Greenspan On The Economy

Since I am a dedicated news geek, I watched Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday, when he interviewed Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve. He (Greenspan) covered many topics, oil in Iraq, the housing crunch, coming recession, etc. He said there was a better than 50/50 chance that there would be a recession. He also qualified his statement on the oil in Iraq. he said that it was because of the oil that Saddam became a problem. It gave money much money to use to further his agendas.

When asked about the economy in general he began by saying that it was a complex, self-adjusting environment. Once he said that I went numb. I could believe he said such a thing.

To begin with I do not agree that the economy is a self-adjusting environment. Now that that is out of the way. Why do I feel that way? That easy! If the markets were free to seek its own level then we would have had a recession already. The Fed in its attempt to help markets stabilize will cut rates. That is not a self-adjusting technique. Because of the interference in the markets, investors claim down and continue to throw money at the markets. What part of that was done without assistance?

you do not like then let us look at the government--they in essence will bailout the mortgage industry to prevent a collapse of the system. That also, is not self-adjusting. The fact that the mortgage industry was in sad shape was however part of that self-adjusting environment.

Sorry people, but all that is part of an economic system know as "state capitalism". Simply put, it is the involvement of the state in the functioning of the economy. All the incidents described above are examples of state capitalism.

It could also be seen as "State-Monopoly Capitalism". It is where state and capitalist join forces so as to preserve and strengthen the system. It enriches, strengthens , protects and is dominated by capital. This is regulated by state bodies which is used to benefit large corporations by implementing short term fixes and long term programs. Does any of that sound at least somewhat familiar?

Since I am not one of capitalism's best friends, I see that the free market system that all Americans are so damn proud of as, not free in the least. For if it were free their would be no need for the government to intervene to save one industry or another.


CHUQ
08 Oct 07