Sacrificing Free Market Principles to Save Them

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081216215816.8g97981o&show_article=1

How much self-delusion can one person (or the American public) take? How does a person who depends on reason attack an idea that is wrong on so many levels?

The economic woes we are experiencing right now have nothing to do with free markets, except to blame them for the trouble. This is nothing more nor less than a failure of government meddling. Attempting to manage an economy, and meddling for altruistic motives, are sure routes to failure. But of course the world will blame capitalism, and none of our elected leaders know enough about capitalism to point out the conundrum. Amazing.

Post 1

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 3:53pm

Thanks for the link to the story Chris. GWB only has a few weeks left and it looks like he is working hard in that time to insure that he goes down in history as the worst president ever!

Regards,
--
Jeff

Post 2

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 4:07pm

I suspect that I've heard almost every reason under the sun for electing this or that politician... But the one concrete, absolute must-have criteria is never mentioned: A knowledge of economics. There should be a test that all candidates for public office MUST take and pass. Hell, we citizens can't drive a car without taking a drivers license test! And we have been letting them 'run' a global economy from their proven state of ignorance! The only wonder is that it has taken this long for the meltdown to arrive.

Post 3

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 4:40pm

Steve:

Sorry to have to disagree with you, but I'm with Rand and want to see the Constitution rewritten to completely separate politics from economics. Then the politicians can be as dumb as a bag of nail with respect to economics since they won't have any power to effect it one way or the other.

OK, so I'm naive and that's not going to happen. Short of that, your idea is a good one.

Regards,
--
Jeff

Post 4

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 5:25pm

You have Hamilton to blame for that -
http://www.amazon.com/Hamiltons-Curse-Jeffersons-Revolution-Americans/dp/0307382842/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229563433&sr=1-1

Post 5

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 6:11pm

Jeff,

We don't disagree. My request that they take a test is more a joke than anything else. Rewriting the constitution and taking away the ability to print money or mess with interest rates or create credit... those would be the real cures. But to get there is going to require a more knowledgeable electorate with the self-esteem to demand politicians do what they are supposed to.

Post 6

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 12:55pm

The economics test thing probably wouldn't work anyways. There are plenty of pro-statist/Keynesian economists who still teach at universities.

Post 7

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 4:05pm

The first sign of economic ignorance is when a candidate for public office refers to the economies as an 'it.'

That would be an easy test for the electorate to administer, and would disqualify 99% of all unqualified candidates immediately.

Unfortunately, the same political campaigns loose in our public schools have been bending over backwards instructing that same electorate that the economies are an 'it.'

The reason for this is political; folks seeking power over the tribe must convince the tribe:

A] The economies are an 'it.'

and thus

B] The voodoo priests dancing at the base of the volcano have the first f'n clue how to control 'it.'

Even as the curtain is lifted and we get a glimpse of the wizards making their sausage, which in the present fiasco, a recent WSJ article accurately characterized as 'pushing on ropes' as opposed to 'pulling strings,' too few of us yet recognize the real nature of the present 'crisis', the foundation of why 'something must be done:'

They are scared to death of losing their gig, doing their dance at the base of the volcano, appeasing the harvest Gods.

I mean, The Economy.

We love our monopolists with guns.

How else to explain our tolerance of an SEC EXEMPT, AGENCY RATED FNMA/FHA pushing aside 50 more stringent sets of state banking regulations in order to run a massive single point of failure social experiment?

When that hamfisted, OneSizeFitsAll, AllOurEggsInOneBasket experiment ended touching nearly every mortgage in AMewrica, and nearly every portfolio as well, did we blame the monopolists with guns, the monopolists with guns who had just pushed aside more stringent state banking laws with their fede4rally imposed social experiment?

No. We largely listened to them with a straight face, as they claimed 'the free market did it!'

When those same monopolists with guns used their SEC EXEMPT, AGENCY RATED FNMA nonsense to create the beast 'securitized mortgage bundles', did we blame them for the enabled mess?

No. We largely listened to them with a straight face, as the claimed 'the free market did it!'

It is so much like a missing chapter in 'Atlas Shrugged' that I am half waiting for the 'Anti-Dog Eat Dog Rule' to show up. Our own monopolists with guns already have heavily used the phrase of once art 'it is necessary to save the inudustry as a whole' as justification for the Age of Pull, soft fascist connected cronyism going on in plain site, the connected at the hip cronies on Wall Street/K-Street taking care of their own, defined as, throwing $700B of public money behind a list of connected crony firms that would not fill 1/4 of a page of paper if typed out double space.

Banks aren't lending? They mean...under the old tear-off credit terms, the terms enabled by the once flood pouring in through our shameful backwash credit window, desperately looking for something other than creatively financial engineered nonsense to invest in.

Loans are primarily taken, not given, at most, well offered--just like education. The problem is, even at current interest rates, not enough of a certain kind of risk taker are putting their future skin into this out of control collective free-for-some that the tribe is trying to throw.

How much of this do you think it will take before the quietly stated simple message "Go Away" will be heard?

An odd corollary to Gresham's law is at work. Crappy carcass carving borrowers are displacing quality beast building borrowers in our economies. No sane beast builder wants to invest future skin in this connected crony free-for-some being thrown at the CronyFest on the
Potomac as it tries to "Run the Economy, stupid!"

It's the economies, stupid.

regards,
Frediano

Post 8

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 4:48pm

Fred, the way you use words, I would love to watch you grill. Have you ever been to a Mongolian Barbeque?

Post 9

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 8:19pm

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

My proposal is still the only one that is likely to really work if the economy really tanks. Even Bernanke is now talking about simply running the presses to print more dollars and then dumping it from helicopters if necessary to get it into circulation. But he and virtually everyone else are still thinking in terms of rescueing the crooks, putting the money in at the top, where it will simply be stolen once again, as the machinery for massive corporate theft has had over a century of successful evolution as looters to call upon.

As I predicted, the war of all against all is beginning, with Congress only dragging its feet on issues such as the Auto Bailout because they know that it probably won't work, and then they will be blamed. The hogs are lining up at the trough, and when the pendulum finally swings, we will probably instantly transition from deflation to major inflation, at least in terms of the world value of the $.

So, we don't have any John Galts in Congress, the Senate or the White House. Given the real possibilities, which is better - a Hobbesien war over a shrinking pie, or my idea of simply giving everyone $10,000 every six months for the next 50 years, guaranteed? Just run those presses. Then the other entitlement programs will lose steam politically and lose value with inflation as well, and the whole political process of robbing Peter to pay Paul will be short-circuited, because there won't be any exceptions or any way to set one special interest against another. Everybody will get exactly the same, plus whatever they can earn otherwise in the market.

Not perfect, but still the best path I can think of.

Post 10

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 10:36pm

Austrians, who had suffered being on the losing side of world war, a dictatorship, a depression and runaway inflation said that the they would rather endure war, dictatorship or depression again rather than live through another runaway inflation.

Our country doesn't have any experience with runaway inflation - not within living memory. And our last economic catastrophe was a depression. I see the people in charge attempting to avoid depression at all costs, and without an appreciation for the much greater horror of a runaway inflation. It causes magnitudes greater damage than the worst depression ever could.

And to make things scarier, the demand for money isn't within control of the fed or treasury or any politician. And it can take on an exaggerated importance - and in a strikingly short period of time. No matter what they do with interest rates (price of money) or the supply of money, the demand can change suddenly and be driven by powerful emotions.

Realizing that the money you are holding in your hand are just pieces of paper and ink - with no intrinsic value - and if you think it might not be accepted by someone tomorrow can pretty much change your willingness to hold onto those dollars - even overnight.

Post 11

Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 10:57pm

Hell, you've already got me scared Steve! :-)

Post 12

Friday, December 19, 2008 - 11:50am

"Fred, the way you use words, I would love to watch you grill. Have you ever been to a Mongolian Barbeque?"

Yes, and the food flies when I grill. Quite often, mothers must hide their small children, not quite sure what's cooking, or if it is even going to be safe to eat.

Was that a bit of scallop...or venison?

It's important, because some folks are allergic to any closed shell seafood.

That's just a chance you take at a Mongolian Barbecue. Or, apparently, my deck, too.

regards,
Fred

Post 13

Friday, December 19, 2008 - 2:52pm

I am stunned at the almost universal acceptance of the practice of referring to the economies as 'The Economy.'

I accept that the custom makes the concept more tractable, in our minds. I don't accept that the custom leads us towards understanding. It leads us away from understanding.

It is, primarily, not just custom, but a political tactic.

It is far easier for voodoo priests selling voodoo priestdom to convince us all that they can control an 'it', rather than a 'them.' In any event, the entire tribe has agreed to refer to 'them' as an 'it' as the basis for our political discussions.

Weather is a complex topic. Although we talk about 'the' weather, we don't meaningfully talk about 'the' weather in the entire nation, as in, 'The temperature in the United States is 47 deg F right now.' Maybe, AlGore, when he is claiming that CO2 drives global temperatures, and not the other way around, but that is another example of cargo cult science which has made the entire world stupider. No, there is no meaningful aggregate concept 'the weather' that has a national meaning, and as well, 'the Economy.'

What is 'the' state of 'the' economy today? Ask someone who sells guns, wall safes, or liquor. Too hot? Too Cold?

Monopolistic concepts which lead us to monopolistic solutions are the apolitical enemy of us all, and should be steadfastly resisted. In the current tribal CF, it is precisely the AllOurEggsInOneSinglularPointOfFailureBasket that collectively dinged the nations economies.

If there is only one 'the' Economy, then we can all be lulled into believing that when 'it' gets sick, it requires only one solution to fix 'it.' One incredibly hamfisted, Penguin armed, nearsighted constructivist solution.

Aka, the Madness of Crowds.

regards,
Fred

Post 14

Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 12:22pm

Fred, there is only one $dollar. It is, for all practical purposes, the only universal medium of exchange in the U.S. Normally, any one person or group's choice to spend or save $dollars vs. other goods has little actual impact on the enormous reserves on the books, amounting perhaps to around $50 ~ $100 Trillion.

These are not normal times. Having run out of Ponzi schemes, the financial community and all the industries that they own controlling interests in or have used as assets on their books have found no buyers. The losses so far are roughly equivalent to at least 10% of the entire wealth of the U.S., with no end in sight. This WILL have impacts on everyone. The people who DO have major $ holdings are waiting for the fire sale, and meanwhile businesses are failing right and left due to this very credit crunch.

If no better solution is offered, then predictably we will see a whole raft of New Deal style infrastructure projects, in order to get people off the streets and forestall an actual revolution. This may actually help overall, simply because the Obama people appear, by and large, to be the sort of no-nonsense technocrats who won't allow Congress to Pork Barrel real, useful projects, like fixing the bridges, etc. They will probably assign a whole team to analyze what worked and what didn't in the 1930's, and open the floor up to discussions and ideas from the public before they actually move on anything.

Even the high muckademucks in D.C. have a limit to how many things they can do at once - or how many lobbiests they can keep happy, anyway. The Obama infrastructure program may eat up completely the available resources, politically and financially, to the point that Congress will have few options, so far as satisfying the myriad colliding special interests.

So, nothing too disastrous there, so far. We might even muddle through back to a business as usual, if depressed, decade or so of meager times, while the concentrated interests who created the current disaster bide their time and acquire yet more assets. It seems unlikely that the real structural problems will be fixed.

Or, things could REALLY tank within the next year, and then my proposal may be the best option left once again. Somehow, we have got to get the major financial/political power out of the hands of the crooks. The old failed progressive policies of boards, bureaus, regulations, etc. are all the Democrats seem to know about, while the Republicans have misidentified corporate fascism as capitalism, so they're no help.

It may be that there will be no solution.

Post 15

Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 1:33pm

Phil:

"The old failed progressive policies of boards, bureaus, regulations, etc. are all the Democrats seem to know about, while the Republicans have misidentified corporate fascism as capitalism, so they're no help."

I couldn't agree more. This is a terrible debate.

I am much more disappointed in the GOP. I expect this nonsense from the Democrats, they are up front about it. But today's GOP seems totally bereft of any recognizable principles.

Even this last gasp tubing of the autoindustry bailout in the Senate; it wasn't done on any recognizable principles ('This is wrong, the govt' should not be propping up a 17.5 million unit/yr industry in a 10 million unit/yr market.') It was done on the following basis:

"This may be wrong, but we'll go along with it as long as we make it even 'wronger:' Use the bailout as blackmail to insert the government in between the negotiations of the union and the companies."

I don't sense any 'the government should not be running THE ECONOMY and picking winners/losers in any of that. I see only "Never mind that the Berlin Wall fell down in '89, not up, we all think that centrally planned /command economies are a wonderful thing to target, and here is how WE would let our crony connected friends abuse the guns of government to RUN THE ECONOMY if we get the Tribe's Magic Stick.

My hope for Obama is that he is the sharpest scalpel in sight, to kill our current cancer once and for all. The wheels need to totally come off of this out of control CF. He needs to run into this 'economy running' insanity like a kid given a oil burning '66 Mustang, who thinks the way to fix the engines of our economies is to just floor the thing and hope to run the gunk out of the engines. Then, when the pistons drop through the oil pan and it is finally clear to folks that this constructivist nonsense is a dead end, those that can, will, and we pick up the pieces and we start over, with a parked once classic rusting on the side of the road in DC, smoking.

Obama is either the best hope for devolving concentrated power, or the midwife of the next extended period of dark ages. We muddled through the 30's only to come out it via a world war, one in which we by necessity unleashed the current soft fascist beast. We had to do that, do or die, in the face of totalitarian alternatives. But we lost control of our own fascist beast, it has never stood down in 60 years. It has done what fascist beasts do, it has grown, feeding itself and taking care of its own. In a very significant way, todays mess s just unfinsihed business fromt he stand down of our own fascist entity after world war II. This is either its death throes, and the rebirth of a free nation, or it is the beginning of our own attempt at a thousand year Reich, which will be the new Dark Ages.

Americas connected crony fascist beast is coming apart of its own accord, but it will no doubt be able to inflict a great deal of pain on the nation on the way down. Carcass carving capitalism cannot last forever. It requires beast building capitalism to survive. The bones are well beginning to show, this nation's carcass carving period is drawing to a close.

Our fascist beast is not going to go down easily. It is clinging to its gig until its fingers bleed. It not only has the guns, it has the printing presses and the purse strings and much worse, the sanction of a nation screaming out RUN THE ECONOMY at the top of its lungs, in a way, just like Germany in thr 20s.

And watching all the rope pushing going in, it is not bashful about trying.

Duck.

regards,
Fred

Post 16

Monday, December 22, 2008 - 9:58am