Around the corner from FEE's offices, on Main Street in Irvington, N.Y., there's a life-size statue of Rip Van Winkle awakening from his 20-year slumber. After reading Jacob Weisberg's Newsweek and Slate columns this week, I feel as though I must have been asleep for an equally long time. According to Weisberg, editor in chief of Slate, the financial turmoil taking place worldwide is the fault of . . . libertarians. That must mean libertarians have been in a position to repeal generations of deep-seated government intervention in the financial and related industries, including the Federal Reserve system. That would have taken a long time, yet I don't recall reading that a libertarian revolution occurred in the United States. Surely it would have been in the newspapers. Hence, I must conclude that I, like old Rip, was slumbering all those years. I missed the revolution! It's the only possible explanation. Unless Weisberg is wrong.The rest of this week's TGIF, "Who Needs Evidence?" is at the Foundation for Economic Education website.
Cross-posted at Liberty & Power.
2 comments:
Got to blame someone, otherwise the unwashed mob might come after me. I know, I'll blame those SOB libertarians who have predicted this for years. Rude Assholes!
On a related note, take a look at this article by Liz Ann Sonders, economist at Schwab. She talks about the government being "cognizant of the 'moral hazard' involved in bailing out a badly managed business", but at the same time she complains the government "forced" Lehman into bankruptcy (or was "willing to force", as if they gave Lehman a push), and thus caused terrifying "unintended consequences".
Also, I'm glad that according to High Frequency Economics that mythical person --the taxpayer-- stands a good chance of making a profit. Gee, I wonder if that means we can all get a refund and stop paying taxes?
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