Earlier this month you reported with approval that central bankers gathered in Jackson Hole thought it was time for fiscal policy to do more as monetary policy could do only so much to stimulate the economy (“Mountains to Climb,” September 3, 2011). Fiscal stimuli by over-indebted governments could be financed only out of taxes, though. And taxing the rich was the only viable option in a world riddled with high unemployment and poor performance across the board. Barack Obama’s recent proposal to do just that is thus hardly surprising. But now your main leader waxes poetic about your newspaper’s “instincts” that lie with small government and low taxation (“Hunting the Rich,” September 24, 2011). You depict Obama and his men as cruel hunters in pursuit of their panicked prey. Taxation should be rational, no doubt, but without additional taxes there could be no fiscal stimuli. And without such stimuli both America and Europe will remain paralyzed. Taxing the rich is not the same as hunting them. Or scaring them, as you do. Your instincts could not but hurt the cause of rational government, which is very much needed in dire times like these.