…resulted in thousands of US bank failures in the 1930's while Canada had virtually none.

…kept consumer spending at Great Depression levels for nearly 15 years.

…led to double-digit inflation.

…rapidly led to an explosion in fatherless families and subsequent poverty.

…permitted GSE's to securitize high risk mortgages.

…created a social safety net modeled after after Bernie Madoff.

When did we have "good" regulation? The 70s? 80s? When we made thing? Are you kidding? Manufacturing has gone UP over the last 30 years.

and individual it all is.

should have been…..and how individual it all is.

If there is one subject of which Americans appear to be most ignorant of, after sex, it is capitalism, economics, trade, markets, and individual it all is.

Oh, and after ignorant, did I also mention confused, discomboobalated, and frightened of.

Are you kidding? That's been my whole point. When we had good regulation, when we had a consumer driven economy and we actually made things we did great.

Single most important thing that happened that afforded easy credit was not deregulation. It was completely going off the gold standard. There was nothing restricting the expansion of credit. America defaulted on it's obligation to pay the rest of the world in gold. It happened in 1971, followed by massive monetary expansion and high inflation. It never really stopped. 5000 year monetary history came to a stop in 1971, prove that it was inconsequential.

Infact show me by how many pages the federal rules and regulations have been cut short over the last decade or two.

LA where I'm visiting some area homes have the same value they did 20 years ago

Between 1801 and 1900 the economy grew 5400% as measured by the faulty GDP, yet an average person could buy the same quantity of goods for $65 in 1900 that he did for $100 in 1801. Housing is a consumer good, it's price will go up only based on inflation, and as Robert Shiller has pointed out, housing prices have mostly tracked inflation for much of the 20th century until starting the late 1990s.

I am sure that when you said "value", you meant to say "price".

If price of a durable consumer good is the same after 20years, it makes it cheaper for someone coming into the market now to be able afford it.

Posted by: MWG

Are you kidding? That's been my whole point. When we had good regulation, when we had a consumer driven economy and we actually made things we did great. The economy had real growth back then. Now the rules have changed such that speculation and shortcutting true production are much faster roads to riches. It's destroyed our economy. Your philosophy put to the real world has been nothing less then a disaster.

Posted by: MWG

Our standard of living is relatively stagnant since opening trade relations with China. Unemployment is reaching 10%, wages are stagnant and here in LA where I'm visiting some area homes have the same value they did 20 years ago. And we have all accumulated huge personal and governmental debt in the process and the dollar has been devalues.

THAT bigger picture…

Wages mean absolutely nothing without looking at what those wages can buy. (Which is why I made no mention of wages in my first comment.)

http://www.reason.com/news/show/118611.html
http://reason.tv/video/show/61.html

"A good chunk of our standard of living was fueled by easy credit, and that standard is at risk."
-KA

That statement sound very scientific, especially with terms like "big chunk" and "easy credit". "Easy credit" (Depending on how you define it) has been with us for maybe the last 10-15 yrs. So how do you explain the rising standards of living here in the US before "easy credit"?

I don't know anything about you, and don't know what you're talking about.

Gabriel is Blowhard, and Crabgrass Kuehn, you know what you are, and what I am.

The weedwhacker.

Productivity has increased 90% in that time period.

Private debt is running at 340% of GDP.

A good chunk of our standard of living was fueled by easy credit, and that standard is at risk.

Obama seems perfectly willing to get us back into a consumer-led economy, and to me, nothing could be more boring, demoralizing, and stagnant than that.

I'm going to make my own economy and export.

By bigger picture, do you mean the rising standard of living in China, or the rising standard of living here in the US?

good articles for slow news days: Econ & Finance Articles
.

Regarding China:

A popular theory in international relations is that economic interdependence and trade reduces war.

Nations that trade together are less likely to blow each other up since trade is mutually beneficial to both sides.

"I just don't see this claim born out in the real world with regards to our trade relations with China. There are many informed persons pointing to the unilaterally of our relations as a prominent cause of ours and the worlds current economic peril."

Its born out in the real world for me. Trade with China (and other extra-national producers) has consistantly resulted in lower costs to me. On the other hand, trade with politically protected local producers has consistantly resulted in higher costs to me. I am thinking that perhaps the "informed persons" of whom you speak are the very same politically connected local producers who certainly have an interest in eliminating their extra-national competitors.

Just try to ignore him. Insult substitutes for discussion on here sometimes.

My only point (valid, I think) is that the primary reason people aren't convinced of economic truths is that they just don't "get it".

If the benefits of path A can be seen by anyone, while the benefits of path B (even if larger) can only be seen by those with an IQ above 120 who have also studied economics, then, well, you're smart enough to see where I'm going with this.

Protectionism though, that's a different ballgame.

True, but your state government might frown upon your driving without insurance.

If I refuse Microsoft products, Bill Gates cannot touch me.