Who Is To Blame?

Ayn Rand was anti-everything, wasn't she? I've read Atlas Shrugged twice. Her protagonists, all of them, evolve as "perfect," high-minded, ethical human beings with the purest of motivations. But, this is real life people! Mr. Fuld of Lehman Brothers took my life savings without even an apology. AIG used my AAA bonds to party. Rand's capitalism has failed miserably -- because there is no accounting in it for human GREED. Who will control that?

I think what is wrong with America is that we are entirely too subservient to and too dependent upon big business -- almost approaching fascism. Now, we find ourselves at their mercy. After all, "they are too big to be allowed to fail."

So many have commented on Greenspan's "hands-off approach", but this is absurd on the face of it since his very position as Fed chairman means he was very hands-on by definition, even to the point of calling himself "Maestro of the economy". The day he accepted his position at the Fed it was clear he had rejected, no only Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, but his own previous writings that clearly came out against the existence of entities such as the Fed.

Had he actually been an Objectivist, he would never have accepted that position, thus to attribute his actions as chairman to Rand or her philosophy is absurd. The flaw he claims to have discovered is not in Capitalism, free markets, or Objectivism, but in his apparent belief that, no matter what interference came from government, "self-interest" would somehow serve altruist goals and do the "right" thing for "society". In other words it's now clear his earlier association with Rand never cured him of collectivist, altruistic convictions.

This is not capitalism. It is credit-ism. Capitial is the outgrowth of savings. We don'g have savings, We keep borrowing and postpone payment: personal, state, and Federal. We run out of money here, so we borrowed from the foreigners. We piled up more debt than any time in the history of the world. Rand never advocated living on borrowed money. Greenspan always bailed out the Credit People with more money and lower rates. He is the worst central banker in history. Fred M. Starkey: This should be obvious.

Dr. Brook is right on the money............where no one can fail, no one can succeed.........as we head more into socialism kiss good bye to the great investions of the future, like present day cell phones, computer chips, cures for diseases, great works of music, etc..............because they will never be created because government will not let people be rewarded for creating them............let us be all equally shabby! Except of course, leaders that are marching us into socialism. Just ask Stalin and Mao........they weren't shabby........Thanks alot! From ds in San Diego

The 20th century experimented with every possible variant of socialism. We had democratic socialism in Western Europe, totalitarian socialism in Eastern Europe, and fascist socialism in South America. We had atheistic socialism and we had "liberation theology." We had the "scientific socialism" of the Soviet central planners and the chaotic jungle socialism of the Khmer Rouge, who executed anyone with an education. We had "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and socialism with African characteristics and socialism with Hindu characteristics.

We tried it all, and every time it led to poverty and oppression.

Those results have been proven with scientific thoroughness. There is no excuse for trying it all again.

Nonsense. Alan Greenspan stopped have anything to do with free market ideology or Ayn Rand long before he became the chairman of the fed. His policies were not free market and this problem was caused by government intervention in the economy. If Ayn Rand had been listened to this would not have happened.

If this person does not see unregulated default swaps as a problem then I doubt that I could rely on his judgment about anything.

It would be possible to dismiss the blaming of the present economic crisis on the "free market" if it was only the carelessly uninformed masses who were advocating for this scapegoat. When major media outlets feed into this puerile hysteria however, the only rational conclusion is that their publications are simply polemic defenses of socialist political theory.

The present housing crisis is a distortion of the free market caused by the Bush administration's myopic and ideological meddling with the institutions providing mortgages to the public. In a free market, no bank has an incentive to make loans to people who cannot pay them back.

It is the responsibility of "unbiased" media outlets to lay the blame where it is -- government intervention -- instead of encouraging more of the very behavior that caused this situation in the first place.

One could say, the two fundamental roles of government are 1. to enforce a rule of law, that is hold us all to our agreed upon contractual obligations that allow our economy to flourish and 2. to protect us all as a nation from sedition within and attack from abroad. An ancillary role is to operate as a promoter of individual liberty via education, highways, bridges etc. for the sake of the benefit of the general economy. The better each is at producing value the stronger the nation is as a whole. Your smart kid, your highways, reduces prices I pay for products I want, and his smarts increases his income your highways increase your neighborhood income. We both win. So, if my taxes do not in some direct fashion support my own interests it is theft. Now, we can also give government the role of a special insurance provider, this is Rawls' view, when I fall into a hole the government will pull me out,and I am taxed to assure that safety. But just like any insurance I essentially pay in hopes of losing my money, but I also choose the policy I want. No wreck no pay off. But I also don't buy insurance unless I own a car.
So did government keep those on Wall Street from cheating on their contracts??? From turning rubbish su-prime mortgages to AAA securities and bonds, no. Bad government allowed for theives to be rewarded. Thank you very much Barney Frank and Fanny and Freddie, and now GM, and Chrysler will scam us too. Thank you Obama and Bush together. Greenspan actually understood this in principle: Government oversight of one's agreements is not the same as government intrusion into one's business. In a nutshell the economic mechanism that devolved into the sub-prime crisis is a fault of too much bad government rather than too little government. More is NOT good, GOOD is good.

Excellent questions to an excellent interviewee. Brook argued a side I normally never get to hear and he made some great points! This is the type of diversity of view that we need to hear more often, the general public would be much better informed.

My thanks to both Newsweek and Dr. Brook.

The real truth about how we got to this financial mess is not being reported by the liberal mainstreet media. Certainly not by Newsweek. If you doubt me, ask your self if Newsweek has ever linked Barney Frank or Chris Dodds to this mess? What! you say? You are not iformed by Newsweek or other big publications or by big television AT ALL! Here is another person for you to Google. John Maynard Keynes. Barney Frank said "Keynsinism" was our way out of this mess. One last person to Google. Milton Friedman. - Ta Ta, my ignorant friends.

Economic theories and "schools" are only as good as the moral fiber of their subscribers. Capitalism, tempered by ethics, is a great system! It fails when it is manipulated by liars, cheats and thieves, and that's what our Congress is all about lately.