For several decades now we have dismantled the system of restrictions on wealth thought necessary to prevent economic catastrophe like the one that befell us in the early part of the last century. We bought the lines; everything from “greed is good” to “government isn't the solution, government is the problem.”

We again allowed the re-concentration of wealth and economic power to replace the egalitarian principles in which we'd put our faith and trust, and that were working. We gave up on guaranteeing opportunity, and now it's opportunism that's guaranteed.

A 19th century Frenchman, skeptical of a society grown so unequal, observed ironically, “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” A countryman had similarly observed that behind every great fortune there is a crime. But a crime, I would add, beyond the ken of the poor.

We live in a similar time. Governance, application of the law or lack thereof, makes it less likely that the poor will be found stealing from the rich than the rich stealing from the poor.

In an economy with more bubbles than the Lawrence Welk Show, when the speculators and exploiters become the victims of their own overreaching greed, who do they expect to keep them whole? The same government they decried as the problem. And how would they have us absolve their sins? It's their hand you feel in your pocket.

As we transfer literally trillions from the public purse to the private accounts of insurance companies, brokerages and investment banks, it is done with the explanation that not to do so would be catastrophic.
Well, catastrophic for who? They explain, that would be us. Pension and retirement accounts would be gutted. The financial fallout would drive up inflation and unemployment. It would be a “meltdown” to continue the nuclear metaphor.

But like Icahn on a rampage through corporate reserves, the truth is, that bank's already been robbed. And it's only the printing and minting of new that perpetuates the illusion of monetary security and fiscal propriety.

The dollar we set aside yesterday for tomorrow won't buy fifty cents worth of bread today.

No, the catastrophe for us has already occurred. The catastrophe they would allay would indeed have the rich sleeping under bridges. They've already stolen our bread and driven too many to begging in the streets.

Real conservatives are above all, self reliant. They don't feed at the Federal Reserve. And they cover their own bets. The neo con isn't any different than the old con. As the ancient Roman asked, “what power has law where only money rules?”