"Let the pitch forks do their job"

[kmarinas86]

Free markets can exist only in sectors where people can feed their own mouths with food they made themselves.

Communism can exist only at the family level.

Every other form of market is a plutocracy, either as a corporate form or a dictatorship.

[rickbar123]

Sure, it worked well for 40 years. The working man has been fucked for 40 years while the CEOs, Wall Streeters and the corporations have done very well. What side of the fence are you on ?? If you are in the Working Class you got screwed, if you are in the Investor Class, you got richer.

[onecare01]

If our government votes w/o reading anything they are not doing the job they were voted in for peroid.Euro rides the bull of the wall street crooks and if you call this free market it is the biggest deception that the world has ever seen.

[ElwynMaximus]

Regarding the invisible hand, it's a lot like God: there's great similarity between being invisible and non-existant.

[cpgone]

END THE FED

Greenspan is a criminal.

His "god" Ayn Rand was a scum bag just like him.

Both are baby killing ivory tower theorists.

END THE FED

[CanterburyCat]

"What kind of people would put Greenspan in charge?"

Since Wall Street runs Washington, the answer to the question is simple.

[klard]

What a freak Greenspan is. What kind of people would put an ass-clown like Greenspan in charge of their monetary system??

[TheGoldenSun0986]

You pseudo "free marketeers" are fucking idiots. I'm sorry, but your just fucking idiots. Hey, why have laws at all! Why not just let it be the survival of the fittest in all aspects of society! Basically, using your logic and skewed view of the world, thats ultimately what you want. No laws to protect the less fortunant what so ever.

You don't realize it, but your selfish, disgusting, repulsive individuals, and if there is a hell, your going there.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

I have to give it to Greenspan, it takes guts to admit the ideology you've espoused for decades is wrong - especially when you're one of the first (at that level of power) to do so.

[PsyogiBottoms]

I think the corruption is obvious at this point.

[rayallin]

The distortions are from our government meddling with banking. If the banks were actually lending their own money (instead of discounting their portfolio to fannie/freddie or goverment secured loans via sba or borrowing at zero interest from the fed) they would make prudent loans and we the tax payer would not be paying for their bailouts. The consumer must be protected from being raped by the government who is stealing their money via taxes to hold up failed banks and financial institutions.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

Like I said to your fellow free-marketeer below, what you are selling - no one's buying any more.

[jfcrow1]

Let the pitchforks do their Job. EXACTLY!!!!!!!!

[panstriato2]

invisible hand slaped the world in the face

[sirellyn]

The invisible hand is about is free as our free market is. It's like a powerful spring hand tied to marionette strings.

If you've been slapped by it, it's only because it's been artificially tugged so far in one direction that one of the strings snapped and you got caught in the backlash.

Don't blame the hand, blame the puppetmasters.

[panstriato2]

I don´t belive in invisible things.

[sirellyn]

How is that working out for you? Actually how do you even believe? Belief is invisible too.

[panstriato2]

It is working very well thank you.

``Actually how do you even belive?``

I don`t belive. And if I catch myself beliving I stop inmediatelly.

[alkh3myst]

Don't believe in air? If a hurricane knocked down your house, that would all be an illusion to you? Since we can't see radiation either, I guess you would walk cheerfully into the core of a nuclear reactor.

[panstriato2]

No, I don`t belive in air and the only radiation that exists is light.

[panstriato2]

Actually I get your point, if the to big to fails would have been alowed to fail, the market would have sorted itself out, the world economy would have suffered for a time and then recover. The thing is, with coorporations and banks giving bonus for short time success, they fuck themselves in the long run.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

The devil is in the detail: that 'sorting out' would most likely have entailed mass unemployment, civil strife, wars and famine.

Is that a price you would be willing to pay to see the markets 'correct themselves'?

[panstriato2]

It does not matter, even if they sort themselves out, big coorporations are doomed to fuck themselves and everyone else in the long term.

And I am not pro free market, I was just explaining tha I have an understanding of those ideas.

About the price, the unemployment, strife, etc you mentioned will come, they are only delayed and will come back stronger, so it is not about being willing to pay them, it is about when and how.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

There's a difference between having another go at a failed economic system using borrowed money - and yes, that is delaying the inevitable, and that is indeed what has happened - and actually reforming said economic system.

I am not accusing you of being a free-marketeer, but please do realise that real reform is a possibility (it all comes down to the will of the people) and that the cataclysmic failure of realcapitalism and all its horrific consequences can and should be avoided.

[panstriato2]

Maybe capitalism would work better with small corporations as they existed in their begining, I think I remember not even smith liked corporations.

About the invisible hand, it is a myth as any idea that things regulate themselves for our benefit, things only self guide towards enthropy.

[bbburton]

We are drowning in regulations, and these guys think that more regulations from the same thieves that gave us the current mess of regulations are fools. We are not suffering from the failure of a free market, but from the mismanagement of the Fed and Congress. To think that it's the role of gov is to manage the economy is pure folly. End the Fed, prosecute fraud, and allow the free market to do what it has always done; allow free people to prosper.

[facelesshorseman]

The Cult of the Free Market is as Utopian as Communism, and just as prone to oppress individuals.

This ideology, much like Confederate ideal of "States Rights", claims the ultimate freedom to remove Constitutional protections from the individual for economic reasons.

"How dare you take away our right to own slaves! That's OUR decision to make!"

Defining good behavior is NOT the same as "managing the economy".

This "Free Market" like "Free Love" is an open invitation to the rapacious.

[bbburton]

And the only alternative that you or anyone opposed to free markets is government regulators. How wonderful that has turned out over the millennium. Free markets have done more to enrich individual lives than anything that came before it, and will out do anything you can think of to replace it. Slavery was never a 'product' or a 'resource' that survived any free market economy. And citing that as an example of what a free market creates is disingenuous at best, and a outright lie.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

Anything good that happens under the aegis of American imperialism you ascribe to 'the free markets', anything else you ascribe to something else.

People on the left tried to pull a similar argument vis-a-vis Communism and the Soviet dystopia and no one bought it, and no one is going to buy your argument now.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that you and your comments are tiresome and annoying.

[rajasmasala]

Given no government, game theory shows that big business will create a corrupt government anyway, because it is in big business's interest to preserve government if it is corrupt, which has been precisely what those espousing the free market in government have been doing: repealing exactly those laws that allow for efficient regulation. Bad capitalism drives out the good.

[bbburton]

Unfortunately for you, your knowledge and understanding of a free market as distinguished from social order borders on complete ignorance. What I'm trying to say is your opinion is worthless, your comments meaningless, and your attempted superiority juvenile. Perhaps you'd be better off sticking to playing with yourself.

[facelesshorseman]

Do regulations on the road keep you from getting anywhere? The post- World War social contract and tax structure would be Hell to you, yet it is the mythic "Good Old Days" of social conservatives.

Try the free market just south of our border, the industrial base really created a growing middle class there, didn't it?

It is no fluke of history that the Conservative version of the "Free Market" has done so well in Communist China.

[moestietabarnak]

Lol Free market in china...

You know that those wall street godlen boy and banker ..would get (and have been) executed in china?

That's quite a 'regulation' for the excess of free market

[bbburton]

How droll are those who point to traffic regulations as a prime example of how well regulations work in a free market. Failing to point to how traffic regulations have anything to do with a free market, your lack of understanding the difference between a free market and social order is telling. Have you even read the Constitution? Linking 'social contract' and 'tax structure' together is nothing more than code for socialism. Try making a life for yourself instead of trying to take it from others

[facelesshorseman]

I usedtraffic regulations as an example of common sense rules that allow vehicles of vastly different capabilities and size to co-exist. Your version of the free market encourages hot-rods and 18 wheelers to run the subcompacts and pedestrians off the road.

All modern governments have socialistic aspects, whether it be a road system, or the military.

"Social Contract" is a generic term. All forms of Gov. have an implied social contract.

As to your last statement, piss off, you don't know me.

[bbburton]

Analogizing traffic regulations to the free market is about as useful as analogizing water to dirt. The free market is the simplest method for the free exchange of goods and services between individuals. Your analogy is moronic. We have a gov established under a Constitution. Try reading it before you begin ascribing 'socialist aspects' to it. You'll find none. The only social contract is the that which respects the individuals inherent rights, none of which are implied. Get a life, grow a spine

[facelesshorseman]

Whether or not the free market is simple has nothing to do with the Constitution. Like "States Rights" it has become a buzz phrase for avoiding Constitutional controls. If a Constitution gets in your hair, or the workers start to get agitated, pack up and leave, there's always some despot willing to pimp out it's population.

I have tried to speak to you without being insulting, you have no similar control, so go fuck yourself you Randian cunt, you $1.99 cock sucker, you dickless wonder. Go away.

[bbburton]

You're such an ignorant piece of shit you must think diarrhea of the mouth is a sign of intelligence. You've apparently never read the Constitution, and if you had, it's obvious you never understood a thing it says. Perhaps you should take your father's penis out of your mouth long enough to become interested in learning what the Constitution is. Be sure to ask for help from someone who has read and understands it. And remember, keep that penis out of your mouth when you do, you pathetic loser.

[alkh3myst]

Slavery is emblematic of a completely uncontrolled market. If anything people want to buy can be sold, then you can sell human beings. You can't understand this?

[bbburton]

Buying and selling humans is not emblematic of a free market. Slavery epitomizes the lack of respect for the individual, the expectation that everyone is their own master, not the lord of others. Slavery has nothing to do with a free market. You fail to understand the fundamental difference between an economic system and social order.

[alkh3myst]

You fail to be able to use logic. Another splendid example is the traffic in illegal drugs. People want them, the "free market" finds a way to supply them, irrespective of the social and moral cost. As long as people want to own other people, "free market" human trafficking will persist, as it does even today. The best examples of the perils of unregulated markets are black and illicit markets. The free market has no morals, and no conscience.

[alkh3myst]

Here's another one: Say you are an industrialist whose business produces nuclear or other toxic waste. Now, you are sick and tired of all those "left wing" environmental laws eating into your profits. Well, the "free market" is just a phone call away. Simply contact a local organized crime boss, and the boys will come get it. They'll load it on a ship and dump it off the coast of Somalia or another country with a failed government. THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. Ain't the free market wonderful?

[cpgone]

great points alkh3myst.

Some scums would pay to watch human and baby slaughter,russian roulette, etc.

The "free market" would supply it.

Some lines must be drawn.

[alkh3myst]

It's good to hear that SOMEBODY agrees with me...

[bbburton]

Get off this crap. Crime never was, nor ever will be excused, and to claim that the free market is the cause of crime is just plain stupid. Nothing you have ever said explains how or why the free market is the 'cause' of corruption and evil in the world. The right to be free and prosperous has nothing to do with crime and evil, and you've cited nothing to show that free markets are less able to redistribute wealth than any other system. And yes, the free market is wonderful.

[kmarinas86]

@bbburton

The "free market" is subject to the business cycle. Downturns create debt. Debt creates dissatisfied people. People divorce and layoff over money problems. People can even cheat on each other as a result of debt. Entrepreneurial spirit is not the problem at all. The issue is the erratic behavior of market cycles, which no economic theory at this time seems to provide a viable remedy for.

[bbburton]

The business cycle is just that; a cycle. Like the tide that moves the oceans, the business cycle is necessary for the efficient transfer of assets between successive generations and between successful and unsuccessful enterprises. When the gov interferes with the business cycle it uses the 'downturn' and 'debt' rhetoric inflame and mislead the general public. That is the cause of erratic behavior within the market. The sky is not falling, and the gov isn't capable of stopping it if it did.

[utinomen]

It's only neo-classical economists who don't know that unregulated markets lead to consolidation of power and corruption, and instead peddle a mathematically unsound theory that attempts to aggregate individual behavior into a fantasy equilibrium of optimum social welfare at the societal level.

People neither prosper nor are not free in free markets that inevitably enable business authoritarians to control other people's lives. Competition merely mitigates the distrust trade creates.

[bbburton]

Corporatism is not capitalism, and has nothing in common with a free market. Gov regulation is nothing less than protectionism for the corporate privileged. Have you ever been to a farmers market? That's about as close as you'll get to a free market paradigm. It's that kind of competition that gives people the goods they want at a price that is competitive, and creates trust between the provider and the consumer. And it is not corporatism a la Wall Street.

[utinomen]

The incentive in a free market is to turn one's own avarice to maximum advantage. Competition mitigates against this somewhat, but where competition is insufficient, consolidation results through avariciously inspired cartels, cheating and fraud. Outside the fantasy of a pleasant farmer's market paradise, where few people fully understand the products on sale such as computer programs, medical treatment or any kind of specialization whatsoever, the scope for cheating and fraud is much easier.

[bbburton]

I don't believe that for one second. Innovation, experimentation, production, and every other facet of the entrepreneurial spirit in a free market does not rely on avarice. Competition has nothing to do with cheating and fraud. And to put down farmers markets as archaic and insignificant in comparison to 'specialized' activities is nonsense. Cheating and fraud have always been crimes. That cheating and fraud is easier to do in 'specialized' activities does not lessen their criminality.

[utinomen]

Innovation, experimentation etc exist in all sorts of activities; free markets are not essential or even optimum for encouraging such things. Indeed, businesses can't afford the decades of risky research that the public sector has done in all sorts of technological areas. Take computers: 1940 - 1960 all public research, no business involvement. 1960-1980 some company involvement, e.g. IBM once something marketable was invented. 80's onward, both public and private development.

[utinomen]

(cont'd) Microsoft used publically developed mainframe operating system technologies from the 70's in their software in the 90's, such as paging and multitasking.

Free markets are not necessary for innovation, experimentation, production or anything else. The real question is how to best bring out these qualities, and how best to distribute these advancements. Mixed economies are the reality, free markets remain a fantasy in practice.

[utinomen]

Disparities of information is a well recognised economic phenomenon, not just "nonsense." When one participant has more information than another about a product, then this can be leveraged for exploitation. Used car salesmen selling duff cars, for instance. It is only through public ignorance of the alternatives that the huge cost of government involvement in legislation, courts and enforcement of copyright monopolies that allows Microsoft to freeride public research and charge the public for it

[xandras1111]

US is not a free market its a gulag-casino model

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

The 'free market' dream never existed, never will exist, never can exist.

[BcallingDB]

Yeah, it is just as "realistic" as the Soviet dream of communism.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

The dream of communism is no more a Soviet thing than the dream of capitalism is an American thing.

I know, I know that you were making a bitter jab at me, but I actually agree with you.

[BcallingDB]

Well I didn't mean to be bitter, but I think both extremes are dangerous and that reality is a bit more complex thus regulation is needed :)

There can't be justice without laws. Or fairness with out rules.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

Agreed!

[Champraves311]

I am a raging liberal in every sense but your definitely wrong here. A true free market does exist on the small scale. For instance, in my home town Baltimore, theres a local food market downtown every Sunday where hundreds of local farmers come to the city to sell products at market equilibrium prices. No monopolies, no regulation (except for regulation on the farmers of how to farm), just the cheapest produce you'll ever see.

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

Are Federal Reserve-issued US dollars used in the transactions that take place there?

Because if they are, some - the people I´m arguing against - would argue that that food market is anything but 'free'.

[Champraves311]

@MarquisdeBarrabas clever point. At least its an aspect of the market that isn't dominated by an oligopoly or monopoly.

[scapino7]

i accidentally gave this one star. doesn't reflect the video

[Capitalocracy]

1 star is quite close to the favorite button

[scapino7]

ha point taken

[zayadnay]

berlusconi was first, he's in the hospital now, politicians on both sides are condemning it in Italy because they know they're next... this will happen here in the u.s. unless justice is done

[t0kt0k]

Great reporting. Thanks

[GordonWalton]

There is no free market, it's all rigged by the financial elites. Just like there is no one law for everyone, there is the law for the "little people" and above the law for government and the elites. Greenspan was a very useful tool to these people, as is his successor.

[ShaktipatSeer]

Great reporting as usual! Keep it up we need independent news badly in the USA!

[Mrcharliebobo]

OOPS??? Is that his excuse. wtf!

[marcus3379]

People still worship the free market fairy and preach the deregulation mantra. I think they are primarily internet nerds though because I rarely see any of them in real life. They really are like a cult.

[WhirlingWolves]

Exactly marcus.

the cultists of "free market capitalism" are people who willfully blind themselves to the actual results of deregulation.

Just like they will always ignore the reasons why those regulations were put in there in the first place.

I've come to believe it stems from wishful thinking as almost all of them are just as poor as the rest of us but they sincerely believe if they embrace the ideology of wealthy elites it will one day magically get them into the club.

[elbowbiter1]

Deer Wolves, The free market is the savior of humanity. You see it allows the filthy rich to tighten our stranggle hold over the people that provid us with our luxurious lives. Soon the uber monopolies will be free to form and enslave the world and place pinko commies like you into the solent green machine. We wealthy will devour the babies of the poor sods who wish to give suck at the teat of bootless gov't. Deregulate so rich folk like me can dominate, rape, and eat you.

Peace,

Biter.

[WhirlingWolves]

Indeed biter indeed.

The only thing "pinko commies" like me can hope for is that after we are stuck through the solent green machine at least the meat from our bodies will give you wealthy elites a bad case of indigestion.

Unfortuneatly the milk from the government's teat in the form of huge tax payer bailouts and/or capital gains tax cuts will quickly make that go away I'm sure.

[Champraves311]

Oh trust me theres plenty of them.