Slate editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg thunders that recent headlines are evidence of "global economic meltdown made possible by libertarian ideas." According to Weisberg, author of a pro-Leviathan snoozer called In Defense of Government, "any competent forensic work has to put the libertarian theory of self-regulating financial markets at the scene of the crime."You got that? Our problem is we have too much economic freedom, and government doesn't have enough power and control.
Only national socialism can save us!
4 comments:
Weisberg is a hack and has been universally reviled by many many economists for making asinine statements like this.
He's a journalists with an opinion, not a student of economics, that's all I should have to say.
It's a two-sided coin. There were many causes to the junk credit fiasco, and unfortunately one of them was poor investing by some banks. If we're intent on punishing this behavior, why are we rewarding it with a "bail-out"? And where are all those people who so recently admonished those big corporations for putting the stockholders ahead of the customers (or employees)?
I know some of the answers to my questions, and yes, I realize that banks are far from "self-regulating". But you get the picture: logic not required--like when a politician in the same breath promises alternative fuels (rejected by markets due to scarcity/cost) and cheap fuel prices.
If ANY "libertarian ideas" were being tried, he might have a point, but since socialism is being "tried" instead, this makes as much sense as blaming an elephant for your snake-bite.
The free market is to blame for this current economic fiasco, eh??
Vin Suprynowicz points out how very, very UNfree our markets actually are, and they're kept that way by the threat of lethal force under color of law.
http://www.vinsuprynowicz.com/?p=113
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