Car on Mars, Revisited

Once upon a time, I likened attempts to 'fix' our economy to 'driving a car on Mars'. Every input has a delayed reaction, so you must be careful not to give it too much 'gas' (read: 'stimulus') too quickly, and you'd better be ready with the 'brakes' (read:'the Fed raising interest rates') if the pace gets too hot.

What was I thinking? If our leaders are to be believed, we've shot so much fuel into that car on Mars that it ought to be ricocheting between the frozen carbon dioxide drenched poles. Yet the reality seems the car is stuck in the Martian dust, and if it's moving, we can't see it from here.

Perhaps the economy isn't like a car on Mars but like a car sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Giving it gas just moves it around the bottom, but it'll never reach the surface and see the sun, no matter how fast it goes.

Or maybe it IS like that car on Mars, but the fuel hasn't been getting to it. We've been madly pumping it in, but there's a leak, maybe a blow-out, and the fuel has never reached our stranded car.

Or it could be the people we've hired to control the car and get the fuel to it just don't know what they are doing.

I do hope we can recover that car someday, don't you?