Unfortunately there are people around who think they are in control of a moving world. Their pride has taken them beyond human limitations, a fate they are unable to carry. I cannot believe they are sincerely trying to make others better off. I think they like being in control too much. This is why messing with the economy is one of their priorities.

My latest outburst has found its fuel in an article on the Spanish economy by the Financial Times. In the article Mr. Zapatero, the present socialist prime minister, defends his policies against the background of a spreading sub prime crisis to the Spanish economy. It is said that this economy has been flourishing on the back of cheap credit and a housing boom. Here are some of his defences that could have originated from any politician in favour of meddling in the economy.

Zapatero said he was confident Spain would grow by “at least” 3 per cent in 2008, compared with 3.7 per cent in 2007 and that, with the end of the construction boom, growth would be “more balanced, more productive and more sustainable”.
Where did get the percentages from? What do they mean? Can we hold him accountable when the figure is below 3%? How does he control all the global variables that determine this Spanish figure? What is the value of his confidence? Balanced?

He hit back yesterday, saying there was “too much unjustified alarm” about the impact of the credit squeeze on Spain and that doomsayers were “unpatriotic” and would be proved wrong.
These two statements are like a buzzing radio. It is false and an annoyance. Is this all the chief economic engineer can come up with… unjustified… by what standards? Unpatriotic… having an opposite opinion on the economy… and you do not like the place you were born?

“I have full confidence in the economy now and in the future,” he told a breakfast meeting with business executives.”
Zapatero lacking table manners and burping.

If re-elected, he said his government would aim to create 2m jobs over the next four years.
These kind of statements are empty. Two million new jobs created… at the expense of 2 million jobs destroyed? Or 2.2 million destroyed and 2 million new jobs created? How does he create these jobs? What on earth makes him think that by interfering he would contribute to job creation? Or doesn’t he interfere at all and claim that, regardless of the results, it is because of him…?

“We are now wealthier than the Italians in per capita terms,” Mr Zapatero boasted. On the eve of a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the Spanish premier said it was a “national objective” to overtake France in per capita GDP.
I’d better not ask myself about the national objective. Probably a burp.

And the things that were not worthwhile mentioning:
He did not mention a current account deficit of close to 10 per cent of GDP, a big increase in household and corporate debt and the highest rate of inflation of the past 10 years.
This is a grenade without a safety pin. I am not Spanish, so I cannot be called unpatriotic… I guess.

These left wing ideologies have no survival value. They are short term sweeteners that are paid for in the long run. By nationalising economics corruption cancer takes over the healthy parts. As the economy becomes monopolised politicians become vulnerable to interest groups. Mistakes are not being punished. Free riding will burn up all the fuel that once made a country prosper. And it attracts idiots to the power… as Mr. Zapatero flawlessly demonstrates.