Money markets and the rule of law

I’m agog. George Bush has said some ridiculous things in his time, but this may be the most staggering of all.

The other day I wrote about the tension between national security and the rule of law. Bush has identified an even more important principle that may come into conflict with justice: money. Luckily, though, the resolution is (like its proponent) very simple:

We need to reform our legal systems so the people, on the one hand, can get justice; on the other hand, the justice system doesn’t affect the flows of capital.

This actually dates back to December 2004; I found it via Steven Poole’s blog (a very good read). Steven comments:

First a hasty sop to liberals – acknowledging that, sure, people should still be able to ‘get’ justice, just as they pop down to the store to get a can of soda – and then the remarkable notion that justice, on the other hand, should never interfere with the operations of money. So justice is a subeconomy within the larger one (you can ‘get’ justice), but it has no right to interfere with overarching systems of profit.