As has become customary, yesterday's buoyant stock rally was followed by another down day in the markets.

Credit traded heavy like a lead weight with investor and dealer appetite for corporate bonds much diminished.

Driving the erratic behavior of the markets is an investor psychology that seizes on any scrap of "good" news to ignore a consistently dismal outlook for the markets.

We are seeing the inevitable convergence of the markets toward the real economy.

The Obama administration seems to hope that another dose of loose monetary policy (in whatever shape or form it may come) will inspire the markets through the 2012 elections.

The lesson learned after the (failed) 2008 interventions is that buoyant markets do not necessarily translate to real fixes in employment and the real economy.

Signing off on bills to "create" jobs is not a fix either.

Real, sustainable jobs are not created by official diktat; they are provided by enterprising individuals and companies.

The conditions for those individuals and companies that provide jobs need to be improved; small and medium sized business enterprises are responsible for almost two-thirds of employment in the U.S.

Band-aids and tax "holidays" may help things for a little while.

Ultimately, for a sustainable recovery regulatory shackles need to be done away with, the tax burden needs to be stripped down permanently, and the flow of credit to Main Street (as opposed to Wall Street) needs to be restored.

Paring back the Leviathan-like powers of the Federal bureaucracy will solve many of these issues.

The only proper role for government is to work on a creative program to restore the manufacturing base of the world's largest economy while making smarter investments in education.

It was uplifting to see some of the holy cows of big government get challenged during the Republican Party's Presidential debates.

Both Governor Rick Perry and Congressman Ron Paul made some great points.

Let us hope that hope prevails.