Bush’s "Being There" Moment? Michael Panzner In one of his most famous roles, actor Peter Sellers plays a character whose simple utterances are mistaken for words of wisdom. Is today’s announcement of a plan to rescue American homeowners with credit problems George W. Bush’s real-life Being There moment? Apparently, investors don’t think so. Markets around the world are sharply higher this morning, buoyed by reports that the President will ask the Federal Housing Administration for help in allowing an additional 80,000 borrowers to keep their homes. Mr. Bush also plans to try and convince lenders to work with mortgage-holders to limit foreclosures. Yet these efforts, like those of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who yesterday urged lenders to offer a “broader range of mortgage products…appropriate for low and moderate-income borrowers,” fail to take account of reality. Even assuming that some troubled borrowers manage to hang on, the truth is that enabling more of the same kind of bad behavior that got people into trouble in the first place will only make matters worse. The hair of the dog that bit them isn’t a cure. It merely delays the moment of reckoning. In reality, guaranteeing loans for homeowners who can’t afford the payments, encouraging mortgage-holders to hang on until they’ve been bled dry, and giving false hope to those who would be better off cutting their losses really only benefits one group. The lenders. Of course, some would say that still makes sense, given recent disruptions in global credit markets and the growing threat of a systemic crisis. Unfortunately, after decades of serial bubble-blowing, moral hazard-inducing bailouts, and other forms of government “assistance,” a mind-boggling array of financial imbalances means there is not a lot of room for maneuver. Instead, there are only words. “’The president wants to see as many homeowners who can stay in their homes with a little help be able to stay in their homes,’” reports the Wall Street Journal, quoting a senior administration official. Translation: “All is well...and all will be well...in the garden.” Chauncey Gardiner would have been proud.   Michael J. Panzner When the stock market bubble burst in 2000, the collapse that followed wiped out over two-thirds of the value of the Nasdaq Index and decimated the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. Now, imagine not one, but four such disasters looming on the horizon, all poised to erupt in a massive economic firestorm that will wreak widespread havoc in the months and years to come. The author identifies the most pressing financial risks we face today: First, a burgeoning tower of public and private debt wobbling precariously on a foundation of excess and fraud; second, a multi-trillion-dollar house of cards to which all Americans are exposed but few understand; third, a vast array of largely hidden government promises that will ultimately go unkept; and fourth, a retirement mirage that will leave millions enslaved to the workplace until the day they die