----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Arnett" <nick.arn...@gmail.com> To: "Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com> Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 10:56 PM Subject: Re: Ben Bernanke, fearless leader
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 8:36 PM, John Williams <jwilliams4...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Doug Pensinger<brig...@zo.com> wrote: >> >> > How ironic is it that someone who claims to be such a libertarian is >> > so adamant about restricting my rhetorical style! >> >> When did I claim to be a libertarian? > > > Oh, come on. You espouse libertarian ideologies constantly, Mr. Keep the > Government out of Everything, Please. > > Catch "60 Minutes" tonight, talking about how deregulation in financial > markets in 2000 essentially legalized betting on financial instruments, > which had been illegal for most of the 20th century? That's what opened the > doors to credit default swaps and other credit derivatives... the modern > equivalent of Wall Street's "bucket shops," which I hadn't known about until > I heard this. What was a felony suddenly became legal, at the behest of > Wall Street, and it was justified by the very arguments you make here - > government regulation, intervention is bad, leave the market alone, they're > all grown-ups and the market will fix any problems that come up. And look > what happened instead - wild betting on mortgages, so confusing and > byzantine that nobody knows what any of it really is worth. And this is a > good? > > This federal deregulation actually stopped the states from enforcing > anti-gambling and anti-bucket shop laws, passed after the crash of '07, in > the financial markets. You'd think that would have been a strong clue that > this would go badly. Now we know. > > Yet some still insist that we should not regulate these things. Oy. > I find it humorous that those who believe in an invisible hand might ridicule the belief in an invisible pink unicorn. xponent A Smorgasbord Of Delicious Ironies Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
