When I got the registered letter from the Treasury Department, I was naturally concerned. But the plans they laid out inside gave me a welcome sense of relief. It turns out that our government finally recognizes that plenty of financial blogs out there, mine included, have done some posts in the past which were subprime. On the whole, there are bad grammar choices, clumsy prognostications, jokes made in poor taste, unsettling images, and offensive comments.
I've never felt comfortable actually deleting any old posts, since I believe my writing should stand on its own, but the government has offered to buy up these "toxic posts" and bundle them together into one large Bad Blog. Of course, Slope isn't too severely affected, but some blogs are. The Fly's blog alone has been weighing on the U.S. dollar for months, and the rampant misspellings over in Lindzon-land were part of the chaos behind this autumn's plunge in energy prices.
I, for one, welcome our new Treasury overlords. And I will leave you this quote from Cicero, dated 55 B.C., sent to me this morning by a thoughtful reader. It goes to show you just how wise we've become over the ensuing two millinea.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."