Posted on 02/15/2010 10:26:42 AM PST by ezfindit
Robust financial markets support capitalism, they don’t imperil it. But in 2008, Washington policymakers were compelled to replace private risk-takers in the financial system with government capital so that money and credit flows wouldn’t stop, precipitating a depression.
Washington’s actions weren’t the start of government distortions in the financial industry, Nicole Gelinas writes, but the natural result of 25 years’ worth of such distortions.
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativedatingsite.com ...
The free market (Laissez-faire Capitalism) did not cause this crisis, the government (CRONY Capitalism/Socialism/Communism) did.
The free market did not create Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and Sallie Mae, the government did.
The free market did not pass laws that force banks to lend to those who do not qualify for a loan, the government did.
The free market did not take us off the gold standard, the government did.
The free market did not dump trillions of dollars of cheap money into the system causing the largest asset bubble in history, the government did.
The free market did not create multiple multi-trillion-dollar unfunded entitlement programs, the government did.
The free market did not write a 60,000+ page tax code that punishes work, rewards sloth and buys the votes of special interest groups, the government did.
The free market did not destroy our public school system and graduate (or fail to graduate) generations of civically and financially illiterate citizens, the government did.
The free market did not drive our jobs overseas and kill our entrepreneurial spirit with over-taxation, over-regulation and frivolous lawsuits, the government did.
The free market did not ban drilling for oil, vilify coal and block the building of nuclear power plants in the United States, thereby transferring hundred of billions of dollars of American wealth and many thousands of energy-industry jobs to foreign countries, the government did.
This crisis is the result of a giant social engineering experiment and vote-buying scheme gone tragically wrong.
The free market does not try to engineer society or buy votes, the government does.
The government caused this crisis, the free market did not.
The government cannot fix the crisis, the free market can.
Excellent summary.
Here’s another article that’s pretty good at explaining what Capitalism really is and how free-markets are supposed to work:
http://chrisbanescu.com/blog/2009/01/22/a-primer-on-capitalism/
The government did not force the free market to take those loan programs and make them available to the general public, the free market did.
A huge hunk of the existing problem came from that one private sector activity.
Freedom of individual enterprise is, as someone has said, just the economic dimension of liberty.
Those who wish to denigrate and destroy what they perjoratively call "capitalism" are simply destroying the economic dimension of humankind's liberty.
Their coercive use of government power to redistribute wealth undermines and destroys the very foundations of true liberty, all in the name of "helping" people.
The original statement stands as a fact.
And your point is?
The free market allows people like Painesright to be useful idiots for corporations that don’t themselves believe in the free market system.
I assume that you read the part about “crony capitalism” being a primary cause of the crisis... so, why you would call me a useful idiot for corporations is beyond me.
My post is in support of a truly free market.
Based on your attack, I’ll have to assume you are anti-free market.
Do you not see yourself as a useful idiot for anti-free market forces? No, I’m sure you see yourself as being much smarter than the average bear.
So, what do you support, who_would_fardels_bear?
Capitalism? Marxism? Socialism? Fascism? Communism?
Or do you have a new age “ism” that makes you feel all smart and special?
Do tell... I can’t bear the suspense.
You claim to be against crony capitalism, but what regulations would you put in place to prevent it?
Certainly we can't trust Democrats or Republicans to protect us from crony capitalists. Both parties are equally subservient to their corporate masters.
If you are against regulation, which you seem to be, and you believe that all regulation ultimately works to the benefit of crony capitalists, then you have no workable plan to rid cronies from the system.
Gelinas does have some good ideas IMHO of what types of regulations we need to maintain the free market as a free market, and protect it from the cronies that have driven it over the cliff.
Click here for some good ideas about how to keep free markets free in reality and not just in some theoretical alternative universe where libertarians frolic with the leprechauns and unicorns under rainbows:
IMHO, there is nothing humble about you, that’s why you’ll be proud to know that you are the first person who has responded to my post with an insulting remark. I realize that is something that I shouldn’t tell you... but take it as a gift... a badge of honor to wear with pride.
Believe it or not, I read a lot (nowhere near as much as you, that goes without saying). As a matter of fact, I just ordered another book this am that someone else on FR suggested I read... it has big words and lots of pages, so I’m kind of nervous. No unicorns though, darn it. :( Amazingly, that other person was able to persuade me to read that book without resorting to name calling or belittling me first... go figure!?!
I will read Ms. Genlinas’ book and decide for my know-nothing self if it is possible to legislate morality. Would regulations have kept the rating agencies from rating CCC debt as AAA? Hopefully I will learn in Ms. Gelinas’ book that legislating morality is possible. (Many wise men have said it cannot be done, but they can’t hold a candle to your wisdom, I’m sure)
The entire point of my post is that the free market did not cause this crisis, government meddling in the free market did. You can shoot me down all you want, but when the free market system is daily being attacked by those who would replace it with even more crony capitalism/socialism and communism, it does not hurt to stand up and say something.
As you already know (because if it occurs to a simpleton like me, then you were born knowing it), we haven’t had anything resembling a free market in this country in a very long time... yet we have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of regulations... and we continue to have crisis after crisis.
After listening to several recent interviews of Ms. Gelinas, I do not see where she and I would disagree. The government should stop bailing people out and let them fail, but since they force fed the market trillions of dollars in liquidity that was then leveraged up 1,000 fold through derivatives, now, the gov’t is in a little bit of a rock and a hard place... the old closing the barn door after you have lit it on fire and let all of the horses out dilemma, if ya know what I mean.
But back to the point of my silly little post, who put the trillions of dollars of liquidity out there in order to make everyone feel rich when they weren’t in the first place any why? The government did to buy votes and engineer society.
I stand by my boilerplate statements. If the government had not done the things I listed, there is no way we would have arrived at this catastrophic point. We will always have financial crises, but not of this magnitude if the market is allowed to work. The gov’t caused the problem, which makes turning to them to fix the problem kind of moronic, but what do I know?... nothing!
Anyhoo, thanks for the back and forth. I wish you the best being you. Knowing it all must be a heavy cross to bear.
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