If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times.  Politicians and pundits, discussing the housing meltdown, have made speculators the demon du jour, just as they were six months ago when the price of oil was through the roof.  How many times have you heard the "not playing by the rules" rhetoric?  Besides being blatantly false, it's a dangerous message to be sending, and a large part of why Wall Street is crumbling.

Risk has become the latest four-letter word.  It is at the center of a fashionable and troubling attack on free markets and the investor class.  Risk taking was, in many respects, out of control.  Regulators were asleep at the switch.  Against the rules, however, is far different from lacking control.  Words matter, particularly when they are perceived to be indicative of the policy preferences of our President and Legislature.  These attacks, whether purposeful or inadvertent, are being interpreted as an assault on Capitalism.  Is it any wonder why the market is off 50% and heading lower?

Many politicians struggle with this Capitalism thing.  It's hard for them to get their arms around the fact that excess is its residue.  We are the biggest magnet for capital, talent, entrepreneurship, and innovation because the rewards are so great.  In return, we export progress, wealth, and security around the globe. 

Capitalism benefits from sensible regulation, but recoils when the hand of government is too heavy.  And, boy is it ever heavy right now. 

The pendulum is swinging way too far in the wrong direction.  We need no more proof than the following quote from a few days ago:

“Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”

Was this said by one of the Republicans leaders in the House or Senate?  Or, perhaps Hannity or Limbaugh?

Nope, it was Vladimir Putin.  That's right, PUTIN.  In the same interview, he said,

"The US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence."

When Putin starts lecturing the United States on the evils of Socialism and the merits of Free Markets, something's up.  In my view, it signals one of two things...the end of the world as we know it; or, we've hit bottom and will start to see an upturn sometime soon.

I'm an optimist, so I choose the latter interpretation.  Of course, it won't happen without all of us saying enough is enough.