> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of John Williams > Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 2:58 PM > To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion > Subject: Re: Meltdown > > Dan M <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > The natural tendency of business (which we saw as the short term > liquidity > > started to dry up on Wednesday) is to hunker down during bad times. > That's > > why even GE had trouble selling short term debt on Wednesday. > > Yes, when insolvent companies are kept in limbo by silly government > interference, the market does not behave efficiently. Big surprise, that.
The problem was that no-one (including the board of directors of AIG knew that AIG was insolvent until the day the government intervened. Bubbles and panics are part of the nature of the market. You can repeat your mantra of free markets are perfect until you are blue in the face, but AIG was the biggest insurance company in the world and no one had any idea of their problems. At that point, _everything_ becomes questionable. GE having to pay nearly double for a 1 day note is an example of this. The viewpoint you are expressing here makes Milton Friedman look like Karl Marx. The government did not intervene in the market after the panic of 1929. It did after the panic of 1987. The latter turned out fine, the former was the start of the Great Depression. I'm sure you'd call it coincidence...or other factors in play, but panics and bubbles are inherent part of any market. Its irrational to think all market players act rationally. It may be true, like the early economist said "the market will work in the long run." But as Keynes said "in the long run, we're all dead." Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
