Sigh. Your post is so wrong. I don't know where to begin. I do understand that the GOP has used Free Markets so much in their ideological hate speech that the use of this phrase is now considered a dirty word to Liberals. It's very similar to how the word Liberal has become a hated epithet. I'm called Liberal every time I post on the Politics of Energy thread. It's actually very amusing.
Well, I'm here to tell you that in my book "Free Markets" and "Liberal" are both GOOD. They are not dirty words. They are the salvation of this country. When the going gets tough, we need to double down on our beliefs about what works, not turn our noses up at them. Free markets always work to curb excesses, if the government sets the rules and then EXECUTES them. Free markets don't work very well to do their job, though, when the government sets the rules and then exempts everyone from those rules when the going gets tough.
For example, how could the Free Market smack the banks down for their stupid risk taking, when the government worked in collusion with those banks to create a law forcing FASB to allow the banks to suspend "Mark to Market" and instead use "Mark to Fantasy" to measure the value of their toxic assets for their Financial Statements?
The Free Market always wins in the end, though. For two years after Mark to Market was suspended, it did manage to fool people into believing the big banks would be ok. But most recently, investors started to understand that the toxic assets aren't worth shit and market caps of the big banks have plummeted as a result. That market action may force those banks into bankruptcy, unless our government bails them out again, through actions like ZIRP and bond purchases.
Our government and that of Europe needs to let the free market work. If they did, then all of these constant alarms from all over the world would go away. The bond holders would take a severe haircut, the debt would be marked down, Greece would get kicked out of the EU and the Euro, several of our own banks would go under, and new banks would rise to take their place, with prudent Executives who aren't so stupidly risk-prone.
Our government should do what we elect them to do, which is to prosecute the bankster criminals and put them in jail for creating all this mess and committing fraud and other crimes along the way.
But instead we have crony capitalism and largesse for the top 1% and austerity for the masses. Great economic plan you have there. |
