence in the financial markets. They seem to grasp dimly that stopping a panic ought to be the aim, but their approach to stopping a panic is to appear on television for emergency announcements that the situation is uniquely grave and unpredictable and so government is now going to be doing big arbitrary things inconsistently and without warning.
If they wanted calm resolution from others, then demonstrating it themselves might be a good way to start. But they don’t know how.
This financial turmoil bothers me. Why are so many determined to deal with a debt laden problem by extending even more credit?
Bad money chasing bad!
Guy, very astute point. As H.L. Mencken put it, governments are in the business of fostering panics and then trying to extend power to deal with them. When genuine shit hits the fan, they lack the stock of goodwill from the public to deal with the problems.
Perhaps the best thing would be for all policymakers to go on holiday for the next 12 months. I have heard worse ideas.
Jonathan:
I don’t know how this explains, say, the attitude of the (US) Fraternal Order of Police or International Association of Chair Pilots (excuse me, “Chiefs of Police”) and their attitude towards self-defense, except for the fact that it makes perfect sense.
I vote for sending them to a climate change conference in Bali. And revoking their passports while they’re there.