Politics
Out of context: Reply #6089
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- tommyo0
Low,
So can I ask you something. You think that gov should be the ones to regulate and control markets? You think that's the best idea? I mean, regulation is a pretty broad term. And I am genuinely asking this for a want of knowledge. I'll offer up a little of my perspective to give you some context.
I think the credit default swaps are a perfect example of where gov was needed for regulatory purposes, and didn't show up. There was a bill before congress to force companies into having the actual capital to back up their legal betting, they voted it down on what I think was a Friday before holiday. Having this bill in place, we probably wouldn't be half as fucked as we are right now. I just don't really see what balance of control you think is beneficial or appropriate in terms of the market. See because there are also government introduced controls on industry like the sugar debacle here http://findarticles.com/p/articl… that I think are a major overstep by our gov, controlling the market and hurting everyone in the process. What if these sugar substitutes really do turn out to be extremely damaging? What if high fructose corn syrup is THAT bad for us? It would be gov meddling in the economy that put the corn syrup in our food source to begin with.
Just look at our countries economic reliance on the Fed. Who interestingly enough set interest rates to once again, give gov control of the economy. It's a fact that this is a large contributing factor to the situation we're in now. Why are interest rates so low right now? No one has savings which means there isn't a surplus of capital for banks to lend, hence, interest rates should be higher. This has been the case for the last decade, Fed Reserve keeping interest rates low to promote a healthy, yet false, rich economy. So where exactly are some examples of gov doing good things in business? Making business easier and more cost effective so we can build a real and healthy economy. I surely haven't seen much. The only positive story I know of off hand involves the story behind Harley Davidson and their near collapse because of the market saturation of Japanese street bikes. But even that story has HD as the proactive change agent with a sidekick, Robinesque role being played by the gov.
But just looking at two of the examples:
1. Credit default swaps where gov was there and able to regulate something that needed regulation to protect the future of our economy, they failed. The banks were reckless, but gov failed nonetheless.
2. Fed interest rates causing the housing balloon that went POP! Again, gov reliance on the Feds controlling and meddling in economy, failed.
I mean as I see it these two things, along with plenty of corporate greed got us where we are today. So I personally don't see where an argument for gov > freemarket or freemarket > gov has any standing these days. Anyone touting either in undue balance is a fucking idiot as far as I'm concerned. But again, I'm not well versed in these things.