Noonan's mood, redux

Peggy Noonan, WSJ columnist, today writes pessimistically about America and its economy, and especially about what she sees as its lack of leadership. As a Bush hater, presumably she especially senses a lack of presidential leadership.

She zeros in on the $50 billion Madoff scandal and suggests that's just one of the reasons for her despair. She laments what she sees as the collapse of faith in our institutions. "Not only in Wall Street but in our entire economy, and in government. And of course there's Blago." "The reigning ethos," she writes, "seems to be every man for himself."

But it has always been like that. Relying on the government or a bank or brokerage firm or financial planner to protect you from economic loss has always been stupid. Those people and organizations have always been motivated by self-interest.

Noonan always seems surprised and depressed that stuff doesn't work out as she had hoped. Nothing ever does. Events happen that can't be anticipated. People react in unexpected ways. Plans, therefore, constantly must be updated.

Noonan closes with the hope that Obama will rescue her and everyone else. It's OK to hope that. If she expects that then she will be disappointed.