Well one thing is certain: whatever those charlatans do, it's not going to fix anything. So far they've dropped interest rates to prop-up the stock market, and pumped hundreds of billions of new dollars into the financial markets to keep them afloat. They're going to fund a national shopping spree with tax-rebate checks and they're talking about new and better regulations.

This, along with any other silly schemes they concoct, will help about as much as a bucket-brigade bailing crew would have helped the Titanic. Government can't fix this problem because government caused it. The only thing they can do that would actually help is to eliminate about a trillion dollars of government spending programs, and even this won't keep us afloat. We're already in too deep. The gunwales are awash. What massive spending cuts would do is give us the chance to build a new and better ship.

Our economic ship has been sinking for a long time. This is because the crew has been tearing apart the ship to fuel the engines for a long time. They keep us, the paying passengers happy by telling us how well the ship is doing and keeping the buffet tables full.

Politicians and government officials like to take credit for a "good economy," and blame someone or something else for a "bad economy." What exactly makes an economy "good" or "bad" depends on whether or not you're in the power position. Either way, all these power-hungry politicians and professional bureaucrats have plans for "improving" the economy while still spending like drunken sailors.

No matter who they are, everyone gets their economic data from a hodgepodge of government derived figures and formulas, indexes and indicators. And these can change. At one time we had a "Gross National Product" that supposedly measured our national wealth production. Now we have a "Gross Domestic Product" that supposedly measures our national wealth production. In short, we give government the authority to manage a baseless, fluid money supply; give it the power to define how the economy is measured; and put them in charge of inspection and repair of our economic ship. Would they put that much confidence in you? Ask all those people trying to save the Delta Queen.

The problems created by all this profligate spending and market manipulation are too numerous to count. At the heart of it all, however, is the inference that money = wealth, and since government is the source of all money, it is the source of all wealth. This is foolish, dangerous thinking.

Wealth is a semi-intangible value determined by the combination of two factors.

1. What is this thing I have worth to me?

2. What is this thing I have worth to others?

The "thing" involved can be an object, service, or idea.

Money is only a tool we use to measure and trade wealth. It's an imperfect tool at best. The more they screw around with the money supply, the less accurate and effective a tool it becomes.

Now the truth is, our economy has enjoyed tremendous growth for the last 20 years and more. We have, on the whole, become much more wealthy. We have created an infinity of never-before-dreamed-of market niches that produce untold riches. Unfortunately, we've allowed this wealth to be shamelessly squandered by those who claim to have our best interests at heart. They enact a never-ending stream of laws, creating more crimes, more regulations, more programs, more agencies...each and all of which cost more money. When things occasionally get tight, and we balk at giving them more of our wealth to use, they either print more money or borrow it from somewhere. Either way, they're spending wealth they don't have.

They get away with this because they take credit for this tremendous economic growth; they assume that it will continue indefinitely under their wise manipulation; and they measure most of what they do simply by how much money they spend on it. They apparently have never understood the true cause of this growth, nor recognized the fact that this growth must stall. They also don't seem to realize that they've been spending far beyond our means for a long time.

The robust economy of the last 20 years is not due to wise governance. Republicans tout Reaganomics. Democrats like redistribution. Both approaches have influenced things but neither has anything to do with the true source of this new-found wealth.

Many of you remember the campaign of 1992 and Bill Clinton's now-famous sign: "It's the Economy, Stupid!"

So what's the real source of this sustained growth? "It's the Computer, Stupid!" Or, if you prefer, the integrated circuit.

The computer improved almost everything that already was, and made possible so much more. It, and people making productive use of it, has done more to increase wealth around the world than almost all other discoveries and inventions combined. It has provided huge improvements in efficiency and effectiveness over all aspects of modern life.

This incredible computer-generated-growth, however, cannot continue unabated. It is, even now, on the decline. This doesn't mean that computers won't continue to improve things. It only means that we have already reaped the bulk of the crop. We have gleaned most of the benefits inherent in the move from analog to digital. Future computer-generated improvements will be small in comparison, as will any related economic growth.

For at least 20 years the computer has created tremendous wealth where none existed before, and it has been squandered by politicians, bureaucrats and those that feed at the trough of government largesse. They deride the educational system they helped create, the health-care system they helped pervert, the penal system they helped overfill, the economic system they helped destroy; and then tell us they can fix things with more money.

Twenty years ago, during a discussion with my brother, we agreed that if government would stop its growth at 1987 levels we could probably survive it. We didn't like where things had got to even then. Now, in 2008, it's way too late.

The captain and crew are still optimistic. They say we're just passing through some rough water and assure us the economic ship is unsinkable. The buffet tables are still full, and they'll stay full as long as the crew can find a way to stock them. Eventually, however, despite all their confident bluster, the Titanic will sink.

We seem to be short some lifeboats.