Consequences schmonsequences... as long as I'm rich.

The consequences of the great American real estate gamble continue to accumulate. In formerly booming real estate markets, like southern Florida, prices have again started to decline. The interesting thing is a sizeable proportion of the population and media seems to expect the federal government to remedy what, basically, were bad purchase decisions by individual buyers. Of course this seems to parallel a number of recently stated public expectations where we expect profits to be private and losses to be socialized. Whether this approach is healthy for civic society, or our country, remains to be seen.

Contracts, from my perspective, represent a codified public trust between individuals, or groups, whose only relationship may be the commercial transaction they jointly participate in. Is it really the duty of the federal government to isolate us from the negative consequences of those relationships and contracts we voluntarily enter? Would this destroy the power of markets to discipline both buyers and sellers (specifically caveat emptor). More importantly, would we want a federal government with such powers?