Crying wolf?

When the negotiated $700-billion financial bailout failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives the stock market responded with the largest single drop in history, costing investors more than a trillion dollars in value, more than the cost of the proposed fix. This plan was voted down despite the president and his chief economic advisors sounding the alarm that this action was necessary to avert a complete economic collapse.

There are plenty of reasons to be wary of a costly fix like this one, but the plan’s defeat could be attributed to the lesson taught in the old fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Time after time we have been subjected to alarmist rhetoric by the administration when they desired a particular outcome, only to find that the threats they cited were overblown or even non-existent.

It’s dangerous that we’ve reached the point that few are listening anymore.