Corporate Socialism Lives!

I hope we'll no longer hear the Bush administration accused of favoring laissez faire. We didn't need the takeovers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to demonstrate the administration's devout corporatism (fascism, if we want to be blunt about it). These government-favored corporations -- which were never market institutions -- have been a disaster in many ways, and now they will cost the taxpayers $200 billion to $500 billion. Much of the mess we're in can be explained by decades of corporatist polices dressed up to look like promotions of the American Dream through home ownership. It's been a fraud top to bottom and requires nothing less that the complete removal of the state from the housing and financial industries (not to mention all others).

For anyone who needs reminding, the free market means private profits and losses.