With all of the talk of who is to blame, there are a lot of smart people saying what many of us deep inside already know.  None better than Neal Boortz, who is the co-author of the “FairTax” book, explaining in his “talk to me like I’m a 4-yr old” style, how the financial markets got into this mess in the first place:  Political correctness run amok.

Right now this crisis is being sold to the American public by the left as evidence the failure of the free market and capitalism. Not so. What we’re seeing is the inevitable result of political interference in free market economics. Acme bank didn’t want to loan money to Joe Homebuyer because Joe had a spotty job history, owed too much money on his credit cards, and wasn’t all that good at making payments on time. The politicians told Acme Bank to figure out a way to make that loan, because, after all, Joe is a bona-fide minority-American, or forget about opening that new branch office on the Southside. The loan was made under politicial pressure; the loan, with millions like it, failed – and now we are left to enjoy today’s headlines.

Ironically, what has classically scared me about stupid people who don’ t know anything about economics running our economy (by fleecing rich people and making sure companies don’t make too much money), doesn’t scare me QUITE as much as the Government’s insistence that noone should be at risk of losing money.  Combine the two, and you have a managed economy.

Meanwhile Steve Forbes defines another large chunk of the problem:

Not even during the Great Depression did we witness what is now unfolding–a sizable number of big financial institutions going under. What enabled their taking on so much debt and so many questionable assets was, primarily, the easy-money policy of the Federal Reserve. Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke created massive amounts of excess liquidity. If the dollar had been kept stable relative to gold, as it was between the end of WWII and the late 1960s, the scale of the bingeing in recent years would have been impossible.

I feel like I’m SMACK DAB in the middle of an Ayn Rand novel.

The Bolivian President has enlightened us:

Bolivia’s left-wing president said unbridled industrial development was responsible for the pillaging of natural resources.

Speaking through an interpreter at the UN headquarters in New York, he had this uncompromising message: “If we want to save our planet earth, to save life, to save mankind, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system.”

What an absolutely ridiculous and unproductive statement. Has anyone informed President Morales what the end result is in every country on the planet where capitalism DOESN’T exist? Let’s just ignore the fact that the only path OUT of poverty for indigenous civilizations on the planet has always been capitalism. Are we going to pretend that capitalism “doesn’t work” because of industrialists who pillage the environment? At what point is someone going to point out two very critical facts:

1) Capitalism is not–by its definition–synonymous with raping and pillaging of the environment.
2) Bio-fuels are a bad idea NOT because they are “putting cars ahead of people” but because they are inefficient.

I’ve never been a big fan of Ayn Rand . The linked article is a good discussion of her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. It talks about how Rand incorrectly portrays true nature of capitalists (even though she is a strong believer in the capitalist way) . I know there are a few on this site of the entrepreneurial ilk….so, what’s your take?

Atlas Shrugged

This whole website looks good. Property rights are good. Government intervention and confiscation of private property is bad. This is an absolute I’m pretty sure I can stick to.

Posted at 02:21 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by Eric @ 05/28/2005 05:08 PM PDT
	Great site - here’s another telling article from that magazine: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4233 I welcome comments . . . E

	Posted by JohnnyB @ 05/28/2005 07:51 PM PDT
	Is this the one, the only, Eric H that sold in West Virginia about six or so summers ago? This is one of the articles I had in mind when I sent this link. Grover Norquist recently said, “If Republicans don’t stand up for the principles of smaller government and lower taxes, then the party is simply a place we send our kids to intern”. Something like that. It’s true.