“Helicopter Ben” (Bernanke), made so much sense in [some of] yesterday’s speech (AP report below) that I must, in all sincerity, pay him due tribute herein… However, all due tributing aside, my interjections (parenthesized/italicized) point out the paradox that infects Washington ideology and is the essence of our problems – we simply can’t have free markets and a controlled economy at the same time…
Or you might say our policymakers find themselves in the ultimate Catch 22 (a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired by not being in that very situation; therefore, the acquisition of this thing becomes logically impossible. Catch-22s are often spoken with regard to rules, regulations, procedures, or situations in which one has knowledge of being or becoming a victim but has no control over it occurring…)
AP