The root of America’s financial and economic woes lies with the federal government and, specifically, with decades of such socialist and interventionist federal programs as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There are the thousands of federal agencies and departments. There are the tens of thousands of rules and regulations. There are the armies of bureaucrats, inspectors, and regulators regulating and controlling financial and economic activity. There is the income tax, which sucks massive amounts of what ordinarily would be productive capital out of the pockets of the American people. There are the millions of dollars in welfare that is paid out to welfare recipients, both at home and abroad. There are multitudes of trade restrictions and immigration controls that interfere with people’s ability to enter into mutually beneficial trades that would increase their standard of living. There is the Federal Reserve that, decade after decade, has debased our currency, induced enormous misallocations of investment, and nurtured a culture of spending rather than saving among the American people. There is the massive, out-of-control federal spending to fund the welfare, the regulatory enforcement, the drug war, and imperial adventurism, including the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is the ever-growing national debt.
All this is bound to bring about financial crises. There is no way to avoid it...
But what’s important to keep in mind is that Bush’s bailout could not solve the crisis simply because the roots of the crises are being left intact. Instead, all that Bush’s plan could accomplish is to ensure that Wall Street cronies wouldn’t have to share in the pain of it. Under Bush’s plan, his cronies’ financial losses would simply be transferred to the American people...
Let’s not forget that as long as our nation remains in the grip of the welfare-warfare paradigm, the crises will continue regardless of what socialist-interventionist plans are put into place to address them. Thus, the only real solution to America’s financial and economic woes is the restoration of a free-market paradigm, one in which people’s economic activities are free of government control, regulation, and intervention.
Restore a Free Market to America
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