To suggest that the current political/economic system is in anyway the product of libertarian ideology is purest nonsense and totally representative of how leftists/socialists/progressives blatantly misrepresent the state of affairs for political purposes.

It almost as bad as how the right/Republican cadre passes itself off as pro free market/limited government advocates.

That's an emotive assessment. For one thing, Microsoft does not make PCs. I have built my own PCs and none of the hardware is made by Microsoft. One benefit of the PC industry is that it is relatively easy and inexpensive for me to upgrade my system. When you buy a Mac, you are virtually locked in to everything being made by a vertical monopoly.

It got a Libertarian head of the Fed,

Where, who, I haven't seen any libertarians at the head of the Fed.

You still have no idea what constitutes a "libertarian". Just as you have no comprehension of the moral nature of political power, just as you have no idea what "the market" is.

it got the government to the the peoples money to make mortgage backed securities, it got the government to loosen lending standards, it got the government to allow its securities to be unregulated, it got private rating agencies to falsely rate their unregulated securities and accounting agencies/ audit agencies to look the other way.

If you want to keep business out of government, you have to keep government out of business.

Repeat til it sinks through the molasses of your mind.

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

— John Maynard Keynes

How much is "too much"?
What is "excessive"?
What does a person "need"?

No person, including John Lithgow, could possibly determine these subjective, nornative values for me or anyone else for that matter.

Shame on his arrogance and intellectually bereft analysis which can only be fit for the rentseekers at National Public Radio!

Posted by: Russ Nelson

Russ,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

You stand on a hugemongous shit-pile (I like how the spell checker reminds me to hyphenate shitpile) of a failed economy resulting from a failed ideology you support and suggest maybe the problems is with me not being able to have my mind changed into believing the disastrously stupid, ignorant, failed pile of shit ideology you stand on is a nice thing. I mean come on you admitted you had crap on your shoes a while ago. I thought we decided you should watch where you step. Now you're asking me to follow you.

Posted by: dg lesvic

dg ,

Greed got everything it wanted from the government.

It got a Libertarian head of the Fed, it got the government to the the peoples money to make mortgage backed securities, it got the government to loosen lending standards, it got the government to allow its securities to be unregulated, it got private rating agencies to falsely rate their unregulated securities and accounting agencies/ audit agencies to look the other way.

This was a failure of regulation. It was a work of greed to et itself loosed from regulation and to use all it's money to set up the rules for it's own interest.

If you think you can deregulate the markets and the wizards won't come right back and figure high tech ways to steal wealth from the productive economy and walk away with masses of wealth before anyone knows what happened you are a being foolish.

"Then I'd argue you are a complacent slave or serf. A slave to your ideology and a serf to the wealthy ruling class. I guess you can call it pragmatic."

Slave isn't right. There is no physical restraint. It is possible to drop out. In fact, I did when I was younger. It was fun for awhile, but the cost was too high. Pragmatism quickly replaced idealism.

Serf is pretty close. I pay roughly half of what I earn in rent to the political class. And like the serfs, my only alternative is to join the political class. The serfs of old had the option of joining the military or a religious order. Modern serfs have roughly the same options, though the modern equivalents of joining a religious order are civil service, political activism, or the ministry of education.

As for my ideology, I'm a realist and a pragmatist. My objective is to see the situation clearly, and then to make the best of it.

As for my complacency, it seems to me that all you muddle headed, propaganda drunk idealists have accomplished is to increase the power of the political class. You know there's something wrong but the best you can do about it is to scream mindlessly at whatever targets your political handlers give you. You're just useful idiots.

Private greed alone could not have created the sub-prime crisis. For even the greediest individuals in the market could not distort its incentives and signals, force their errors on others, nor lock them in. Only the “greed squad” itself could do so.

Supposedly we need more of it to correct a market that couldn’t correct itself. But how could its participants not respond to its incentives and signals, and the market not clear, its eager buyers and sellers not come together, if free to do so? And how could coming between them not keep them apart, and not stifle the market?

I can't make heads or tails of your reply. You realize that I was paraphrasing you to point out how nonsensical & self-contradictory your statement was, right?

Posted by: Rudy

I'm glad Steve Jobs was greedy because PC's suck. If the market always paid fair value Jobs would be the richest man not Gates and his crappy OS.

Posted by: Crusader

Nope! It's a balance between the two. I don't think it's a coincidence that we have close to 50% on either side of the issue. Greed is a fact of human even animal nature. It is held in check by society and rules. The balance is what allows us to be the supreme species.

Wow.

Posted by: Hans Luftner

Exactly Hans…. it's stupid indeed. Especially when there are solutions. But you've an ideology to follow… so…. carry on with exactly what you wrote above.

Posted by: Randy

Then I'd argue you are a complacent slave or serf. A slave to your ideology and a serf to the wealthy ruling class. I guess you can call it pragmatic.