I haven't got a clue as to how to get out of this mess. Not that being an economist really means anything, I've never seen two of them agree on anything.

But this crisis occurred during this administration's watch, indeed, at the very end of it. They know the terrrain and they have the wheel, they are the ones that must deal with it. It's time for taking a little personal responsibility for the consequences of one's actions.

To his credit, the President has not chosen to dump this on the next administration, he has courageously put his reputation on the line and proposed a bold course of action. We should let him get on with it. My lack of confidence in him doesn't mean I think some newcomer can jump in and improvise something any better on a moment's notice.

If a disaster results, his administration and philosophy will take the very well-deserved blame for causing the problem and for aggravating it after. If his policies can pull it out of the fire, then he will get the credit for getting it right, and that will be deserved too.

The time has come now when even the wrong plan is better than no plan at all, and no plan is better than some compromise that tries to please everybody. So who knows, this may even turn out to be GWB's finest hour.