The government is too involved in the recovery of our economy. It’s a bad thing. It sets a bad precedent. Part of the problem stems from the last recession, in which interest rates were held at 1 percent, lower for a longer period of time than was good for the country. Next thing you know, you’ve got subprime mortgages. The bubble bursts—a bubble that enveloped multiple sectors of the economy. And then we announce the need for drastic measures, lest our nation sink into another Great Depression—such was actually whispered in the halls of Congress. Then comes TARP and the stimulus checks. But have they had any real impact in the long-term? It’s doubtful. (Indeed, of the $3.5 billion in stimulus given to California, only $10 million has been used. And over the last 12 months, an additional 5.5 million Americans found themselves out of a job.)

All of this I learned from Professor John B. Taylor, author of Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis. At a lunch yesterday sponsored by the Hoover Institution (where Taylor is a senior fellow), the professor and former Treasury undersecretary made the powerful case for less intervention—including bailouts. In Taylor’s words, this has to do with “making failure tolerable.” I simply recommend you read his book.