It wasn't the free market that failed with the mortgage meltdown. It was the federal reserve and the federal government which together created a moral hazard. Peter Schiff had it right, back in 2006. Artificially low interest rates promote consumption and distract from savings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw Craig On 01/31/2013 03:50 PM, Eric Walker wrote: > On Jan 31, 2013, at 8:54, Edmund Storms <stor...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > >>> Take the mortgage melt down in 2008 and following, do you think any >>> intelligence was used by the financial industry. Yet these people almost >>> collapsed the financial system of the West, which has led to the present >>> financial situation. Stupid people now have the power to stop civilization >>> in its tracks. > Some of the world's smartest minds worked together to produce the financial > collapse. They had an implicit faith in the assurances of free-market > ideology and laissez-faire, which they had unquestioningly imbibed since > childhood, and they based their rent-seeking behavior on those assurances > with religious zeal. > > What they lacked was simple common sense and concrete incentives to avoid > actions that are harmful to society. > > Eric >
