The death of the free market
You may not realize it but I am a true fan of the free markets. I am a firm believer that business usually has a better solution to any number of our problems instead of government trying to come in and fix everything. Now, this doesn't mean that I feel government shouldn't be involved in any of our businesses or regulation thereof, just that I think a true business woman/man watches the bottom line and adapts/changes his or her business to improve that bottom line. But when improving that bottom line means trapping unsuspecting borrowers with loans that they shouldn't be getting, then government needs to have rules in place to protect the consumer. You see, as in much when it comes to our politics and business, the free market or government regulation are not black and white issues.
Bush 2.0 came into office thumping his chest with his "free market" credentials and beliefs. This philosophy ran through his administration and the rules were loosened, the regulations lax and the enforcement of such was non-exisitent. When we (anyone who reads Bloomberg daily) saw the economic storm clouds on the horizon, all we heard from Bush 2.0 was that the free market would handle it and that there wasn't much of a problem at all. Well, such was not so, as we see with Sec. of Treasury Paulson's bail-out legislation of Frannie and Freddie. I firmly believe that if we put the proper regulations in place when the housing bubble was forming, much of this economic pain we are experiencing wouldn't have come to pass. Bush 2.0 and the economists who had his ear were so fixated on the "free market" that they let the pendulum swing so far in that direction that the only thing that will help us now is MAJOR governmental intervention so we don't have systemic economic failure.
Again, I believe this is another instance were ideologoy trumped the facts up until just before the point of no return. We need a President who adapts and listens to facts and figures and isn't afraid to change his position should the metrics dictate such. This is the classic struggle we've seen played out in Bush 2.0 world with any number of the problems that we have because of the struggle of ideology and beliefs vs. facts and science.
Bush 2.0 came into office thumping his chest with his "free market" credentials and beliefs. This philosophy ran through his administration and the rules were loosened, the regulations lax and the enforcement of such was non-exisitent. When we (anyone who reads Bloomberg daily) saw the economic storm clouds on the horizon, all we heard from Bush 2.0 was that the free market would handle it and that there wasn't much of a problem at all. Well, such was not so, as we see with Sec. of Treasury Paulson's bail-out legislation of Frannie and Freddie. I firmly believe that if we put the proper regulations in place when the housing bubble was forming, much of this economic pain we are experiencing wouldn't have come to pass. Bush 2.0 and the economists who had his ear were so fixated on the "free market" that they let the pendulum swing so far in that direction that the only thing that will help us now is MAJOR governmental intervention so we don't have systemic economic failure.
Again, I believe this is another instance were ideologoy trumped the facts up until just before the point of no return. We need a President who adapts and listens to facts and figures and isn't afraid to change his position should the metrics dictate such. This is the classic struggle we've seen played out in Bush 2.0 world with any number of the problems that we have because of the struggle of ideology and beliefs vs. facts and science.
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