The economy is like a dog; it’s our best friend (especially here in America). We need to take care of it like a dog too. We don’t want it to run wild through the neighborhood because it might annoy our neighbors or get hurt somehow. At the same time, we don’t want to lock it up in a little cage all day long, because that’s just not fair to the dog. So, what do we do? We build a fence around the house and we give the dog free range to do as it pleases within this specific set of boundaries. That way, our dog can play and grow to its heart’s content, but we can still keep our eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get lost or hit by a car.

Likewise, we don’t want our economy running rampant because the brutal reality of a truly “free” market is that it’s a dog-eat-dog world and some of these other dogs have nuclear weapons. Also, even the top dogs slip up sometimes, so if our government doesn’t look out for the economy it could quickly sink to the bottom of the dog pile. But simultaneously, we don’t want the government to micromanage every little detail in our economy either. Our market needs to be flexible so that it can adequately satisfy the changing preferences of an evolving society. So, what do we do? We regulate its behavior through the passing of legislation that allows the market the freedom to serve its purpose, but also allows us to keep a close eye on it and grants the government the ability to step in when the market fails at its job.

Our dog just got hit by a car. George W. Bush left the side door on our fence wide open and our dog ran right out. You can blame the dog all you want for running out that door, but it won’t do you any good because it only did what dogs instinctually do. The person to blame is the person who left that door open in the first place because they should’ve known better. Now, even if our pet economy makes a fully recovery we’ve got to close that door, or else it’s just going run back out again.