Now what?

Former student John Tamny has an idea:

It’s probably naive to ask this considering the basic governmental incentive to grow, but if Washington won’t countenance the market-clearing and cleansing process that would be a path to recovery, why not at least minimize the government’s role through basic industrial policy? We always hear about how tax cuts “cost” the Treasury versus “stimulus” and $700B in spending that will allegedly aid the economy at a profit, but if bank balance sheets really are a mess, why not zero out capital gains treatment on the purchase of toxic securities to foster a private rescue?