By Selwyn Duke

When I ponder the bailout of the government sponsored enterprises
(GSEs), a move which will cost American taxpayers $200 billion (and who
knows how much more tomorrow?), I can’t help but think of some wisdom
expressed in an oft-used, apocryphal quotation:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent
form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they
can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment
on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most
benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy
always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a
dictatorship.

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