Your comments below are a better fit for Argentina than Brazil, but only the United States has ever been a "superpower". Argentina once had a living standard comparable to that of the United States during the 1890-1920 timeframe, but that standard was low from the standpoint of 2008. Both Brazil and Argentina underwent periods of hyperinflation and civil disorder, in somewhat different ways, but Argentina is a somewhat more comparable model for our present discussion. Neither of them had a credit crisis like ours, except that following the collapse of securities markets in 1929-30 and of the international monetary system in 1931. It was neither government regulations or the lack thereof that had much to do with the business cycles of that day or ours, nor could they. Despite efforts to intervene, there is little government can do to moderate business cycles. They are the product of mass psychology and bad judgment. That is a human defect, not an institutional one.
Libertarians sometimes participate in the same kind of mass exuberance as investors do when they set themselves up for business downturns. They speak of "spontaneous order" as though it was the hand of a benevolent deity. That is magical thinking. Systems in disequilibrium tend toward equilibrium. But a barren desert is equilibrium. There is nothing about the natural behavior of markets that guarantees there will be any humans left alive after the cycles unfold. That is not an argument for government intervention. As libertarians argue, mostly correctly, governments, who are composed of human beings, lack the information or cognitive capacity to manage complex systems over a long time period. But so do the managers of any large organization, including private corporations. We are all a bunch of stupid animals who are in over our heads. Maybe we will happen to be prosperous and free for periods of time, and maybe we will be wiped out completely, and there is not a lot we can do to affect the course of events in a desirable direction. Expect to suffer. Learn to grin and bear it. None of us get out of this world alive. All we can hope for is to go out with a modicum of dignity. Cory Nott wrote: > You forget that Brazil was once a superpower like the United States is now, > where the average person had access to more wealth than an average person > anywhere else in the world and they had a largely unregulated free market > economy. But, like the United States has done now, they relaxed regulations > on investments banking and the bankers went hog wild with subprime loans to > undeserving borrowers. Now the whole country of a Brazil is a mess, and we > are soon to follow. That's why the comparison is valid. > -- Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------------
