FEBRUARY 3, 2009 --

A Bailout for Every Pot?

Government, can you spare half a billion dollars for the Lonely Pamphleteer Review?

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No corporate bailouts until the execs are replaced, new ones hired on reasonable salary only, and jobs made available to the unemployed.

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Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank must apologize to the American people for the sub-prime mortgage fiasco -- or be removed from Congress.

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Federal Chairman Bernanke -- Do you still hold " … that monetary forces, particularly if unleashed in a destabilizing direction, can be extremely powerful.

The best thing that central bankers can do for the world is to avoid such crises by providing the economy with, in Milton Friedman's words, a "stable monetary background" -- for example as reflected in low and stable inflation."

And, Chairman Benrnake, do you still acknowledge, "Regarding the Great Depression" that Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz were "right, we [the Federal Reserve] did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."

That is to say, Chairman Bernanke, reviewing what some might call the "financial meltdown" of the past year, have you, in fact, done it again?

Unithought, yes; diversity, no?

Four letters to the editor do not a movement make; still, the four letters to The New York Times, commenting on the end of William Kristol's column, effectively express relief that Kristol was kaput -- at the Times, at least. The letters appeared January 28. None was from New York City; three were from the 'burbs and one was from San Francisco.

Now What About David Brooks?

Mr. Brooks' New York Times column is safe, LPR believes. His remarks, January 27 on the op-ed page of The New York Times, extolling the meaning of institutions in our lives included this observation: "Journalism imposes habits that help reporters keep a mental distance from those they cover." Placing a fanciful comment like that in the Times means, LPR believes, that Mr. Brooks, once considered a "conservative," will never have to say he is sorry to the paper's editorial page editor.