Told you so!

I was planning to post about Fannie and Freddy today, but, instead, I'll take a few minutes to point out that my post of one week ago, in which I predicted a military coup in Egypt, was right on the mark.

Yes, I know, the media and the President and damned near everybody else is saying that the "democratic revolution" was a success. Well, I suppose it is possible that the Egyptian military will replace Mubarak's corrupt, authoritarian plutocracy with a corrupt, democratic plutocracy (like the United States), but it hasn't happened yet — all that's happened so far is a military coup.

Frankly, nobody really knows what the military elite will do in the coming months. What it has to accomplish, though, is not political, but economic reform. The wealth has to be spread at least a little bit further, so that the educated children of the middle class can find jobs that will enable them to live middle class lifestyles, and the members of the labor syndicates see some improvement in their standards of living.

Unfortunately, the Egyptian military has not shown a great deal of economic creativity, despite the fact that it is involved in a wide range of businesses and industries. It is sure to need help. Hopefully, the generals will know enough to hold the line against the army of free marketeers certain to descend on them momentarily. (If Obama really wants stability in Egypt, he'd better put Jeffrey Sachs on the no-fly list.)

So, good luck to the Egyptians. I now return to "no prediction" mode, and will emerge from it only if I perceive another chance to shoot fish in a barrel.