Dismantling Capitalism

Larry Ribstein spent much of last year posting about the steady dismantling of American capitalism, which he wraps up in a post on the "story of the year":

Congress and the Obama administration have used the financial crisis to undertake what I've been referring to in occasional posts as the "dismantling of capitalism."

Some will accuse me of exaggerating the effect of what have actually been moderate steps to save capitalism from possible destruction resulting from the failure of major capitalist institutions. I happen to think that the system would have survived quite well in the long run without a trillion dollar bailout. My main point here is to emphasize that the effects of the last year are likely to be greater than many suspect for the following reasons: (1) Once you mess with part of the competitive system, you unbalance the equilibrium and something else needs to be fixed. (2) Government always stands ready with another "fix." (3) Go back to (1) and repeat.

He then cites a couple of prime examples. Be sure to check it out.

Comments

[save_the_rustbelt]

Ribstein is always a good read.

However,,,,,,

It was the thieves, liars and complete hacks on Wall Street who put capitalism in jeopardy (read Sorkin's book for starters).

The cult of greed and megliomaina that has captured our capital structure is the real problem.

Will the government overreact? Probably. Will the pendulum swing back? Certainly.

[Clay Barham]

Liberty is a broad term. It can mean group liberty or special interest liberty and, of course, what everyone thinks it is, individual liberty or individual freedom. Let’s narrow it down to individual liberty, i.e., our natural individual rights, given us by our Creator, not government, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is what only exists in America, though under assault today. It is important that free individuals are the only pebble-droppers; the nails sticking up that government people are afraid of tripping over and seek to hammer down. That, however, implies individual self-interest is more important than are the interest of communities. Obama and modern Democrats are opposed to that, as they are united in their support of Rousseau and Marx, not Jefferson and Madison. Check claysamerica.com for a new book, SAVE PEBBLE DROPPERS & PROSPERITY, soon to be on Amazon.com.